The Collector
Decide its fate
The record
Time
An eveningA season288 pages, about 6 hours: about the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climbFrederick Clegg, a lonely clerk and butterfly collector, describes his fascination with art student Miranda Grey before he abducts her.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live byIn 11 reviews from critics and book blogs, 3 credit the plot and 7 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else doesA review compares Clegg’s psychology to Buffalo Bill in Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs, on the shelf at 352 pages.
The case for it
on the cellar
“keep her alive under glass in the cellar”
Kirkus Reviews, 1963 on just two people
“so much momentum in a book that is essentially just two people in a room”
five stars · a book blog on Frederick Clegg
“Fowles has created a truly terrifying character in Frederick Clegg”
a book blog on the first 100 pages
“the first 100 pages or so we’re thrilling, and I couldn’t put it down”
four stars · a book blog
The case against
on Miranda’s art talk
“tedious to listen to a twenty year old ramble about what is and isn’t art”
a book blog on Miranda’s diary section
“I did find myself slightly bored with this section of the novel”
a book blog on the class commentary
“beats you over the head with it until you submit”
three stars · a book blog on Miranda’s worldview
“Miranda’s worldview isn’t the most original”
a book blog
