This week I have been tackling some of the books on my Classics Club list. The first one I finished was John Fowles book The Collector.
Next up I hope to read both To Sir, With Love and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie as they are both on my list and are about school teachers. That will be fun to compare the two.
The Collector is about a young man named Fred Clegg who lives in small town in England with his old aunt. He works in an office, is socially awkward and I believe he's a psychopath. He is a collector of butterflies, scouting the more rare and beautiful ones and then adding them to his collection for display. He doesn't have mates to go to the pub with or socialize and is often ridiculed for his solitary lifestyle.
Then Fred enters the pools (like a lottery) and wins big. Substantial amount of money at his disposable so he resigns from work.
Now we introduce Miranda Grey. She is a beautiful young woman from an upper class family, attending an impressive school, studying art. Her friends are upper class as well and we learn of all this through Fred as he spies on her from afar.
Fred is obsessed with Miranda and thinks she is his ideal mate. He can not speak to her directly as he is socially awkward. Once you get to know Miranda you will realize she is snobby and wouldn't have given Fred the time of day.
But now Fred has money, a lot of money, and buys a remote farmhouse in Sussex and has the basement fitted up with locks rendering it a jail house. Then Fred buys furniture, clothes that he thinks will fit Miranda and a gramophone. You can see where this may be going in a very creepy way.
After careful planning Fred awaits Miranda walking home one evening and asks her if she knows anything about dogs. He tells her he has just hit one with his van and it's injured. She leans in to see, he places a cloth with chloroform over her mouth and abducts her.
The first 120 or so pages are all Fred's thoughts. He wants Miranda as his wife, but never tries for sex as that isn't even proper unless you are married. He wants to keep her as he kept butterflies as she is, to him, rare and beautiful and something he can possess. He tells her she will grow to love him and they will be together always. She can have her own bedroom, she just has to love him and be his wife.
The next part of the book are Miranda's thoughts and her day dreams about a man she thinks she loves in her real life. She is snobby but shrewd, talking down to Fred and then trying to trick him so she can escape. Well, wouldn't you try and escape? She isn't likeable but I have empathy about her untenable situation.
There is a resolution to this kidnapping situation and then a very chilling ending. I won't give a spoiler but it's probably not the end you may imagine.
Themes about mental health issues, class distinctions.
Linking with
Joy's book Blog for British Isles Friday
