Withdrawn, uneducated and unloved, Frederick collects butterflies and takes photographs. Then he captures the art student Miranda and keeps her in the cellar of the large house where he patiently waits for the barriers of class and taste to break down in the limbo of their isolation. She, the creator, desperate...

In the title story in this collection of five novellas, a journalist visits a celebrated but reclusive painter. He is intrigued by the complicated erotic relationship between the elderly artist and the beautiful young women who share their lives with him.

As part of Back Bay's ongoing effort to make the works of John Fowles available in uniform trade paperback editions, two major works in the Fowles canon are reissued to coincide with the publication of Wormholes, the author's long-awaited new collection of essays and occasional writings. Perhaps the most beloved of Fowles's internationally bestselling works, The French Lieutenant's Woman is a feat of seductive storytelling that effectively invents anew the Victorian novel. Filled with enchanting mysteries and magically erotic possibilities (New York Times), the novel inspired the hugely successful 1981 film starring Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons and is today universally regarded as a modern classic. In A Maggot, originally published in 1985, Fowles reaches back to the eighteenth century to offer readers a glimpse into the future. Time magazine called the result hypnotic... A remarkable achievement. Part detective story, part crackling courtroom drama... An immensely rich and readable novel.