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
Before The Hunger Games there was Lord of the Flies
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.
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 themthe world of cricket and homework and adventure storiesand another world is revealed beneath, primitive and terrible. 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.
"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
Review
"The most influential novel...since Salinger's Catcher in the Rye." Time
Review
"Lord of the Flies [is my selection for The Book That Changed My Life] because it is both a story with a message and because it is a great tale of adventure. My advice about reading is to do a lot of it." Stephen King, for the National Book Foundation, The Book That Changed My Life
Review
"[T]his 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 apprach very close to reality. Lord of the Flies does. It must also be superbly written. It is." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"Like any orthodox moralist Golding insists that Man is a fallen creature, but he refuses to hypostatize Evil or to locate it in a dimension of its own. On the contrary Beelzebub, Lord of the Flies, is Roger and Jack and you and I, ready to declare himself as soon as we permit him to." John Peter, Kenyon Review
Review
"[S]parely 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
Review
"Beyond the many biblical allusions and its searing parable of the folly of being human, Lord of the Flies is simply a cracking good adventure story....While the prose remains fresh and furious, with a nearly breakneck pace that sends the reader hurtling through its pages, Golding's theme of society's defects stemming from the nature of mankind is nothing less than timeless." Chris Bolton, Powells.com (read the entire Powells.com review)
Synopsis
Golding s iconic 1954 novel, now with a new foreword by Lois Lowry, remains one of the greatest books ever written for young adults and an unforgettable classic for readers of any age.
This edition includes a new Suggestions for Further Reading by Jennifer Buehler.
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued."
Synopsis
Golding's iconic 1954 novel remains one of the greatest books ever written for young adults and an unforgettable classic for readers of any age
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.
Synopsis
Originally published in 1954, William Golding's
Lord of the Flies is one of the most disturbing and celebrated novels of modern times.
A plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of schoolboys. At first they revel in the freedom and celebrate the absence of grown-ups. Soon though, as the boys' fragile sense of order begins to collapse, their fears start to take on a sinister, primitive significance. Suddenly, the world of cricket, homework and adventure stories seems a long way away. The boys are faced with a more pressing reality — survival — and the appearance of a terrifying beast who haunts their dreams.
Synopsis
Before
The Hunger Games there was
Lord of the Flies
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.
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.