Lord of the Flies
Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by Nobel Prize–winning British author William Golding. The book focuses on a group of British boys stranded on an uninhabited island and their disastrous attempt to govern themselves. Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality. The novel has been generally well received. It was named in the Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching number 41 on the editor's list, and 25 on the reader's list. In 2003 it was listed at number 70 on the BBC's The Big Read poll, and in 2005 Time magazine named it as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. Time also included the novel in its list of the 100 Best Young-Adult Books of All Time. Popular reading in schools, especially in the English-speaking world, a 2016 UK poll saw Lord of the Flies ranked third in the nation's favourite books from school. (From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_the_Flies)
Themes & atmosphere
Books in conversation with Lord of the Flies
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What you might want to know about Lord of the Flies
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
A plane evacuating British schoolboys crashes on an uninhabited island. With no adults, the boys try to govern themselves around a conch shell. Within a few weeks, they are hunting one another.
Yes. Lord of the Flies has been one of the most frequently challenged books in American schools since the 1960s, primarily for violence, language, and disturbing imagery. It remains widely taught despite the challenges.
Lord of the Flies is fictional. A real-life shipwreck case in 1965 (six Tongan boys stranded on a remote island for over a year) is sometimes cited as a counter-example: those boys cooperated and survived, unlike Golding's fiction.
Lord of the Flies was written by William Golding, published in 1954 by Perigee.
Lord of the Flies is 243 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Lord of the Flies takes most readers 4 to 5 hours to finish.
Lord of the Flies is a standalone novel by William Golding, not part of a series.
Lord of the Flies is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.