The Collector is the first novel of author John Fowles, better known for his books The French Lieutenant's Woman and the Magus.
Relatively short and straightforward, and unlike any other Fowles book, The Collector tells the story of an introvertend entomologist who wins the London pools (similar to the lottery), and is able to fulfill his fantasy of collecting his prize specimen, a young girl named Miranda.
The Collector was written in the early sixties and reflects the attitudes of the day, referring to bourgeois pigs and upper class snobbery, the system, the man, being an individual.
While Miranda is held captive by Ferdinand, we begin to see parallels to Shakespeare's The Tempest, as Miranda resorts to calling her captor Caliban. Being socially backward, overly stilted and in fact, impotent, Ferdinand is unable to be too menacing to his victim, and slowly, Miranda begins to take control of the situation, although still held captive in his basement prison. Eventually, neither one is in control as Nature itself begins to take the upper hand.
One of the classics of damsels in distress literature, and long my favorite book, the Collector was made into a British film starring Samantha Eggar and Terrance Stamp.