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1963 thriller novel by John Fowles

The Collector is a 1963 thriller novel by English author John Fowles, in his literary debut. Its plot follows a lonely young man who kidnaps a female art student in London and holds her captive in the cellar of his rural farmhouse. Divided in two sections, the novel contains both the perspective of the captor, Frederick, and that of Miranda, the captive. The portion of the novel told from Miranda's perspective is presented in epistolary form. Fowles wrote the novel between November 1960 and March 1962. It was adapted into an Academy Award–nominated feature film of the same name in 1965 starring Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar.

The novel is about a lonely young man, Frederick Clegg, who works as a clerk in a city hall and collects butterflies in his spare time. The first part of the novel tells the story from his point of view. Clegg is obsessed with Miranda Grey, a middle class art student at the Slade School of Fine Art. He admires her from a distance but is unable to make any contact with her because he is socially underdeveloped. One day, he wins a large prize in the football pools. He quits his job and buys an isolated house in Sussex near Lewes. He feels lonely, however, and wants to be with Miranda. Unable to make any normal contact, Clegg decides to add her to his "collection" of pretty, preserved objects, in the hope that if he keeps her captive long enough, she will grow to love him. After careful preparations, he kidnaps Miranda by drugging her with chloroform and locks her up in the cellar of his house. He is convinced that Miranda will start to love him after some time. However, when she wakes up, she confronts him with his actions. Clegg is embarrassed and promises to let her go after a month. He promises to show her "every respect", pledging not to sexually molest her and to shower her with gifts and the comforts of home, on one condition: she can't leave the cellar. The second part of the novel is narrated by Miranda in the form of fragments from a diary that she keeps during her captivity. Miranda reminisces over her previous life throughout this section of the novel; and many of her diary entries are written either to her sister or to a man named G. P., whom she respected and admired as an artist. Miranda reveals that G. P. ultimately fell in love with her and consequently severed all contact with her. At first, Miranda thinks that Clegg has sexual motives for abducting her; but, as his true character begins to be revealed, she realises that this is not true. She begins to pity her captor, comparing him to Caliban in Shakespeare's play The Tempest because of his hopeless obsession with her. Clegg tells Miranda that his first name is Ferdinand (eventual winner of Miranda's affections in The Tempest). Miranda tries to escape several times, but Clegg stops her. She also tries to seduce him to convince him to let her go. The only result is that he becomes confused and angry. As Clegg repeatedly refuses to release her, she begins to fantasise about killing him. After a failed attempt to do so, Miranda enters a period of self loathing. She decides that to kill Clegg would lower her to his level. She refrains from any further attempts to do so. Before she can try to escape again, she becomes seriously ill and dies. The third part of the novel is narrated by Clegg. At first, he wants to commit suicide after he finds Miranda dead; but, after he reads in her diary that she never loved him, he decides that he is not responsible for what happened to her and is better off without her. He buries her corpse in the garden. The book ends with his thinking of kidnapping another girl.

Literary scholars have noted the theme of class in the British caste system as a prominent point of interest in the novel. Critic Hayden Carruth noted that Fowles is preoccupied with "reshuffling classes under British socialism", evoked in the differences in social background between the characters of the working class Frederick, and Miranda, a member of the bourgeoisie. Hayden Carruth of the Press & Sun Bulletin 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." In 2014, Mary Andrews of The Guardian 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 Collector has been adapted as a film and several times as a play. It's also referred to in various songs, television episodes and books; one example is in Stephen King's book Misery, when the protagonist Paul Sheldon hopes that Annie Wilkes is not familiar with "John Fowles's first novel." 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 William Wyler, who turned down The Sound of Music to direct it. It starred Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar. The 1980 Tamil language film Moodu Pani, according to its director Balu Mahendra, is partly based on The Collector. The novel was also loosely adapted by Filipino director Mike de Leon into a film titled Bilanggo sa Dilim (Prisoner in the Dark) in 1986. The 1997 Finnish drama film Neitoperho was loosely inspired by the novel, according to the film's director. A stage adaptation by the actor Brian McDermott (writing as David Parker) was first performed in 1971; among its earliest productions was a West End presentation at the St Martin's Theatre in 1974, with Marianne Faithfull as Miranda and Simon Williams as Clegg. Another adaptation written, again, by an actor: Mark Healy was first performed at Derby Playhouse in October 1998, later appearing at Sweden's Gothenburg English Studio Theatre in April 2007. Yet another adaptation, by Tim Dalgleish and Caz Tricks, was written for Bare Bones Theatre Company (of Wolverton, Milton Keynes) in 1997. In October 2021, Suntup Editions announced a limited 1000 editions of the novel with an introduction by Bradford Morrow and six illustrations by David Álvarez.

In several cases since the novel was published, serial killers, spree killers, kidnappers, and other criminals have claimed that The Collector was the basis, the inspiration, or the justification for their crimes.

In 1985, Leonard Lake and Charles Chi Tat Ng abducted 18 year old Kathy Allen and later 19 year old Brenda O'Connor. Lake is said to have been obsessed with The Collector. Lake described his plan for using the women for sex and housekeeping in a "philosophy" videotape. The two are believed to have murdered at least 25 people, including two entire families. Although Lake had committed several crimes in the Ukiah, California, area, his "Operation Miranda" did not begin until after he moved to remote Wilseyville, California. The videotapes of his murders and a diary written by Lake were found buried near the bunker in Wilseyville. They revealed that Lake had named his plot Operation Miranda after the character in Fowles' book.

Christopher Wilder, a spree/serial killer of young girls, had The Collector in his possession when he was killed by police in 1984.