The Collector
A concise and gripping introduction to Fowles's psychological and existential fiction.
Author guide
John Fowles Books in Order
John Fowles (1926–2005) was an English writer whose fiction combines psychological, existential, historical, and metafictional elements. His major novels include The Collector, The Magus, The French Lieutenant's Woman, Daniel Martin, Mantissa, and A Maggot. He also published philosophical writing, poetry, short fiction, essays, memoir-like journals, natural-history and local-history books, and photographic collaborations. He lived for much of his later life in Lyme Regis, Dorset, where he served as curator of the Lyme Regis Museum.
literary fictionpostmodern fictionhistorical fictionexistential fictionessaysmemoirpoetryshort storiesnatural historylocal history
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
The Magus
A central, highly imaginative novel that showcases Fowles's interest in freedom, identity, and manipulation.
The French Lieutenant's Woman
His most ambitious historical and metafictional novel.
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (10)
- The Collector
novel · 1963
Fowles’ stunning debut is a study of a lonely young sociopath who kidnaps the woman he has fixated on, keeping her in his cellar in the belief that she will eventually come to love him. The story is narrated in turns by the young man and…
- The Aristos: A Self-Portrait in Ideas
nonfiction · 1964
This book was first published against the advice of almost everyone who read it. I was told that it would do my ‘image’ no good; and I am sure that my belief that a favourable ‘image’ is conceivably not of any great human – or literary –…
- The Magus
novel · 1965
WITH AN AFTERWORD FROM THE AUTHOR 'A major work of mounting tensions in which the human mind is the guinea-pig... Mr Fowles has taken a big swing at a difficult subject and his hits are on the bull's eye' Sunday Times On a remote Greek…
- The French Lieutenant's Woman
novel · 1969
By the author of *The Collector* and *The Magus*, a haunting love story of the Victorian era. Over one year on the N.Y. Times Bestseller List and an international bestseller. "Filled with enchanting mysteries, charged with erotic…
- Daniel Martin
novel · 1977
Daniel Martin's (1977) eponymous protagonist returns to England after a sojourn in Hollywood -- and sets out to rectify the sins and omissions of his past. The book covers three decades and is very much about being English with a lot of…
- The Tree
nonfiction · 1979
- The Enigma of Stonehenge
nonfiction · 1980
- Mantissa
novel · 1982
In Mantissa (1982), a novelist awakes in the hospital with amnesia -- and comes to believe that a beautiful female doctor is, in fact, his muse.
- A Maggot
novel · 1985
A modern narrator supplements the views of a group of eighteenth-century travelers as they make an inquiry into the mysterious death by hanging of one traveler and the disappearance--into thin air--of another
- Lyme Worthies
nonfiction · 2000
Nonfiction (4)
- Medieval Lyme Regis
local-history · 1984
- A Short History of Lyme Regis
local-history · 1982
- The Journals: Volume One, 1949–1965
diary · 2003
- The Journals: Volume Two, 1966–1990
diary · 2006
Short fiction (1)
- The Ebony Tower
short-story-collection · 1974
The five masterful works of short fiction in The Ebony Tower bring us once again into the company of a great contemporary novelist working his intriguing and dazzling themes, probing the fitful relationships of fantasy and reality, love…
Essays and speeches (7)
- A Brief History of Lyme
pamphlet · 1981
- Lyme Regis: Three Town Walks
pamphlet · 1983
- Of Memoirs & Magpies
essay · 1983
- Behind the Magus
essay · 1994
- The Nature of Nature
essay · 1995
- I Write Therefore I Am
essay · 1997
- Wormholes: Essays and Occasional Writings
essay-collection · 1998
Divided into four sections--Writing and the Self, Culture and Society, Literature and Literary Criticism, and Nature and the Nature of Nature--"Wormholes" contains 30 pieces, dating from 1963 to the present, which reflect on Fowles' views…
Poetry (1)
- Poems
poetry-collection · 1973
Other (4)
- Islands
photographic-book · 1978
- Shipwreck
photographic-book · 1974
- Land
photographic-book · 1985
- Lyme Regis Camera
photographic-book · 1990
Frequently asked questions about John Fowles
Who was John Fowles?
John Fowles was an English novelist, essayist, poet, translator, and educator. The success of his first published novel in 1963 allowed him to become a full-time writer.
Sources: research.hrc.utexas.edu (opens in a new tab)chapman.edu (opens in a new tab)
When and where was John Fowles born and when did he die?
He was born on March 31, 1926, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England, and died on November 5, 2005, in Lyme Regis, Dorset.
Sources: research.hrc.utexas.edu (opens in a new tab)encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)
What influenced John Fowles’s writing?
His work was strongly shaped by existentialist ideas about freedom and authenticity, especially those associated with Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, which he encountered at Oxford. He also described Carl Jung as a particularly fruitful influence on his fiction.
Sources: theparisreview.org (opens in a new tab)chapman.edu (opens in a new tab)
What awards and honors did John Fowles receive?
Fowles received the Silver Pen Award and the W.H. Smith Literary Award for The French Lieutenant’s Woman, as well as the Christopher Award for The Tree. He also received an honorary degree from the University of Exeter in 1983.
Sources: encyclopedia.com (opens in a new tab)exeter.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)
What is John Fowles’s literary legacy?
Fowles helped bring formally experimental, self-conscious fiction to a broad popular audience, particularly through The French Lieutenant’s Woman. His legacy is preserved through the John Fowles Center for Creative Writing at Chapman University and a dedicated display at Lyme Regis Museum.
Sources: theguardian.com (opens in a new tab)chapman.edu (opens in a new tab)lymeregismuseum.co.uk (opens in a new tab)