The Collector

11 hrs. 23 min.

Mystery, Thrillers & Action

Language Russian

Author John Fowles

Narrators Olga Lerman, Yuriy Tsokurov

Narrator Olga Lerman

Narrator Yuriy Tsokurov

Description

John Fowles’s debut novel “The Collector” stands out among his other works and traditional psychological detective stories. The main character, an unattractive and lonely young man, suddenly wins a large cash prize in the lottery. He decides to use the money according to his hobby—collecting butterflies—and his secret love for a beautiful girl from his surroundings.

Fowles treats the story as a clash between a maniac and his victim, similar to Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” where Good and Evil, a simpleton and an artist stand opposed, and where the themes of Love, Death, and Beauty come into play.

This novel, which launched Fowles’s fame, is a carefully crafted psychological thriller that reinterprets various plots, including myths and classic literature. In 1965 the work was adapted into a film by director William Wyler. TIME described this story as an example of how evil can be truly terrifying.