First published in 1963, The Collector by John Fowles is beginning to show its age. It contains words like "hip" and "square" and "stereogram" - words that place it firmly in the so-called swinging sixties. Yet the story itself seems almost before its time, the plot still as fresh as it ever was.
It is the story of Frederick, an awkward, shy and rather prudish Rates clerk whose main hobby is collecting butterflies. Life changes for Frederick when he wins more than £73,000 on the pools and decides to collect something more interesting. He sets his sights on Miranda, an art student. Too socially inept to court her in the usual manner, he kidnaps her and keeps her prisoner in the cellar of an isolated country cottage that he has bought especially for that purpose.
Despite insurmountable differences between Frederick and Miranda - taste, education and class - he showers her with expensive gifts and gourmet food, hoping to win her love. Yet he withholds the one thing that Miranda truly wants - her freedom. He loves her so much that he is afraid to let her go.
The book is written in four parts, although parts three and four are each only a few pages long. Part one looks at the kidnapping from Frederick's point of view, while part two covers the same events from Miranda's viewpoint. As you would expect, both accounts differ wildly.
In addition to being a gripping thriller, the book reads like a study in abnormal psychology, making it all the more intriguing to see events through the eyes of both kidnapper and victim. Particularly interesting are Miranda's sudden about turns as she tries everything in her power to get free. The ending is startling, being both predictable and yet, at the same time, surprising. Stranger still is the way that the reader's sympathies constantly shift throughout the book first feeling for the imprisoned and terrified Miranda, then, unaccountably for the sad, lonely Frederick.
Fowled handles his subject deftly and intelligently as the two protagonists in his book desperately try to find a meeting of minds and fail spectacularly. Described as a "fiendish interplay of sanity and insanity" (Allsop, Daily Mail) The Collector has, in spite of its now rather archaic language, definitely stood the test of time and is therefore a must for the bookshelves of fans of psychological thrillers.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0 09 974371 X
Price: £6.99
Date Reviewed: September 2002
My Rating: 3.5/5
