Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

    "The boy with fair hair lowered himself 

down the last few feet of rock and began

to pick his way toward the lagoon..." 

      Few works in literature have received as much popular and critical attention as Nobel Laureate William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Since its publication in 1954, it has amassed a cult following, and has significantly contributed to our dystopian vision of the post-war era. When responding to the novel's dazzling power of intellectual insight, scholars and critics often invoke the works of Shakespeare, Freud, Rousseau, Sartre, Orwell, and Conrad.

      Golding's aim to "trace the defect of society back to the defect of human nature" is elegantly pursued in this gripping adventure tale about a group of British schoolboys marooned on a tropical island. Alone in a world of uncharted possibilities, devoid of adult supervision or rules, the boys attempt to forge their own society, failing, however, in the face of terror, sin, and evil. Part parable, allegory, myth, parody, political treatise, and apocalyptic vision, Lord of the Flies is perhaps the most memorable tale about "the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart."

 

William Golding

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Born: September 19, 1911 in St. Columb Minor, England, The United Kingdom

died: June 19, 1993

   Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the Booker   Prize for literature in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage, the first book of the trilogy To the Ends of the Earth.  In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7624.Lord_of_the_Flies_Penguin_Great_Books_of_the_20th_Century_