Books

HARDBACK - first edition - A very fine book, free of any names or inscriptions, in a fine d/w that is unfaded to the spine and without any tears or loss. Correctly priced at 18s.net. An outstanding copy with an original 1963 sales receipt laid in.

The Collector is the debut novel of English author John Fowles. It was first published in 1963 by Jonathan Cape and is about a lonely young man, Frederick Clegg, who works as a clerk in a city hall and collects butterflies in his spare time. Clegg is infatuated with Miranda Grey, a middle-class art student at the Slade School of Art. Unable to make any contact with her but obsessed with his unrelenting desire, Clegg decides to add her to his 'collections' by kidnapping her and holding her captive in the cellar of his rural farmhouse. What follows is a chilling exploration of power, art, freedom, and the consequences of human actions.