Alias Grace and the French Lieutenant's Woman

I recently read Alias Grace, by Margaret Atwood, and right from the start it strongly reminded me of The French Lieutenant's Woman, by John Fowles.

Both books are written in the 20th century, but are about the Victorian era. Both of the authors did a tremendous amount of research into daily life and the key issues of the period. Both explore themes of: gender roles, including the place of women in the home; science; physical and mental health; and, social position, just to name a few. Both have major male characters who are both likable and somewhat repulsive (or should I just say "icky"?). And both are just great, entertaining reads.

The main difference that I see is that The French Lieutenant's Woman has that whole postmodern thing going on -- things like where the author comments about how one of the characters would like flying in airplanes if he lived in our times. I thought these elements added to the book, but I know some other readers hate them.

If you've read and enjoyed one of these novels, I recommend trying the other. Both of them were among the top 10 books I've read over the last 12 months, maybe even the top 5.

What an interesting comparison! I never would have thought of it, and I've read both books. I loved Alias Grace, but didn't particularly like The French Lieutenant's Woman. Of course, I read Alias Grace only a few years ago, whereas I read The French Lieutenant's Woman when I was still a teenager, so it's possible I just wasn't quite old enough for it. I don't usually care for "postmodern" stuff (can we still call it postmodern 20+ years later?), but I did always like John Barth - The Sotweed Factor comes to mind, though all I can remember about it is that it was very funny and playful. That contrasted with TFLW, which I remember as quite somber.

I think the main thing I loved so much about Alias Grace was the section about her ship crossing. My ancestors made similar ship crossings about the same time, and Atwood just wrote so vividly about the experience - and had clearly done her research.

whereas I read The French Lieutenant's Woman when I was still a teenager, so it's possible I just wasn't quite old enough for it.
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Well, I saw the movie of the French Lieutenant's Woman several times when I was a 18 (I was working away from home and had HBO, so saw a lot of movies over and over), and I thought it was soooooo stupid. Then I saw it again a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. So in my case, I was definitely too young for FLW.

I too enjoyed the Atlantic crossing part. Really well done.

This is OT, but it did come up. John Barth's Sotweed Factor was my first experience with po-mo. I never laughed so hard with a book until I read Catch-22 a couple of years later. But with all the wonderful books I've read in my life there will always be place for Ebeneezer Cooke in my literary heart.

We don't consider it OT in this group if one comparison leads to another ... and another ...