Books by william golding

A plane crashes on a desert island and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assemble on the beach and wait to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys' delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive, and their... ...Read More »

From the author of Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors is a startling recreation of the lost world of the Neanderthals, and a frightening vision of the beginnings of a new age. ...Read More »

Dean Jocelin has a vision: that God has chosen him to erect a great spire on his cathedral. His mason anxiously advises against it, for the old cathedral was built without foundations. Nevertheless, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, until the stone pillars shriek and the ground beneath it swims. Its shadow falls ever darker on the world below, and on Dean Jocelin in parti... ...Read More »

Drowning in the freezing North Atlantic, Christopher Hadley Martin, temporary lieutenant, happens upon a grotesque rock, an island that appears only on weather charts. To drink there is a pool of rain water; to eat there are weeds and sea-anemones. Through the long hours with only himself to talk to, Martin must try to assemble the truth of his fate, piece by terrible piece. ...Read More »

In the cabin of an ancient, stinking warship bound for Australia, a man writes a journal to entertain his godfather back in England. With wit and disdain he records mounting tensions on board, as an obsequious clergyman attracts the animosity of the tyrannical captain and surly crew. ...Read More »

When the spring came the people - what was left of them - moved back by the old paths from the sea. But this year strange things were happening, terrifying things that had never happened before. There were inexplicable sounds and smells, new, unimaginable creatures half-glimpsed through the leaves: a new race of men and women. Though they did not know it yet, though they were never really to know ... ...Read More »

Dean Jocelin has a vision that God has chosen him to erect a great spire on his cathedral. The masons anxiously advise against it, and things have happened around the cathedral which it is better not to question men too closely about. But, without foundations, the spire rises octagon upon octagon, pinnacle by pinnacle, until the stone pillars shriek and the ground beneath it swims. Its shadow fall... ...Read More »

Oliver is eighteen, and wants to enjoy himself before going to university. But this is the 1920s, and he lives in Stilbourne, a small English country town, where everyone knows what everyone else is getting up to, and where love, lust and rebellion are closely followed by revenge and embarrassment. Written with great perception and subtlety, The Pyramid is Golding's funniest and most light-hearted... ...Read More »

Lord of the Flies , William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island, is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ra... ...Read More »

The final part of Golding's "Sea Trilogy". A decrepit man-of-war is on the last stretch of its voyage to Sydney, blown off course and battered by wind, storm and ice. After a risky operation to reset its foremast with red-hot metal, an unseen fire is smouldering below decks. ...Read More »

Following "Rites of Passage", this is second of Golding's "Sea Trilogy". Half-way to Australia in a wilderness of heat, stillness and sea mists, a ball is held on a becalmed ship. In this surreal atmosphere the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them thickets of weed spread over the hull. ...Read More »

In the cabin of an ancient, stinking warship bound for Australia, a man writes a journal to entertain his godfather back in England. With wit and disdain he records mounting tensions on board, as an obsequious clergyman attracts the animosity of the tyrannical captain and surly crew. ...Read More »

A short novel, left in draft form when the author died suddenly in 1993. Portraying a woman's experience - something rare in Golding's oeuvre - the story features one of his finest creations, Arieka the Pythia. ...Read More »

This is a one-volume edition of the sequence of three novels set in the early 19th century, about a sea voyage from England to Australia. "Rites of Passage" won the Booker Prize. ...Read More »

The classic tale of a group of English school boys who are left stranded on an unpopulated island, and who must confront not only the defects of their society but the defects of their own natures.,William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, t... ...Read More »

A dazzlingly dark novel by the Nobel Laureate.

At the height of the London blitz, a naked child steps out of an all-consuming fire. Miraculously saved yet hideously scarred, tormented at school and at work, Matty becomes a wanderer, a seeker after some unknown redemption. Two more lost children await him: twins as exquisite as they are loveless. Toni dabbles in political violence, Sophy in ... ...Read More »

"I was standing up, pressed back against the wall, trying not to breathe. I got there in the one movement my body made. My body had many hairs on legs and belly and chest and head, and each had its own life; each inherited a hundred thousand years of loathing and fear for things that scuttle or slide or crawl." from Free FallSammy Mountjoy, artist, rises from poverty and an obscure birth to see hi... ...Read More »

Golding's best-known novel is the story of a group of boys who, after a plane crash, set up a fragile community on a previously uninhabited island. As memories of home recede and the blood from frenzied pig-hunts arouses them, the boys' childish fear turns into something deeper and more primitive. ...Read More »

A classic study of the depths of human nature follows the degeneration of a group of British schoolboys, who abandon social norms and revert to barbarism and murder after they are marooned on a desert island. Read by Tim Pigott-Smith. Simultaneous.",William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant... ...Read More »

In the PENGUIN STUDY NOTES series and originally published in 1986 as GOLDING'S LORD OF THE FLIES, a study guide to the novel, aimed at those preparing for the GCSE examination. It includes character studies, summaries of the plot with examinations of the background and major themes, as well as suggesting topics for discussion.,William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys wh... ...Read More »