The French Lieutenant's Woman

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1981 With a foreword by John Fowles. Limited first edition. One of 350 numbered copies (total limitation of 360), signed by Fowles and Pinter, this being number 161. Publisher's navy cloth, spine lettered in gilt, and green endpapers; in publisher's red slipcase, with white label, lettered in green and black. Fine book; fine slipcase. Overall, a sharp and perfectly clean copy. The French Lieutenant's Woman follows the relationship between former governess Sarah Woodruff and amateur naturalist Charles Smithson in the 1860s. Fowles used his knowledge of classic literature to enhance the conventional romantic plot and was influenced by the postmodernist movement. Uniquely, Fowles includes three dramatically different endings in the book, each explained by the narrator, who at this point has intervened and become a character. In 1981, The French Lieutenant's Woman was adapted by the great playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter into a successful film, which starred Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep. In Fowles' foreword, he details some of the obstacles that had to be overcome in order to finally bring the book to the screen, and Pinter's ingenuity in adapting the work. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards, and Meryl Streep received particular praise for her dual-roles in the film - as the Victorian Sarah Woodruff and modern-day Anna. . Signed by Author. Limited First Edition. Hard Cover. Fine.