Which British novelist wrote 'The French Lieutenant's Woman'?

The British novelist who wrote The French Lieutenant's Woman was John Fowles.

First published in 1969, the novel is set largely in Victorian England and follows Charles Smithson, an amateur naturalist, and Sarah Woodruff, a socially disgraced woman living near Lyme Regis. Sarah is rumored to have been abandoned by a French naval officer, and her reputation draws Charles into a relationship that challenges his engagement, social expectations, and assumptions about the past.

Fowles combines historical fiction with postmodern narrative techniques. The narrator openly comments on storytelling, Victorian conventions, and the limits of authorial control. Most famously, the novel offers multiple possible endings rather than a single definitive resolution, inviting readers to question whether fiction must provide neat closure. The book was Fowles's third novel, following The Collector and The Magus. It was adapted into a 1981 film starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons, with a screenplay by Harold Pinter.