The Collector John Robert Fowles
• English novelist • came from a family of middleclass merchants • studied French and German in Oxford • spent his early adult life as a teacher • influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus John Robert Fowles 31 March 1926 – 5 November 2005 • was named by the Times newspaper as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945
The Collector 1963 • In late 1960 began working on The Collector • The book was published in 1963 • British reviewers found the novel to be an innovative thriller • American critics detected a serious promotion of existentialist thought • The success of his novel meant that Fowles was able devote himself full-time to a literary career • Many critics now consider his work on the cusp between modernism and postmodernism
The Main Characters
Frederick Clegg • a lonely young man • works as a clerk in a city hall • collects butterflies • obsessed with Miranda Grey • wins a large prize in the football pools • kidnaps Miranda • convinced that Miranda will start to love him
Miranda Grey • soft lovely twenty-year-old girl • a student at the Slade School of Fine Art • Clegg scares her, and she does not understand him • She starts to have some pity for her captor • tries to escape several times • Clegg is always able to stop her
The Purpose Mankind is divided into two groups : "the good" - moral and intellectual elite "the many" - unthinking, conforming mass The dividing line should run through each individual, not between individuals.
Thank you!
