First edition of John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman (1969)

Published by Jonathan Cape in 1969.

Seeing a pure, 9-digit "SBN" is a distinct hallmark of a late-1960s British first edition.

Historically, The French Lieutenant's Woman is considered one of the definitive masterpieces of historiographic metafiction. While it is set in Victorian Lyme Regis (1867), Fowles continuously breaks the "fourth wall."

As a 20th-century narrator, he openly critiques Victorian social mores, discusses Karl Marx (notably quoted on the title page and analyzes the psychology of his own characters.

Most famously, Fowles subverted centuries of literary tradition by offering the reader three different endings, fundamentally challenging the authority of the traditional omniscient novelist.

The quote on the title page is from Karl Marx's 1844 essay Zur Judenfrage (On the Jewish Question): "Every emancipation is a restoration of the human world and of human relationships to man himself."

Including a prominent Marx quote on the title page of a mainstream British novel in 1969 was a bold choice. It signaled to contemporary readers that despite its crinoline-and-cobblestone setting, this was a radical, forward-looking text deeply concerned with modern liberation movements—including the burgeoning second-wave feminist movement of the late 1960s.

Spine faded; corners clipped; owner’s inscription twice.
150mm x 200mm x 32mm

R750