Lord of the Flies (Lord of the Flies - William Golding)

Member Name: Macfarlane65

Product:	Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Date:	06/07/09 (30 review reads)
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This is a very famous book and, remarkably, a first novel by its author. Having served in the War and only at its end found the extent of the Nazi brutality, he eventually put his thoughts on the nature and origin of evil into this book. It was a theme he returned to many times in later works. This is a 'Coral Island' kind of story, but with a realistic approach to how the boys actually might behave. Initial heady excitement gives way to fear and terror, which drive them to horrible cruelty - Simon the visionary is killed, so is Piggy the pragmatist, and so too would Ralph be were it not for adult intervention from, ironically, a world outside which is tearing iteself to pieces in war. Golding's ear for dialogue and his extraordinary descriptive skill help to make this one of the great novels of the 20th. century - look at the terribly sad but incredibly beautiful short passage in which the dead Simon is borne out to sea by the tiny sea creatures, for example - but it is also a compelling read, and it is horribly easy to be convinced that the events described could happen just as they are described, and that they are paralleled day by day in some part of our own world. It's a wonderful book and an important one.

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