John Fowles's debut novel, 'The Collector,' is unlike any other book by the author, nor any other work in the psychological detective genre. A lonely, narrow-minded, and simply unpleasant young man unexpectedly wins a huge sum of money in the lottery. What will he do with it, especially given his passion for collecting butterflies and his secret love for a local beauty?

In the story of the confrontation between a serial killer and his victim, Fowles saw Shakespeare's 'The Tempest,' the clash of Good and Evil, the primitive man and the sublime artist, Love, Death, and Beauty.