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Fiction Jayatee Bhattacharya, Lovely Professional University

Notes
Unit 24: William Golding — Lord of the Flies

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
24.1 William Golding—Lord of the Flies: Introduction to the Author
24.1.1 Introduction to the Author
24.2 William Golding — Lord of the Flies: Introduction to the Text

24.2.1 Introduction to the Lord of the Flies
24.3 Summary
24.4 Keywords
24.5 Review Questions
24.6 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Know the biography of william Golding

• Know about the novel “Lord of the flies”.

Introduction

Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of
British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results.
Its stances on the already-controversial subjects of human nature and individual welfare versus
the common good earned it position 68 on the American Library Association’s list of the 100
most frequently challenged books of 1990–1999. In 2005 the novel was chosen by TIME magazine
as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. It was awarded a place on
both lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching #41 on the editor’s list, and #25 on the
reader’s list.
Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first novel. Although it was not a great
success at the time—selling fewer than 3,000 copies in the United States during 1955 before
going out of print—it soon went on to become a best-seller, and by the early 1960s was
required reading in many schools and colleges; the novel is currently renowned for being a
popular choice of study for GCSE English Literature courses in the United Kingdom. It was
adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook, and again in 1990 by Harry Hook.

24.1 William Golding—Lord of the Flies: Introduction to the Author

24.1.1 Introduction to the Author

Sir William Gerald Golding was born in 1911 in Saint Columb Minor in Cornwall, England,
to Alec Golding, a socialist teacher who supported scientific rationalism, and Mildred Golding,

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