The Collector

by John Fowles

Overview

"A superb novel...Evil has seldom been so sinister." —Time


Hailed as the first modern psychological thriller, The Collector is the internationally bestselling novel that catapulted John Fowles into the front rank of contemporary novelists. This tale of obsessive love—the story of a lonely clerk who collects butterflies and of the beautiful young art student who is his ultimate quarry—remains unparalleled in its power to startle and mesmerize.


"A bravura first novel...As a horror story, this book is a remarkable tour de force." —New Yorker

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316290234
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	08/04/1997
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	89,617
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	670L (what's this?)

About the Author

John Fowles (1926-2005) was educated at Oxford and subsequently lectured in English at universities in Greece and the UK. The success of his first novel, The Collector, published in 1963, allowed him to devote all his time to writing. His books include the internationally acclaimed and bestselling novels The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Daniel Martin. Fowles spent the last decades of his life on the southern coast of England in the small harbor town of Lyme Regis.

Read an Excerpt

"Seeing her always made me feel like I was catching a rarity, going up to it very careful, heart-in-mouth as they say. A Pale Clouded Yellow, for instance. I always thought of her like that, I mean words like elusive and sporadic, and very refined-not like the other ones, even the pretty ones. More for the real connoisseur."
—from The Collector

Editorial Reviews

"A bravura first novel...As a horror story, this book is a remarkable tour de force."

—New Yorker

"There is not a page in this first novel which does not prove that its author is a master storyteller."—New York Times Book Review

From the Publisher

There is not a page in this first novel which does not prove that its author is a master storyteller.

Fowles launched his career with The Collector, which was welcomed with great critical enthusiasm, including that of LJ's reviewer, who found it "a distinguished first novel" (LJ 8/63). Mantissa, on the other hand, was a departure from the author's more popular material and received only a marginal response (LJ 9/1/82).

Library Journal

The Collector is a work of art….It both stirs the mind and satisfies.
—New Republic

Honor Tracy

A bravura first novel….As a horror story, the book is a remarkable tour de force.
—New Yorker

Whitney Balliett

What happens is both symbolic and all too real, beautiful and sickening at once…as resonant as a myth.
—National Review

Guy Davenport

There is not a page in this first novel which does not prove that its author is a master storyteller.
—New York Times Book Review

Alan Bryce-Jones