The book I read during my first term at college and moving house recently unearthed a box from the loft where the extended essay I produced on “The artist is always under the control of his ideas” based on this book, “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” and the short story collection “The Ebony Tower” saw me sitting pretty much on the fence but gaining an A grade (I didn’t get that many of these).īasically, the plot of “The Collector” runs along the same lines as a myriad of psychological thrillers produced since but must have seemed extremely disturbing back in 1963. I don’t remember seeing it since this late 1970s showing. It was a school night and I remember my mum saying “don’t tell anyone we let you stay up late to watch it.” It starred Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar and made a strong enough impression on me to virtually lift the plot for my mock English O-Level. I first came to this via the 1965 film adaptation I remember watching on a Monday night BBC1 9.30 film slot. At the same time I mentioned I should get round to re-reading his debut “The Collector” to see how it holds up. Nevertheless, it ended up at #8 in my Best Books of 2020 list.

It was a book I’d remembered with great affection but wondered on this re-reading whether “it does occasionally seem a little clever for its own good” and pondered if this might be one of the reasons why Fowles’ reputation has faded somewhat in the twenty-first century. Back in 2020 I re-read John Fowles’ most famous work “ The French Lieutenant’s Woman” (1969).

The collector john fowles 1963