After carefully following Miranda for two weeks, Frederick abducts her and drives her to his cottage two hours away. He buys a camper van, ostensibly for a butterfly-collecting tour of England, and a secluded cottage, the cellar of which he outfits as a bedroom prison cell. As he prepares to kidnap her, he insists that his original intention was not to abduct Miranda. He fantasizes about forcing Miranda to disregard their class difference and fall in love with him. After he wins a fortune betting on soccer pools, Frederick moves to London and resumes stalking Miranda. She nonetheless pursues her dream, matriculating at an art school in London.įrederick stalks Miranda for a year, until she moves to London for art school. Her father and mother oppose her dream to become an artist, and her mother is also abusive and has an alcohol addiction this makes Miranda resentful and rebellious. Educated in private schools, Miranda comes from a bourgeois family. He hates his coworkers for their vulgarity and flirtations with each other.įrederick becomes obsessed with a high schooler named Miranda Grey, who reminds him of a rare butterfly. Following his service, he begins work as a clerk. Left with his aunt, who demeans his lepidoptery, Frederick joins the army. These halcyon days end abruptly: When Frederick is 15, Dick dies suddenly. Dick loves Frederick like a son, and together they share the happiest years of Frederick’s life, including time spent butterfly collecting.

Subsequently, Frederick is raised by his Uncle Dick and Aunt Annie, who, like Frederick’s parents, are working class. When Frederick is two, his father dies in a drunk driving accident and his mother abandons him. His periodic allusions to her fate indicate his unreliability as a narrator. As Frederick begins his story, he’s already killed Miranda through neglect however, he conceals this fact until Chapter 3. The second chapter is Miranda’s first-person epistolary account of her imprisonment. The first, third, and fourth are written in first person from Frederick’s perspective. The Collector is divided into four chapters. This guide uses the e-book version of the 2012 Hachette Books edition.Ĭontent Warning: The plot of this novel features stalking, sexual assault, kidnapping followed by prolonged captivity, psychological torture, and violence.

The collector by john fowles