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The Collector

By: John Fowles
Narrated by: Daniel Rigby, Hannah Murray
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick is a loner who collects butterflies and takes photographs. He is obsessed with a beautiful stranger, the art student Miranda, whom he watches from afar. When he wins the pools, he buys a remote Sussex country house and painstakingly works to make the cellar a comfortable prison. He then calmly abducts Miranda, believing that she will inevitably grow to love him in time if she just gets to know him.

Alone and desperate, Miranda must struggle to overcome her own prejudices and contempt if she is understand her captor and gain her freedom.

Taught and utterly compelling, Fowles' debut novel The Collector was an instant best seller when it was published in 1963. It is regarded as one of the best thrillers of all time with one of the most terrifying villains to have ever been created on the page.

©1963 John Fowles (P)2021 Penguin Audio
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What listeners say about The Collector

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Amazing story

Brilliant! I have read The Collector many times and wanted it in audio format. Unfortunately the female narrator was so flat and monotone. Such a discredit to a great character such as Miranda.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Dark but moving

Thoroughly enjoyed and broadly in agreement with other feedback about 2nd half of the book.
Felt really sad about the ending - which I was surprised by given the genre.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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So perfectly creepy

I read this over 20 years ago and for some reason never read it again even though the story stayed with me. Narration was excellent, spot on, exactly how I’d imagined Fred’s provincial tone. I confess that during Miranda’s part, I tended to ‘skip to the next chapter’ often as I was more interested in her version of events rather than the back story about GP, since I’d already read it. Tip: if Miranda’s part is too long winded, playback at the next speed along.
Would definitely recommend.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A tale of two halves

Both narrators were excellent, although the female narrator did have the weaker part of the novel to narrate, but she did a good job of it.
Good storyline, liked the characterisation of both Fred and Miranda. Didn’t enjoy the bits where Miranda talks about her previous relationship with GP, somehow it didn’t fit well with the rest of the story

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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gripping

The story starts off at a running jump, as does the narration. Initially I struggled to digest the book as the first narrator is incredibly pacy, eventually I became accustomed to the racing along only for the narration to switch to the victims voice. whilst I really enjoyed Hannah Murray's reading of 'good me, bad me' by Ali Land, she narrates at a different pace to the first narrator which I found jarring. Although interesting to hear the voice of the victim, this books real strength is in the complexity of it's main character. I'd recommend this audiobook based on the character of Frederick alone. Not your typical villan, Frederick is a fascinating and well narrated character.

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Cameron Jukes

What an ending! Had me at a shock but I knew it would happen fantastic reading

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A hideous masterpiece

This book is one of the best books that I have ever read. It is a masterclass in characterisation. Brilliant.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Great Narration, Great Plot

Was unsure due to other reviews criticising the female narrator (and there is no excerpt from ‘Miranda’ on the sample). Took a chance and glad I did- she did an excellent job.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Great narration

Daniel Rigby gets this narration spot on, as the deranged "Collector". Solid performance as well from Hannah Murray in this tale of class struggle and imprisonment.

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    4 out of 5 stars

FVCKING TERRIFYING

(SPOILERS)
I loved the first part of the narration, it was very disturbing to be seeing this all play out through his perspective, though in the second part where its from Miranda’s perspective, there were ALOT of pauses in between sentences which threw my focus adrift, other than that, loved the book

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