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William Golding

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William Golding


Born
in Newquay, Cornwall, England
September 19, 1911

Died
June 19, 1993

Website

Genre
Fiction

Influences
Euripides, R.M. Ballantyne ...more


Sir William Gerald Golding was an Engish novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.

As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945". ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.7 · 3,344,325 ratings · 76,481 reviews · 157 distinct works • Similar authors
Lord of the Flies
3.71 avg rating — 3,310,535 ratings — published 1954 — 12 editions
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Lord of the Flies: The Grap...
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4.29 avg rating — 5,936 ratings — published 2024 — 23 editions
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The Inheritors
3.52 avg rating — 5,961 ratings — published 1955 — 148 editions
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Rites of Passage (To the En...
3.57 avg rating — 4,603 ratings — published 1980 — 5 editions
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The Spire
3.49 avg rating — 4,397 ratings — published 1964 — 129 editions
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Pincher Martin
3.55 avg rating — 2,703 ratings — published 1956 — 102 editions
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Darkness Visible
3.49 avg rating — 1,819 ratings — published 1979 — 56 editions
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Free Fall
3.67 avg rating — 1,544 ratings — published 1959 — 116 editions
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The Double Tongue
3.45 avg rating — 1,194 ratings — published 1995
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The Pyramid
3.31 avg rating — 1,121 ratings — published 1967 — 32 editions
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More books by William Golding…

Series by William Golding

Rites of Passage Close Quarters Fire Down Below
(3 books)
by
3.67 avg rating — 6,448 ratings

Quotes by William Golding  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
3583 likes
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“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies
1606 likes
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“My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.”
― William Golding
tags: past, yesterday
1094 likes
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Polls

If you could bring any deceased author back from the dead to write some more books, who would it be? (Fill in your answers below).

JRR Tolkein
Jrr Tolkien
 
  12 votes, 21.4%

All those and Frank Herbert, H. G. Wells, Maya Angelou, Louisa May Alcott, Ann Radcliffe, Daphne du Maurier, Anne McCaffney, Octavia E. Butler, Madeleine L’Engle, P. D. James, Shirley Jackson, Ann Radcliffe, and so many more. (write-in)
 
  8 votes, 14.3%

Jane Austen
Jane Austen
 
  5 votes, 8.9%

Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
 
  4 votes, 7.1%

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
 
  3 votes, 5.4%

Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

F Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

George Orwell
George Orwell
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

Agatha Christie (write-in)
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

Raymond Chandler (write-in)
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

Maya Angelou (write-in)
 
  2 votes, 3.6%

Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Jules Verne
Jules Verne
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Frank Yerby (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Daphne Du Maurier (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Isaac Asimov
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Edgar Allan Poe (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Alexandre Dumas
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Ray Bradbury (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Jovan Autonomaševič (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Emily Bronte
Emily Brontë
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Mark Twain
Mark Twain
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

William Golding
William Golding
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Harper Lee
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

56 total votes
More...

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