Most Popular Books by William Golding

William Golding’s profound tale of stranded youth, survival, and the shadowy depths of human nature, with an afterword by Lois Lowry “Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite books. I still read it every couple of years.”—Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games trilogy At the dawn of the next World War, a plane crash strands a group of schoolboys on a remote island. There are no grownups. No rules. Freedom is celebrated. But when strange, distant noises and visions of a beast begin to haunt the boys, their fragile order unravels, and all hopes of rescue fade. Since 1954, William Golding’s Lord of the Flies has shaped our understanding of human nature—the latent darkness within, and the destructive or creative capacity of collective will. This edition also includes Suggestions for Further Exploration by Jennifer Buehler to contextualize Golding’s classic as one of the most timeless and socially relevant texts in the last century of literature.

The classic novel by William Golding With a new Introduction by Stephen King "To me Lord of the Flies has always represented what novels are for, what makes them indispensable." -Stephen King Golding''s classic, startling, and perennially bestselling portrait of human nature remains as provocative today as when it was first published. This beautiful new edition features French flaps and rough fronts, making it a must-have for fans of this seminal work. William Golding''s compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first it seems as though it is all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious and life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic and death. As ordinary standards of behaviour collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible. Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was first published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger''s The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought and literature. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a true classic.

A final draft of Nobel Laureate William Golding''s last novel, published two years after his sudden death in 1993. The story explores the relationships between the mystical, the sacred, and the profane in ancient Greece through an octogenarian prophetess''s account of her life from birth onward. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Lord Of The Flies Is A Study On The Nature Of Evil And The Form In Which It Is Expressed In Modern Society. What Author Tries To Show In The Novel Is That Violence Is Built Into Our System, Into Our Genes And In Our Blood, And That Age Has Little To Do When The Innate Violence Would Erupt.

"El señor de las moscas" es Premio Nobel de Literatura 1983, una fábula moral acerca de la condición humana. Urdida en torno a la situación límite de una treintena de muchachos en una isla desierta, El Señor de las Moscas es una magnífica novela que admite lecturas diferentes e incluso opuestas. En efecto, si algunos pueden ver en esta indagación de William Golding en la condición humana la ilustración de que la agresividad criminal se halla entre los instintos básicos del hombre, otros podrán considerarla como una parábola que cuestiona un tipo de educación represiva que no hace sino incubar explosiones de barbarie prestas a estallar en cuanto los controles se relajan.

Succumb to a churchman’s apocalyptic vision in this prophetic tale by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by Benjamin Myers A Penguin Classic Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire. His master builder fearfully advises against it, for the old cathedral was miraculously built without foundations. But Jocelin is obsessed with fashioning his prayer in stone. As his halo of hair grows wilder and his dark angel darker, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, watched over by the gargoyles – until the stone pillars shriek, the earth beneath creeps, and the spire’s shadow falls like an axe on the medieval world below.

A dazzling collection of occasional writings by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist on subjects ranging from Thermopylae to the English Channel, and from Coral Island to Jules Verne. ''A book of occasional essays which afford us many fascinating insights into Golding the man . . .It is highly individual yet profoundly modest; it has an unusual, slightly angular candour, full of painful knowledge and a beautiful humanity . . . event the slightest piece bears the mark of his rare, austere mind, his remarkable imagination . . . Even these occasional essays are enough to remind us that . . . there is not, at the moment, a writer to touch him.'' New Society

Lose yourself in an epic naval journey in the second novel in the Booker Prize-winning historical fiction Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies. This tropical nowhere was the whole world - the whole imaginable world. A decrepit warship is becalmed halfway to Australia, stilled in an ocean wilderness of heat and sea mists. In this surreal, fête-like atmosphere, a ball is held with a passing ship: the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them seaweed like green hair spreads omniously over the hull. Half-mad with fear, drink, love and opium, both vessel and passengers feel themselves going to pieces: and the very planks seem to twist themselves alive as the ship comes apart at the seams . . . ''Fantastic ... Gems tumble off the pages ... A strong sense of drama ... Much of the pleasure of reading his work is his original imagery.'' Annie Proulx ''No living writer has represented the fragility of man''s experience so marvellously as Golding.'' AS Byatt ''It is in Golding''s magnificent, therapeutic, terrifying descriptions of seascapes that the deepest meanings can be found.'' Kate Mosse ''Stunning . . . As exciting as any thriller.'' Sunday Times ''A feat of imaginative reconstruction, as vivid as a dream.'' Daily Mail ''Tells an utterly absorbing tale, in language of immense force and subtlety.'' Financial Times To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book Two

Introduced by Annie Proulx, l ose yourself in an epic naval journey in this Booker Prize-winning novel: the first in the acclaimed Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies. I grow a little crazy, I think, like all men at sea who live too close to each other and too close thereby to all that is monstrous under the sun and moon . . . Edmund Talbot is sailing to Australia in the early nineteenth century. In his journal, he records mounting tensions aboard the ancient, stinking warship, as officers, sailors, soldiers and emigrants jostle in the cramped darkness below decks. But when something happens to Reverend Colley that brings him into a ''hell of self-degradation'', it seems that shame is a force deadlier than the sea itself . . . ''It is the emotional veracity of life at sea that powers Golding''s exceptional writing ... The fury, mystery and challenge of life on board .'' Kate Mosse ''Golding writes the past as present [with] uncanny skill and tremendous intuition.'' Ben Okri ''A master at the full stretch of his age and wisdom - necessary, provoking, urgent, rich, complex and rare.'' The Times ''Golding''s best and most accessible story since Lord of the Flies .'' Melvyn Bragg ''An extraordinary novel.'' Observer To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book One

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way towards the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another. Descriptor(s): WESTERNS | LITERARY TEXTS | LITERARY CRITICISM | LITERARY ANALYSIS | LITERARY STYLE | LITTERATEURS | BIOGRAPHIES | MODERN AGE | UNITED KINGDOM

English novelist Wilfred Barclay, who has known fame, success, and fortune, is in crisis. He faces a drinking problem slipping over the borderline into alcoholism, a dead marriage, and the incurable itch of middle age lust. But the final, unbearable irritation is American Professor of English Literature Rick L. Tucker, who is implacable in his determinition to become The Barclay Man: authorized biographer, editor of the posthumous papers and the recognized authority.

Hideously scarred and orphaned during the bombing of London, Matty sees himself as set apart from others, and his wanderings bring him into contact with Mr. Pedigree, a respected teacher and obsessed pederast, and Sophy and Toni, angelic-looking terrorist twins