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Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) | 
 enlarge | Author: William Golding
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $6.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  1277 reviews
Sales Rank: 3363
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.9 x 0.7
ISBN: 0140283331
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780140283334
ASIN: 0140283331
Publication Date: October 1, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
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, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: "He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet." Golding's gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition. --Jennifer Hubert
Product Description
These deluxe editions are packaged with French flaps, acid-free paper, and rough front.
"This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man's return. . . to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge. . . Superbly written." --The New York Times
Other Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century:
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
My Antonia by Willa Cather
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
White Noise by Don DeLillo
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1272 more reviews...
 "To express mankind's essential illness..." December 27, 2008
One of those I wish I'd read earlier in life - but there it was on vacation with me and I couldn't put it down. What an amazing clarity Golding had here. The entire story - from the plane going down through the attempts to establish "civilization" & order on the island - to the devolvement of everything human - the language is compelling and transitions effective. The love and the hate between the two lead boys - Ralph & Jack - is stunning and believable. And everything related to Simon pulled hard on my heart. I loved this book - and so went out and picked up another Golding book to ready.
One of the best books I've read December 22, 2008
I loved this book because it tells the story of true human nature. It was completely different from what I had expected it to be, and there are some funny moments too. Read this!
Lost Innocence November 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It was a very well written novel. Although I believe the beginning started really slow and did not grab my attention right a way, but as I kept going the book became more and more interesting. Golding sure knows how to make a huge plot flow and was able to create a huge conflict for the story. The conflict in the end teaches some very valuable life lessons for the reader and the characters.
Golding expressed each character extremely well. Each character was unique. The only characters that were very similar were the twins, but they were like one character rather than two characters. The four main characters Ralph, Piggy, Simon, and Jack all add to the story. Ralph is the elected leader and he believes very much in keeping order and government. Ralph also wishes to be rescued and builds a signal fire. (Which becomes a source of many future disputes) Jack is Ralph's opposite because he just wishes to hunt, have fun, and is tremendously power hungry. Piggy is the kid who everyone picks on, the misfit, but he very logical and applies sense to the tough situation they are in. Simon rarely does anything wrong. He is always there to help Ralph, but is sort of a loner compared to the rest of the schoolboys.
In the beginning, a group of schoolboys are stranded on an uncharted island and are forced to fend for themselves. At first they try to run a form of government. Which is considerably hard when no adults are there to enforce the rules and as result chaos breaks out. When the boys were thrust into this sort of situation it caused them to grow and mature very rapid. None of them will leave the island the same boy they came to the island as. It shows the dark side of reality and forces us to except the truth is that even the most innocent will fall to evil one day. (Simon) As the boys were taken off the island at the end they all left behind one thing, their innocence.
After reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding I say that it was a great book. I highly recommend it and if you are contemplating putting it down DO NOT it only gets better as it goes on!
Lord of the Flies Book Review By Conlan Mueller November 11, 2008
Lord of the Flies By William Golding: Book Review
By: Conlan Mueller
The author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding, has many ways of showing the meaning of the book. The terrible human quality that man has, turning savage, doing anything for his own survival, in times of great crisis. Golding shows this point in many ways. He uses a variety of metaphors throughout the story. Golding also bluntly shows this in the book. Golding was born in Cornwall, England in 1911. Lord of the Flies was William Golding's first novel out of many, published in 1954. Peter Brooke made a movie, The Lord of the Flies in 1963. After The Lord of the Flies Golding wrote a variety of novels, essays, and plays. He also won the "Booker Prize" for one of his novels, Rites of Passage. William Golding lived eighty-two years and died in 1993. Golding does a great job of demonstrating his point of the tale, using school children representing mankind. One of the great ways he does so is with a simple conch shell that represents so much. In the beginning, the children use the conch shell to call a meeting, staying civilized. This is why when the shell shatters it is such a beautiful metaphor for all hopes of civilization being shattered and crushed at the same time. A different approach that Golding takes to simply represent this point is just stating that the children turned into a tribe of savages. Just using the word tribe throughout the story to talk about the group of children is a simple yet effective way that Golding establishes his point. The novel, Lord of the Flies has various strengths and weaknesses. One strength in this book is the use of many brilliant physical and psychological metaphors throughout the story. Though I couldn't establish many weaknesses of this book, I do think that William Golding could have elaborated a little bit more on the background and future of the children of the island. That is just my view though. Overall I believe that Lord of the Flies is beautifully written and does a wonderful job of illustrating this terrible characteristic of mankind.
 School review November 2, 2008
Lord of the Flies is a very different book. Though the words are clear and easy to read it isn't exactly the easiest book to understand. The story line has so many different symbols, that u have to read each and every line to understand. There were times while i read this book that i had to go back and re-read what i had previously read.
Even though this book is hard to understand i still say it was a good book. I loved the vivid images that Golding described. I was able to create pictures in my mind as i read. Again i did have difficulty with some of the symbols but when I thought about it for a while it got easier. It really shows just how destructive mankind can be in situations that require calmness. I'm glad to have read this book though not by choice I still think that it was an amazing book proving that no matter how we act or how someone might think they act even the hardest of situations can tear you down to that savage instinct that everyone has.
-K.D. Mrs.Strey honors english III
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