The Collector by James Fowles

Lidia writes: The novel I am reading, The Collector by James Fowles, is a very compelling and suspenseful story. Clegg, a butterfly collector and a lonely store clerk who works in London, is very intrigued by a beautiful 21 year old art student named Miranda. At first he doesn't know her name so he would mark Miranda with an X in his so called "observation diary". In this diary he specifically keeps records of times when he would peer through his windows and watch her throughout the day. (I found this very strange and bizarre.) Clegg later on in the story finds out Miranda's real name and is now more than determined to get to know her. Although the conniving plot he has in mind might not be the most ordinary: He buys a van and a house in the country, (several miles away from London), with an enclosed room in its basement that he adjusts to make sheltered and kept away. When he returns to London, Clegg watches Miranda for 10 days. Then on a stormy night as she is walking home alone from the Cinema, he kidnaps her using a rag soaked in chloroform and a bit of carbon tetrachloride, straps her up in his van, takes her to his country house, and locks her in the cellar. She eventually wakes up with a gag in her mouth to see Clegg at the door with breakfast in hand. It seems as though she was puzzled and confused, yet not a sign of fear showed in her eyes. As days go by Miranda gets fed up with the whole situation and demands for her to be taken back home to London, and for which she swears not to say a word to anybody about the abduction. Clegg on the other hand was very offended by this saying but refuses to do anything about it. The strange thing is, is that he doesn't want to hurt Miranda in any way, he just wants her to love him as much as he loves her; basically a tale of obsessive love. I am yet to finish The Collector, and cannot wait to find out what happens next.