Local Route
Only a very small portion of Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman actually takes place in Exeter, yet the event that transpires there occasions Charles’ permanent departure from the Victorian age and his arrival in a world where he has the terrifying freedom to follow all of his own promptings. Because that fateful night in Exeter is paramount to the novel as a whole, take a moment to place yourself there.
Look up and find yourself staring at the Ship Inn, a restaurant on Martin’s Street. This is the very inn where Charles and Sam stay overnight on their way back to Lyme Regis from London. Had Charles decided to press on all the way to Lyme, which is offered as a possibility by Fowles, then the Ship Inn would have no place in the novel. Charles would have 
made it back to Lyme that evening, resigned himself to his marriage with Ernestina, and Exeter would not be remembered as the place where everything changed. But consider, as Fowles does, the possibility that Charles does decide to stay overnight in Exeter, perhaps under the feeble pretense that rain is expected. As you observe the inn, you will notice inside an ATM machine, a shiny, electric gambling machine, and other modern innovations that have certainly been added since the days of Charles Smithson. Furthermore, the inn is now exclusively a restaurant, no longer offering accommodation to embattled travelers who have decided to stay the night and sever ties with everything they have ever been taught to be proper and acceptable.
Turn right out of the Ship Inn and walk to the end of Martin’s Street, and then take a left onto High Street. As you stroll down High Street, you will notice an Orange Mobile shop, a Waterstone’s bookstore, and a Burger King on your left. A little farther down, on your right, you will walk past an HMV music store and a McDonald’s. You must not pay attention to these modern franchises lest they divert you from your full immersion into the world of the 19th century. Or, better yet, observe all of these stores with painstaking detail—cultivate a firm and unequivocal feeling of living in the contemporary world. As you continue to walk down High Street with the acute sense of being alive in the particular moment that you are, try to simultaneously transport yourself back to 19th century Exeter. If you successfully evoke this odd feeling of being alive now but seeing everything that happened nearly two centuries ago, you will come to understand the unique perspective from which Fowles’ tells the tale of The French Lieutenant’s Woman.
It will not be long before High Street becomes Fore Street, and as you descend further along Fore, you w
ill realize that this part of town still retains the seediness that Fowles describes in the book. On your left you will notice such tawdriness as Fantasy World, a store selling costumes from various historical periods, and a new-age store called Evolution. On your right you will pass Hidden Jewel Tattoo Studio, an easy place for disaffected people to find unambiguous ways to parade their disdain for mainstream culture. Just as you would be unlikely to find proper ladies and gentleman of the Victorian era ambling around this part of town, it is equally unlikely that the urbane, affluent people of today would find this place too palatable.
Right as Fore Street becomes New Bridge Street, you will see that you can turn left on a little road called West Street. You can see at the beginning of West Street a great white building called Endicott’s Army Surplus. I have learned that this store has been around for nearly seventy years, meaning it had lon
g since been established when Fowles wrote The French Lieutenant’s Woman in 1969. Since I can find no evidence of an actual Endicott’s Family Hotel that existed in Exeter, I surmise that Fowles borrowed the name of the army surplus store for the building in which Charles rages his own war against the Victorian era.
As you turn onto West Street and walk past a string of buildings, you will find on your left the unassuming red brick façade of the Parish of St. Mary’s. This is the church that Charles enters in desperation after having sex with Sarah. Here, inside this unadorned, crumbling brick building—a true relic of the past—Charles undergoes a revelation. Charles gazes up at Christ on the cross and realizes that the aim of Christianity is “not to celebrate this barbarous image…but to bring about a world in which the hanging man could be descended…” (Fowles 363). Charles finds liberation inside of a building which promulgated the very beliefs that caused him such tumult in the first place. Charles decides that the image of Christ should not cause people to harken back to the past and observe set of strict, pre-established guidelines to attain salvation; it should cause them to look hopefully ahead to a time where people can freely express themselves without facing condemnation. With this enchanting thought in mind, Charles bids farewell to the Victorian era for the last time.
© Copyright Richard Glennon 2007