For his novels which, with the perspicuity
of realistic narrative art and the diversity and
universality of myth, illuminate the human
condition in the world of today…
William Gerald Golding is a prominent English novelist, essayist and poet, and the winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize for literature. In many novels Golding has revealed the dark places of human heart, when isolated individuals or small groups are pushed into extreme situations.Golding's often allegorical fiction makes broad use of allusions to classical literature, mythology, and Christian symbolism. Although no distinct thread unites his novels and his technique varies, Golding deals principally with evil and emerges with what has been characterized as a kind of dark optimism.
William Golding was born in the
From 1935 to 1939, Golding worked as a writer, actor, producer, and a settlement house worker. In 1939 he moved to
During World War II, Golding served in the Royal Navy in command of a rocket ship. His active service included involvement in the sinking of the German battleship
In Salisbury Golding wrote four books, but did not get them published. LORD OF THE FLIES, an allegorical story set in the near future during wartime, was turned down by twenty-one publishes until it finally appeared in 1954. E.M. Forster named it the Book of the Year and in the late 1950s it became a bestseller among American readers. At the time of its appearance, Golding was 44, but the success of the novel allowed him to give up teaching.
In the gripping story a group of small British boys, stranded on a desert island, lapse into violence after they have lost all adult guidance. Ironically, the adult world is devastated by nuclear war. Golding's first novel, LORD OF THE FLIES (1954; film, 1963), introduced one of the recurrent themes of his fiction--the conflict between humanity's innate barbarism and the civilizing influence of reason. The theme of LORD OF THE FLIES has been questioned and speculated about for decades. To answer the critics, Golding said that the theme was to trace the problems of society back to the sinful nature of man. He wrote the book to show how political systems cannot govern society effectively without first taking into consideration the defects of human nature.
The defects of human nature are exemplified in Golding’s novel through the characters of Jack and his hunters. Here, Golding shows that men are inherently evil; if left alone to fend for themselves, they will revert back to the savage roots of their ancestors. It is seen in the novel in the end, when the tribe is hunting Ralph. Matters had become quite out of hand by this time. Even the naval officer who saves the boys knows their society has become savage.
Golding got the idea for the book because of his experiences in the war, where he served in the Navy and learned the inherent sinfulness of man. It’s interesting that the war is mentioned indirectly at the beginning and end of the novel but nowhere in between. This is a remarkable literary device of Golding.
According to Golding’s view, anarchy defeats order. This is the outcome because Golding believed that government is an ineffective way to keep people together. No matter how logical or reasonable, government will eventually have to give in to the anarchical demands of the public.
The INHERITORS (1955), Golding’s next novel, reaches into prehistory, advancing the thesis that humankind's evolutionary ancestors, "the fire-builders," triumphed over a gentler race as much by violence and deceit as by natural superiority.
In PINCHER MARTIN (1956) and FREE FALL (1959), Golding explores fundamental problems of existence, such as survival and human freedom, using dreamlike narratives and flashbacks. PINCHER MARTIN was story of a naval officer, Christopher Hadley Martin, who faces death after his ship is torpedoed. FREE FALL was set in contemporary society. Sammy Mountjoy, the narrator, is an artist, who looks back over his past to find the crossroads of his life, and the moment he lost his freedom.
The SPIRE (1964) is an allegory concerning the hero's obsessive determination to build a great cathedral spire regardless of the consequences. Jocelin, a medieval dean, has decided to erect a 400-foot spire to the top of the catdedral before his death. But its construction causes sacrifice of others, treachery, and murder; the Dean's own faith is tested. From this novel Golding's work developed into three directions: novels dealing with contemporary society without mythical substructure, the metaphysical novels in which the theme of fall from innocence into guilt was central, and sea novels imitating an 18th-century style. Golding also used in his works ideas familiar from science fiction, such as the origin of man, nuclear holocaust, and highly advanced inventions.
Among Golding's later works are DARKNESS VISIBLE (which exposes the struggle between good and evil is set in a modern context mixing terrorism with naïve saintliness, sexuality, and incessant attempts to escape from the mundane. The picaresque hero, Mattie, dreadfully maimed by fire, suffers and survives in a cruel world. He and the twins Sophie and Toni, who are equally maimed spiritually, move towards a climactic reckoning amid another fire) and the historical trilogy RITES OF PASSAGE (1980), which portrayed life abroad an ancient ship of the line at the end of the Napoleonic War. It was awarded the Booker Prize. Other parts of the trilogy, narrated by young Edmund FitzHenry Talbot, were CLOSE QUARTERS (1987) and FIRE DOWN BELOW (1989). The author seems intent on making the ship's voyage parallel what is supposed to be Talbot's inner voyage of self-discovery, but once the ship docks, the young man is little more than the opinionated fop he was at the novel's beginning.
THE PAPER MEN (1984), condemned by reviewers as Golding's worst work, was about the battle between the world-famous English novelist Wilfred Barclay and the American academic Rick L. Turner, who has decided to write Barclay's biography. "In this book, however, Barclay and Tucker are not only poorly defined as individuals, but are also wholly inadequate as symbols. They are indeed no more than paper men." (Michiko Kakutani, in The New York Times, March 26, 1984)
In 1961 Golding resigned from teaching and devoted himself entirely to writing. He lived quietly in Corwall, gaining the reputation of a mildly eccentric and reclusive person. In 1965 he received the honorary designation Commander of the British Empire (CBE), in 1983 he got the Nobel Prize for his LORD OF THE FLIES, and in 1988 he was knighted. Golding died in Perranarworthal on June 19, 1993. His last novel, THE DOUBLE TONGUE, left in draft at his death, was published in 1995. The story was set in the ancient
After his death in 1993 Golding left other material: his journal, running from 1971 until the night before his death; reminiscences; unpublished stories, plays, poems; and a large collection of letters from many correspondents. Many of these are being prepared for publication.
Selected works:
