Lord of the Flies

William Golding

Mar 2012 · Faber & Faber

About this ebook

The dystopian classic, introduced by Stephen King. W hen a group of schoolboys are stranded on a desert island, what could go wrong?
ONE OF THE BBC'S '100 NOVELS THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD'
'The first book with hands - strong ones that reached out of the pages and seized me by the throat. It said to me, 'This is not just entertainment; it's life or death.' ... I've been thinking about it ever since, for fifty years and more.' Stephen King
'One of my favorite books - I read it every couple of years.' Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games
What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What's grown-ups going to think? Going off-hunting pigs-letting fires out-and now!
A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. By day, they explore the dazzling beaches, gorging fruit, seeking shelter, and ripping off their uniforms to swim in the lagoon. At night, in the darkness of the jungle, they are haunted by nightmares of a primitive beast. Orphaned by society, they must forge their own; but it isn't long before their innocent games devolve into a murderous hunt ...
'Thrills me with all the power a fiction can have ... Exemplary.' Ian McEwan
'An existential fable backlit with death's incandescent glare.' Ben Okri
'Violently real ... An apocalyptic novelist [who writes with] humanist rage and defiance.' Marlon James
'Beautifully written, tragic and provocative.' E. M. Forster
'A fragment of nightmare.' New Statesman
'A post-apocalyptic, dystopian survivor-fantasy ... [A novel] for all time ... A cult classic.' Guardian
'Stands out mightily ... Such a strong statement about the human heart.' Patricia Cornwell
'Terrifying and haunting.' Kingsley Amis
What readers are saying:
' Every real human being should read this ... This is what we are.'
' It's brilliant, it's captivating, it's thought provoking and brutal and for some, its truly terrifying.'
'I t can be read and re-read many times, and every time something new will appear.'
' There is a reason why this is studied at school ... Excellent read.'
' This is one of the few books I've read that I keep on my Kindle to read again.'
'I revisit this every few years and it's always fresh and impressive ... One of the best books I've ever read.'

Ratings and reviews

It began as a chore, with its very simple choices of language and its even simpler style of writing. A famous epic renowned, so I thought I'd give it a shot. The story unfolded as expected, but despite this the horrors that were beheld to the island and of the human heart. The story that seemed more like a social experiment than a story, the connection between our own inner demons.

Perhaps reading this out of choice, rather than as some highschool assignment made all the difference. My only regret is that I hadn't picked up this book sooner.

I read this book when I was in high school. Good book to start with for new readers. A bit horrifying at moments I must say !!

About the author

William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated in Marlborough and Oxford. Before becoming a writer, he was an actor, lecturer, small-boat sailor, musician and schoolteacher. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and took part in the D-Day operation and invasion of Holland. Lord of the Flies , his first novel, was rejected by several publishers but rescued from the 'slush pile' at Faber and published in 1954. It became a modern classic selling millions of copies, translated into 35 languages and made into a film by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding wrote eleven other novels, a play and two essay collections. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988 and died in 1993. Recently, the Times ranked Golding third on their list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945. www.william-golding.co.uk