Staff Pick
In this bleak tale of a community gone awry, a group of schoolboys are stranded on a deserted island. The untenable situation soon devolves into chaos and horror. The ending is surprising and satisfying. Golding's creepy story is amazing! Recommended By Dianah H., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The 50th Anniversary Edition of the Lord of the Flies is the volume that every fan of this classic book will have to own!
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. And now readers can own it in a beautifully designed hardcover edition worthy of its stature.
Review
"
Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite books. That was a big influence on me as a teenager, I still read it every couple of years."
--Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games
Review
"
Lord of the Flies is one of my favorite books. That was a big influence on me as a teenager, I still read it every couple of years."
—Suzanne Collins, author of The Hunger Games
"As exciting, relevant, and thought-provoking now as it was when Golding published it in 1954."
—Stephen King
"The most influential novel...since Salinger's Catcher in the Rye."
—Time
"This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man's return (in a few weeks) to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge. Fully to succeed, a fantasy must approach very close to reality. Lord of the Flies does. It must also be superbly written. It is."
—The New York Times Book Review
"Sparely and elegantly written...Lord of the Flies is a grim anti-pastoral in which adults are disguised as children who replicate the worst of their elders' heritage of ignorance, violence, and warfare."
—Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books
Synopsis
1st Perigee hardcover ed., [50th anniversary ed.].
About the Author
Born in Cornwall, England, in 1911 and educated at Oxford University, William Gerald Golding's first book, Poems, was published in 1935. Following a stint in the Royal Navy and other diversions during and after World War II, Golding wrote Lord of the Flies while teaching school. This was the first of several novels including Pincher Martin, Free Fall, and The Inheritors and a play, The Brass Butterfly, which led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
Table of Contents
Lord of the Flies
Introduction by E. M. Forster one
The Sound Of The Shell
two
Fire On The Mountain
three
Huts On The Beach
four
Painted Faces And Long Hair
five
Beast From Water
six
Beast From Air
seven
Shadows and Tall Trees
eight
Gift For The Darkness
nine
A View To A Death
ten
The Shell And The Glasses
eleven
Castle Rock
twelve
Cry Of The Hunters
Notes
Critical Analysis