The French Lieutenant's Woman The French Lieutenant's Woman The French Lieutenant's Woman is a 1969 postmodern historical fiction novel by John Fowles. It was his third published novel, after "The Collector" (1963) and "The Magus" (1965). The novel explores the fraught relationship of gentleman and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson and Sarah Woodruff, the former governess and independent woman with whom he falls in love. The novel builds on Fowles' authority in Victorian literature, both following and critiquing many of the conventions of period novels. Following publication, the library magazine "American Libraries," described the novel as one of the "Notable Books of 1969". Subsequent to
The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (novel) his way to Paris. When he discovers that he is being trailed by a Dutch police detective the man becomes more and more delusional, seeing himself as a master criminal and certain that the woman he has become involved with, his former employer's mistress, is genuinely interested in him, rather than the bag of stolen money he has carried with him from the Netherlands. The book was adapted for the film "The Man Who Watched Trains Go By" (1952) starring Claude Rains and Märta Torén and directed by Harold French. The Man Who Watched the Trains Go By (novel) The