Books

London, Jonathan Cape, 1963. . First edition, first impression, signed & dated by the author; 8vo; publisher's brick red cloth, titles to spine gilt, brown topstain, pictorial dust jacket with artwork by Tom Adams, a near-fine copy in the minimally rubbed dust jacket with a few marks to the rear panel. A very good first edition of John Fowles' landmark first book, inscribed in the year of publication, 'John Fowles, 1963'; such coeval inscriptions are distinctly uncommon. The jacket design by Tom Adams hints darkly at the novel's contents...

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.