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A novel set on an unnamed island in the Pacific Ocean presumably in the 1940s; published in 1954.
by William Golding
Synopsis
After a plane carrying a group of English schoolboys crashes on a deserted island, its young survivors are forced to confront the savagery found in both their environment and themselves.
The Novel in Focus
Events in History at the Time of the Novel
After earning his degree from England's Oxford University in 1935, William Golding became a schoolmaster at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, where he taught English and Greek literature in translation. Soon afterward, the outbreak of World War II inspired him to join the Royal Navy, first as an ordinary seaman but later as the commander of a small rocket-launching craft directly involved in the sinking of the German ship the Bismarck and the notorious D-Day assault. From these experiences-supplemented by elements from his days as a schoolmaster-Golding found inspiration to create his landmark novel Lord of the Flies.
For More Information
Biles, Jack I. Talk: Conversations with William Golding. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970.
Dick, Bernard F. William Golding: Revised Edition. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
Fahey, James J. Pacific War Diary, 1942-1945. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1963.
Golding, William. Lord of the Flies. New York: Putnam, 1954.
Hall, Walter Phelps, Robert Greenhalgh Albion, and Jennie Barnes Pope. A History of England and the Empire-Commonwealth. 5th ed. Waltham, Mass.: Xerox College Publishing, 1971.
Miller, Nathan. War at Sea: A Naval History of World War II. New York: Scribners, 1995.
Nelson, William. William Golding's Lord of the Flies: A Source Book. New York: Odyssey, 1963.
Reily, Patrick. Lord of the Flies: Fathers and Sons. New York: Twayne, 1992.
Literature and Its Times © 1997 Joyce Moss and George Wilson © 2007 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
