The Collector

by

John Fowles

G.P. is an artist in his 40s who Miranda falls in love with. His full name is George Paston. G.P. has strongly held feelings about art and politics, which impress Miranda. However, even he admits he is not a good person, and multiple times he warns Miranda to stay away from him. In particular, G.P. is a notorious philanderer and soon tries to get Miranda to go to bed with him even though she is only half his age. Additionally, G.P. has a nasty temper that arises when his artistic sensibilities are questioned. Miranda’s friends seem to think G.P. is a pretentious fake, though Miranda remains convinced he is a talented painter, even if he is a flawed man.

G.P. Quotes in The Collector

The The Collector quotes below are all either spoken by G.P. or refer to G.P.. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power and Control Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

I know what I am to him. A butterfly he has always wanted to catch. I remember (the very first time I met him) G.P. saying that collectors were the worst animals of all. He meant art collectors, of course. I didn’t really understand, I thought he was just trying to shock Caroline—and me. But of course, he is right. They’re anti-life, anti-art, anti-everything.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P., Marian
Related Symbols: Clegg’s Butterfly Collection
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:

Upstairs, bedrooms, lovely rooms in themselves, but all fusty, unlived-in. A strange dead air about everything. Downstairs what he (he would) called “the lounge” is a beautiful room, much bigger than the other rooms, peculiarly square, you don’t expect it, with one huge crossbeam supported on three uprights in the middle of the room, and other crossbeams and nooks and delicious angles an architect wouldn’t think of once in a thousand years. All massacred, of course, by the furniture. China wild duck on a lovely old fireplace. I couldn’t stand it, I got him to retie my hands in front and then I unhooked the monsters and smashed them on the hearth.

That hurt him almost as much as when I slapped his face for not letting me escape.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P.
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:

7. But you don’t compromise with your background. You cut off all the old you that gets in the way of the maker you. If you’re suburban (as I realize D and M are—their laughing at suburbia is just a blind), you throw away (cauterize) the suburbs. If you’re working class, you cauterize the working class in you. And the same, whatever class you are, because class is primitive and silly.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P.
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:

Between them Caroline and M have every quality I hate in other women. I had a sort of despair for days afterwards, thinking how much of their rotten, pretentious blood I must have in me. Of course, there are times when I like Caroline. Her briskness. Her enthusiasm. Her kindness. And even all the pretentiousness that’s so horrid next to the real thing—well, it’s better than nothing. I used to think the world of her when she came to stay. I used to love staying with her. She backed me up when there was the great family war about my future. All that till I lived with her and saw through her. Grew up.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), G.P.
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:

People like your bloody aunt think I’m a cynic, a wrecker of homes. A rake. I’ve never seduced a woman in my life. I like bed, I like the female body, I like the way even the shallowest of women become beautiful when their clothes are off and they think they’re taking a profound and wicked step. They always do, the first time. Do you know what is almost extinct in your sex?

He looked sideways at me, so I shook my head.

Innocence.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P.
Page Number: 186-187
Explanation and Analysis:
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G.P. Quotes in The Collector

The The Collector quotes below are all either spoken by G.P. or refer to G.P.. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Power and Control Theme Icon
).
Part 2 Quotes

I know what I am to him. A butterfly he has always wanted to catch. I remember (the very first time I met him) G.P. saying that collectors were the worst animals of all. He meant art collectors, of course. I didn’t really understand, I thought he was just trying to shock Caroline—and me. But of course, he is right. They’re anti-life, anti-art, anti-everything.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P., Marian
Related Symbols: Clegg’s Butterfly Collection
Page Number: 129
Explanation and Analysis:

Upstairs, bedrooms, lovely rooms in themselves, but all fusty, unlived-in. A strange dead air about everything. Downstairs what he (he would) called “the lounge” is a beautiful room, much bigger than the other rooms, peculiarly square, you don’t expect it, with one huge crossbeam supported on three uprights in the middle of the room, and other crossbeams and nooks and delicious angles an architect wouldn’t think of once in a thousand years. All massacred, of course, by the furniture. China wild duck on a lovely old fireplace. I couldn’t stand it, I got him to retie my hands in front and then I unhooked the monsters and smashed them on the hearth.

That hurt him almost as much as when I slapped his face for not letting me escape.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P.
Page Number: 134
Explanation and Analysis:

7. But you don’t compromise with your background. You cut off all the old you that gets in the way of the maker you. If you’re suburban (as I realize D and M are—their laughing at suburbia is just a blind), you throw away (cauterize) the suburbs. If you’re working class, you cauterize the working class in you. And the same, whatever class you are, because class is primitive and silly.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P.
Page Number: 152
Explanation and Analysis:

Between them Caroline and M have every quality I hate in other women. I had a sort of despair for days afterwards, thinking how much of their rotten, pretentious blood I must have in me. Of course, there are times when I like Caroline. Her briskness. Her enthusiasm. Her kindness. And even all the pretentiousness that’s so horrid next to the real thing—well, it’s better than nothing. I used to think the world of her when she came to stay. I used to love staying with her. She backed me up when there was the great family war about my future. All that till I lived with her and saw through her. Grew up.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), G.P.
Page Number: 161
Explanation and Analysis:

People like your bloody aunt think I’m a cynic, a wrecker of homes. A rake. I’ve never seduced a woman in my life. I like bed, I like the female body, I like the way even the shallowest of women become beautiful when their clothes are off and they think they’re taking a profound and wicked step. They always do, the first time. Do you know what is almost extinct in your sex?

He looked sideways at me, so I shook my head.

Innocence.

Related Characters: Miranda Grey (speaker), Frederick Clegg, G.P.
Page Number: 186-187
Explanation and Analysis: