Friday, April 27, 2012

The Novel Form

How does the experience of reading The French Lieutenant's Woman compare to the experience of reading the other novels we read in this class?  Think about your expectations for what fiction should do--and what you have seen it do by convention.  What changes does Fowles make to the art of fiction that changes the experience, if indeed it does?  Make specific references to all the novels, please.

5 comments:

  1. I am very disappointed with Fowles' The French Lieutenant's Woman. As I mentioned in class, I did not like the way Sarah acted throughout, and then at the end, for Fowels not to give a definite ending makes the whole point of reading the novel a bit dull. I must also add that the plot througout the novel was very confusing. I could not differentiate between places or who was where. The fact that Fowles provides three different endings within one novel just makes the whole reading a bit odd. In comparison to the other novels, I must say that I did not like Fowles' novel. However, I greatly enjoyed reading The Return of the Native and A Passage to India. Hardy in The Return of the Native was exceptional. He focuses on the place, Egdon Heath, as a main point of his novel. Egdon Heath affects the lives of the its main characters and causes them to act in certain ways. For instance, Clym Yeobright is a perferct example of an individual who returns from Paris to Egdon Heath in hopes of starting a school there. Further, Diggory Venn is the true native of the novel. He was always there, but before he work as a reddleman and that is how he acquired both his name and his wealth at the end of the novel. In A Passage to India, the caves have a great affect on the both the English and the Indian people. In short, the land of India, as we read in one of our class articles, will not allow for a friendship between Aziz and Mr.Fielding. However, the one thing the two novels have in common is the interference of a woman. In all three novels, a woman's actions somehow just completely changes the plot of the novel. In Hardy's The Return of the Native, it was Eustacia whose hunger for something bigger than Egdon Heath results in her death. In Forrester's A Passage to India, Adela's assult forever changes things and takes away even the possibility of Mr.Fielding and Aziz being friends in the near future. Hardy's novel and Forrester's novel both achieve what a fiction sets out to achieve. They center the issues of society at large in the perspective of regular individuals, explaining how they are affected. I, however, cannot say the same for Fowles' novel simply becasue I did not clearly understand the importance of each of the characters. Although, he sets his novel in Victorian England, Fowels fails to really provide the big idea of his piece. The point of fictional novel is to represent the issues at large in the persepctives of regular human beings. Fowles does not do that; he introduces Sarah, Charles, and Ernestina as a love triangle, but as a modern writer Fowels does not tell us what the real connection is between the three. Additionally, as we mentioned in class, Fowles brings himself into the novel to advise the reader that these are fictional charcters, as such, he has complete control over them. Now, that I think about it, maybe just maybe, the underlining message of The French Lieiutentant's Wife is that each individual has control, if they chose so, over their destiny in a way. Finally, this may be the reason as to why he gives different endings and the way he structures the actions of his characters.

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    1. I agree. I didn’t like The French Lieutenant’s Woman because it was so unrealistic! The three endings were so confusing, as I was trying to read, and it also made me angry because I didn’t know which one to pick. I felt like the story was ruined because it didn’t give a clear ending. I absolutely hate cliff hangers. I want to know what’s going on, regardless if it’s a happy ending or sad, I just want an ending—not just some alternatives of what could happen. It really bothered me and I think this is why I had so much trouble with this book. I understand the author was trying to be different, even clever maybe, but didn’t like this strategy at all.

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  2. I didn’t like this last novel because the author does not make the story real. He reminds us throughout the novel that he is making it all up, like when Forster says “dear reader” in A Passage to India. It bothers me that the authors are making the story so unrealistic in this way. It’s just not my style. I like to believe that at the moment, what I am reading is real. I don’t like to be interrupted by an insertion from the author reminding me that everything I am reading is all in his or her imagination. I liked Pride and Prejudice because it is classic and Return of the Native was really interesting too. I’m not sure I would have read A Passage to India on my own though, but I’m glad I got to experience a different kind of book.

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  3. I agree as is evident in my post above. I don't like having multiple endings to a book, unless he is attempting to rely a deeper meaning. Further, I also absoultely love Forrester's A Passage to India. It is filled with multiple themes and differing world views. As for Pride and Prejudice, it took me a while to adjuct and understand what was really going on. I think I was really confused by the langauge, but as we discussed it in class in depth, I grew fond of it. The Return of the Native was a bit dull from the beginning because it takes the narrator pages and pages to describe the setting. I would certainly read A Passage to India again as it is my favorite book thus far; it just contains so much.

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