Lord of the Flies

William Golding

Penguin, 1954 - Fiction - 208 pages

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 them—the world of cricket and homework and adventure stories—and 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

What people are saying

Review: Lord of the Flies

User Review  - Kudrat Kaur - Goodreads

A dark book displaying man's inherent evil. My favourite part? The ending - last page - the moment they've let go of all inhibitions and are then "saved", but are they really?

Review: Lord of the Flies

User Review  - Ashlea Staveley - Goodreads

Again, i had to read this book for school. At first i wasn't a whole lot into the book, with Ralph and Piggy being more of a sense predictable, but as the book went closer and closer to the end i ...

Contents

• The Sound of the Shell: 7
• Fire on the Mountain: 32
• Huts on the Beach: 48
• Painted Faces and Long Hair: 58
• Beast from Water: 76
• Beast from Air: 95
• Shadows and Tall Trees: 109
• Gift for the Darkness: 124
• A View to a Death: 145
• The Shell and the Glasses: 155
• Castle Rock: 169
• Cry of the Hunters: 183
• Notes on Lord of the Flies: 203

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.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Lord of the Flies; Volume 695 of A Perigee book; Volume 14 of A Putnam Capricorn book, Cap 14; A Wideview/Perigee book; Faber paperbacks; Volume 695 of Literature Perigee; Penguin Modern Classics; Volume 695 of Perigee literature; Young adult cliffhangers
• Author: William Golding
• Contributor: Edmund L. Epstein
• Edition: reprint, reissue
• Publisher: Penguin, 1954
• ISBN: 0399501487, 9780399501487
• Length: 208 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / Classics