John Fowles' The Collector (1963) -first half

John Fowles’ first novel The Collector (1963) achieved a certain amount of fame for its somewhat daring theme of abduction and its obvious sympathy with the abductor. It is told in the form of a diary – the abductor’s and the abductee’s.

"John Fowles is a very brave man. He has written a novel which depends for its effect on total acceptance by the reader. There is no room in it for the least hesitation, the smallest false note, for not only is it written in the first-person singular, but its protagonist is a very special case indeed. Mr. Fowles's main skill is in his use of language. There is not a false note in his delineation of Fred." (Alan Pryce-Jones, The New York Times)

Hayden Carruth praised the novel as "brisk" and "professional," adding that Fowles "knows how to evoke the oblique horror of innocence as well as the direct horror of knowledge." (Press & Sun-Bulletin)

In 2014, Mary Andrews wrote that "Fowles invites us to defy his main character's excuses and read between the lines, and the facts paint a more chilling picture. Fred doesn't accidentally abduct Miranda, there's a sense that he's been leading up to this event his whole life," and deemed Frederick Clegg "one of literature's most evil characters." (The Guardian).

The novel was adapted as a feature film by the same name in 1965. The screenplay was by Stanley Mann and John Kohn and it was directed by Wiliam Wyler who turned down The Sound of Music to direct it. It starred Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 3, 1965 where both Stamp and Eggar won awards for Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively.

This online meetup group is set to discuss the first half of the novel.
(A discussion of the second half of the book together with Wyler's film will follow in three weeks time).