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The Inheritors

by William Golding

3.49 · rating details · 622 ratings · 79 reviews

Eight Neanderthals encounter another race of beings like themselves, yet strangely different. This new race, Homo sapiens, fascinating in their skills and sophistication, terrifying in their cruelty, sense of guilt, and incipient corruption, spell doom for the more gentle folk whose world they will inherit. Golding, author of Lord of the Flies, won the 1983 Nobel Prize for...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published September 25th 1963 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (first published 1955)

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Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Best Books of 1955

20th out of 43 books — 20 voters

The Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel

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Dec 25, 2007

Kim rated it

Recommends it for: those who have no hope for the human race

Shelves: depressing, evolution, fiction

Do you hate people and think they're all innately terrible? Yeah, so does Golding. The parallels to "The Lord of the Flies" were uncanny. The main difference being that THAT book was at least readable. Golding takes a creative plunge and shows us the world through the eyes of the last living Neanderthals (another branch of the hominid line - not our pre-human ancestors). He gets points for originality, but looses them when he proceeds to write a book without a comprehendable langu...more

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Dec 20, 2007

Matthew rated it

This might sound silly, but this small book of simple language confounded me. The story is told, not just by a Neanderthal, but by the dumbest Neanderthal in the book. His struggle to comprehend the changing world around him and to pin down the advanced technology of modern humans with concepts he could understand made parts of this story completely baffling. He sees boats as logs and paddles as leaves and representations of things as the real things they represent. It's a testament to Goldi...more

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Jan 27, 2008

Jeff rated it

· review of another edition

[from my book lover's journal at the time of reading:]
About 20 minutes after confused reading of about the first 20pp, i felt their personalities finally. It took time away from the words, away from the un-commaed sentences, away from the alien quote attributions, away from "I have a picture...." Still, i seem to lose them while reading. I'll carry on though, it's intriguing, compelling, well-written.

After reading it all, it felt complete but still befuddling in its a...more

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Dec 14, 2011

Ensiform rated it

Shelves: fiction, historical

The story of the gentle, mostly vegetarian Neanderthal tribe that is all but obliterated in a meeting with wandering Homo sapiens. Told almost entirely from the viewpoint of Lok, a slightly dim Neanderthal "with many words and no pictures," it’s an interesting story and a sad one.

But the power of the tale is softened considerably by Golding’s laborious, descriptive prose. At times I found it very hard to understand what was going on, as the Homo sapiens’ activities —-- drin...more

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Oct 17, 2011

Gavin Mcphillips rated it

The Inheritors by William Golding follows two species on their mission to survive. One species is more peaceful and inferior (neanderthals), and one more evolved and organized (homo-sapiens). There is an instant conflict as soon as the neanderthals and homo-sapiens come into contact. As the famished homo-sapiens attempt to hunt the neanderthals simply to survive. This creates serious problems for the neanderthals as they are slowly outsmarted and hunted down despite their best abilities to survi...more

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Aug 05, 2010

Jason rated it

Shelves: read-2010

What is impressive about this novel is its attempt to see the invading homosapiens from the point of view of the Neanderthal. What is frustrating is that these Neanderthals portrayed have less mental function than a monkey. When a raid on a small tribe kills most of the members and the small children are abducted, the two survivors go to the raiders to ask for the children back and it is only much later that they seem to grasp that things have gone wrong.

If you can get past the furth...more

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Mar 02, 2010

James rated it

I first considered reading The Inheritors by William Golding while reading Stephen King's book Hearts in Atlantis. In Hearts in Atlantis, the elderly escaped "breaker" Ted Brautigan suggested reading The Inheritors to his young friend Bobby, who had just completed reading Lord of the Flies, William Golding's first and more widely known book.

The Inheritors is a story about the last existing band of Neanderthals. Neanderthals were humanoid creatures that share a recent common a...moreI first considered reading The Inheritors by William Golding while reading Stephen King's book Hearts in Atlantis. In Hearts in Atlantis, the elderly escaped "breaker" Ted Brautigan suggested reading The Inheritors to his young friend Bobby, who had just completed reading Lord of the Flies, William Golding's first and more widely known book.

The Inheritors is a story about the last existing band of Neanderthals. Neanderthals were humanoid creatures that share a recent common ancestor with humans, but are an evolutionary offshoot. We are not their direct descendants. Neanderthals were wide spread throughout Asia and Europe and are believed to have faded from existence about 30,000 years ago.

The style of the writing in The Inheritors is intended to portray the thought process and language of a Neanderthal. The Neanderthal's vocabulary is adequate, but limited. Instead of fully formed thoughts, the Neanderthals have "pictures." There seems to be some form intuition amongst the Neanderthals, described as "sharing pictures." If one individual tries to share a concept with another, and they do not agree or understand, they say "I do not share this picture."

Golding also describes the culture and lifestyle of the Neanderthals. They are primitive hunter gatherers, illustrated by several scenes of eating mushrooms and grubs found in the forest. Also, a detailed description of collecting and cooking a scavenged deer that was killed by a wild cat is given. The Neanderthal tribe is hierarchical with a male patriarch that makes the decisions and a female matriarch that keeps the fire burning (they are unable to create fire, but can collect it and keep it burning when it occurs naturally) and prepares the food.They use the scavenged deer's stomach as a vessel to boil water and make soup.

The story takes place as the band of Neanderthals are settling into its usual summertime home on a rock shelf over looking a river. It is here that they encounter for the first time a tribe of early humans. The humans are more sophisticated in terms of their rituals and their technology. They are able to create fire and they have water vessels that allow them to inhabit an island in the middle of the river. The Neanderthals are very afraid of water since they have no clothing and are prone to hypothermia if they become wet.

The humans view the Neanderthals as Forest Devils and are quick to kill them when they can. Eventually, all the Neanderthals are killed, except for two small children that are taken captive and treated like pets.

I found this book enjoyable, well written, and thought provoking, however the style was somewhat difficult to read. A second read might be worthwhile.

I recommend this book to someone who has the time to the time and patience for it, but I would caution against using this as a scientific description of early humans and Neanderthals since it was written in the early 60's.(less)

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Nov 13, 2011

John Herceg rated it

William Golding imagines the world of the Neanderthal, during the moment in time when it is introduced to Homo Sapiens, and the consequences that ensue. Golding will capture the reader's interest and heart with this gripping tale of a clan of Neanderthals and their daily struggle to survive. Complicated by the urgent need to keep their fire lit (because they do not know how to make fire), their lack of an evolved language, and the ever-present dangers of the wild environment surrounding them, ...more

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Aug 04, 2010

Keith rated it

· review of another edition

Here is a tale of a primitive tribe nearing the end of its existence. A group of individuals so small, so isolated and so endangered that their potential for success is in doubt from the book’s beginning and their extinction is assumed at the end. Golding never identifies the individuals in this story. They may be among the last of the Neanderthals on earth or they may even be another, now unknown species but they are so absorbing because he allows the reader inside their minds. The intellec...more

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Sep 21, 2011

Ron Beffa rated it

This looked like an interesting older novel that I had never read before. Frankly I had a hard time with it. It is fairly rare that I get confused within a story but that happened multiple times within this one. I found much of the story confusing and I ended unsatisfied. The story is primarily told from the point of view of a small group of neanderthals. There are eight of them when the story begins. I liked how we are just immersed in the thoughts and behaviors of this small tribe. The neander...moreThis looked like an interesting older novel that I had never read before. Frankly I had a hard time with it. It is fairly rare that I get confused within a story but that happened multiple times within this one. I found much of the story confusing and I ended unsatisfied. The story is primarily told from the point of view of a small group of neanderthals. There are eight of them when the story begins. I liked how we are just immersed in the thoughts and behaviors of this small tribe. The neanderthals are not depicted as terribly intelligent. They seem repelled by new things. The story is primarily told from the point of view of Lok, a younger male, but he seems rather stupid compared to the other neanderthals.

It seems that in addition to the ability to speak somewhat simply, the neanderthals here have a form of telepathy to aid the speech and to share pictures from their minds. This gift appears to be very strong sometimes and intermittent at others. They also have a very enhanced sense of smell that lets them create and re-create scenes in their mind. Much seems to be made of this mental picture-making, and frankly I became more than a bit confused at various times with what was going on. The neanderthals seem to rely on this as a sort of mental history book and reference manual, and share with each other, but it also seems to be a way for the groupthink to imagine things from clues and puzzle stuff out and make plans. The bothersome part to me is theorizing this type of telepathy that exists with the neanderthals. It was a major issue in the novel, but I found it very confusing and it spoiled the story for me somewhat. This imagined neanderthal culture really came to life for me otherwise. The storytelling was very hard to follow at times, as we try to see the world as a neanderthal and things do not always make sense, at least to me. There were also rapid action sequences that I simply could not follow. Some becomes clearer as the story progresses, but not all, as I imagine was the author's intent to keep us aware of this "alien" viewpoint. This is overall a sad story of a dying race. This book certainly tried to tell a story in a new way, but for me it failed mostly in the attempt.(less)

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Jun 26, 2011

Stephen Bird rated it

I am in awe of this book, Golding's craft, and his work in general (I have also read "Lord of the Flies" and "Darkness Visible"). The writing itself, whatever one thinks of the plot, is transcendent. I am impressed by what must have been prodigious research on Golding’s part to gain insight in the world of the Neanderthals, about whose specific reality modern man can only speculate. Whatever the Neanderthals lacked in intellectual capability, they more than made up for in t...moreI am in awe of this book, Golding's craft, and his work in general (I have also read "Lord of the Flies" and "Darkness Visible"). The writing itself, whatever one thinks of the plot, is transcendent. I am impressed by what must have been prodigious research on Golding’s part to gain insight in the world of the Neanderthals, about whose specific reality modern man can only speculate. Whatever the Neanderthals lacked in intellectual capability, they more than made up for in their ability to use their senses, especially that of smell. As well as their possible telekinetic activity, which would have been unencumbered by more advanced intellectual processes. Golding's Neanderthals have an intuitive grasp of their world that is lacking in the modern human; on the other hand, the Neanderthals also live more wholly at the mercy of "Oa" (Mother Earth). The innocence of the Neanderthals is endearing, the "new people" Homo sapiens are dangerous and menacing. I felt compassion for the Neanderthals, and contempt for "the new people". The emotion that binds both species together is fear; -IE- Homo sapiens refer to the Neanderthals as "devils"; Fa tells Lok that “the new people are frightened of the air”.

The prose within "The Inheritors" is highly poetic; Golding paints an intricate portrait of a primeval landscape, such as our planet will probably never experience again; this description in itself adds to the atmosphere of suspense the author creates in this novel. It is not just that landscape in itself that is impressionable, but also how it is perceived by the Neanderthals and their "mind-dream-pictures"; -IE- the heightened colors seen by Lok during his hangover from the honey-drink. Golding shrouds his worlds in mystery to create a background of heightened effect, which becomes an integral part of the story; Richard Wagner used a similar technique by employing the orchestra as an additional "voice" in “Der Ring des Nibelungen”. One of the major themes of this book focuses on the evolution of innocence into corruption; a problem that unfortunately still exists in humans today. Another theme is that of the Machiavellian nature of mankind as a whole, specifically in how that behaviour was starting to evolve in Golding's portrait of Homo sapiens. I actually think this work is more engaging than the more commercially accessible LOTF (and certainly more so than the experimental-yet-inconsistent "Darkness Visible”). Golding is a recent discovery of mine, and I am looking forward to reading more of his work.
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Jul 05, 2009

Frankie rated it

Shelves: british

Okay, the first couple of chapters are rough, but I'd encourage you to stick it out. Imagine how difficult it must have been to write in a balance of modern English and presumed Neanderthal utterances. The dialogue is appropriate but even some of the narration must include "utterances." For instance, "picture" here has several meanings – memory, thought, idea, plan, etc. – but whether a character says "I have many pictures" or the text "Mal had many pictures,"...more

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Jul 20, 2009

Peter rated it

This book was a challenge. I must admit it took me a good forty pages or so to adjust to the unique way in which Golding so skilfully uses the prose here. Its not easy at times but it proves to be well worth the effort. There is a real sense of authenticity in how Golding portrays the last of the Neantherthals and their desperate struggle to survive in a world that is becoming increasingly uncompromising and alien to them. Golding manages to present these mysterious people with such a beautiful ...more

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Oct 18, 2011

Puneet rated it

If you've read The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, you'll know what I mean when I say that this book is terribly difficult to read. And I don't necessarily mean that as a bad thing.

Like Heart of Darkness, The Inheritors has pages upon pages of descriptive prose, marked by rare dialogue - at least in the first 50-odd pages. And when the characters do finally say something, you have no idea what they mean because even though they are using English words, their meaning for those words...more

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Sep 19, 2011

Don rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fictional-history, adventure

PLOT SPOILER!

This novel is an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a band of Neanderthals. It is written in such a way that the reader might assume the group to be modern Homo sapiens as they gesture and speak simply among themselves, and bury their dead with heartfelt, solemn rituals. They also have powerful sense impressions and feelings, and appear sometimes to share thoughts in a near-telepathic way. As the novel progresses it becomes more and more apparent that they live very...morePLOT SPOILER!

This novel is an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a band of Neanderthals. It is written in such a way that the reader might assume the group to be modern Homo sapiens as they gesture and speak simply among themselves, and bury their dead with heartfelt, solemn rituals. They also have powerful sense impressions and feelings, and appear sometimes to share thoughts in a near-telepathic way. As the novel progresses it becomes more and more apparent that they live very simply, using their considerable mental abilities to connect to one another without extensive vocabulary or the kinds of memories that create culture. They have wide knowledge of food sources, mostly roots and vegetables. They chase hyaenas from a larger beast's kill and eat meat, but they don't kill mammals themselves. They have a spiritual system centring on a female principle of bringing forth, but their lives are lived so much in the present that the reader realizes they are very different from us, living in something like an eternal present, or at least a present broken and shaped by seasons.

One of the band, Lok, is a point of view character. He is the one we follow as one by one the adults of the band die or are killed, then the young are stolen by the "new people," a group of early modern humans. Lok and Fa, the remaining adults, are fascinated and repelled by the new people. They observe their actions and rituals with amazement, only slowly understanding that harm is meant by the sticks of the new people

The humans are portrayed as strange, godlike beings as the neanderthals witness their mastery of fire, Upper Palaeolithic weaponry and sailing.

All save the last chapters of the novel are written from the Neanderthals' stark, simple stylistics (linguistics) perspective. Their observations of early human behaviour serve as a filter for Golding's exercise in paleoanthropology, in which modern readers will recognize precursors of later human societal constructs, e.g., religion, culture, sacrifice, sorrow, grief and war.

The penultimate chapter employs an omniscient viewpoint, observing Lok. For the first time, the novel describes the people the reader has been inhabiting through the first-person perspective. Lok, totally alone, gives up in despair.

In the final chapter, we move to the point of view of the new race, more or less modern humans fleeing in their boats, revealing that they are terribly afraid of the Neanderthals whom they believe to be devils of the forest. This last chapter, the only one written from the humans' point of view, reinforces the inheritance of the world by the new species.

One interesting anomaly is that the fleeing humans carry with them an infant neanderthal, of whom they are simultaneously afraid and enamoured.

Very much like a Quest For Fire though this stands alone in great story-telling. Good novel.(less)

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May 07, 2011

David Gerstle rated it

This is an often unsettling, but sometimes brilliant narrative told through the experiences of a small family of proto-humans. It is unsurprising - considering the main characters are Neanderthals coming into contact with Homo sapiens - that the book is ultimately quite tragic and violent.

Unlike other works of 'pre-historical fiction' (e.g. "Clan of the Cave Bear"), Golding is not overly concerned with allegorizing any modern human condition. For this same reason, "T...more

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Dec 19, 2010

Chris Freeman rated it

Hmmm. When I heard about this book, I thought the concept sounded intriguing and, considering the pedigree of the author (Nobel Laureate-winning author of Lord of the Flies, William Golding), it seemed like I would be sure to enjoy it. After reading "The Inheritors", though, I'm underwhelmed.

The story, set some forty or fifty thousand years ago, concerns a chance meeting between a group of neanderthals and a group of humans at a time with the story being told almost exclusive...more

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Aug 19, 2007

Ryan rated it

Three stars seems to imply that the book is of mediocre quality. That is not the case. It's a very impressive book, deeply imagined, structured and revealed with a great deal of nuance. I just didn't really enjoy reading it. That said, I can't wait to read more Golding, such as Pincher Martin. Like the scab you continually pick at, I suppose ...

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Mar 14, 2011

Curtis rated it

Most of this book is written from the perspective of Neanderthals, which doesn't make for the most elegant and poetic prose, but if you can get past the dumbed-down dialogue and simplistic style this book is such a great idea and very well done. It is the story of a small band of Neanderthals as they come into first contact with a new band of strange and confounded men (early homo-sapiens). Just as in Lord of the Flies, love and harmony and cooperation and peace do not prevail between these tw...more

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Aug 12, 2010

Myles rated it

Shelves: historish, literary

I don't know what made me think a novel by the guy who wrote Lord of the Flies wouldn't be depressing.

The inheritors is about a small tribe of neanderthals and their devastating encounter with a group of homo sapiens. It was hard to get into at first, because of the story being told from the point of view of a rather dim member of the tribe.

Golding is a gifted writer, however, and the characters and the story become clear. I found it hard to concentrate on it and events took ...more

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Nov 01, 2009

Deepa rated it

· review of another edition

Many critics have suggested that Golding's obvious intention is to show the differences between the Neanderthal men and the Homo Sapiens and thereby satirising the latter. This may be in tune with the overall structure of the novel and the fact that a lot of research has gone into Golding's depiction of the Neanderthal men. But I feel there is much more to the novel than merely satirising the early human beings. It is a sharp criticism on man himself. Things certainly become more complex as we l...more

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Aug 02, 2011

Wes rated it

Fascinating novel told from the perspective of a Neanderthal tribe during their first (and last) contact with Homo sapiens. Golding manages to put the reader into the head of a protagonist whose entire experience of the world is utterly foreign. The hero, Lok, thinks in pictures, anthropomorphizes everything he sees, and literally cannot put two thoughts together. And yet Lok is one of the most vital and affecting characters I've read in years. Though alien, he is more convincing and real an...more

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Mar 30, 2011

Derrick rated it

In my most cynical moments in life, Golding is a perfect reflection of my own mind. The way he explores the darkness inherent in human nature is is truly beautiful and terrifying at the same time...
At first I tried to figure out what Neanderthal man was trying to describe from my own perspective, but after a while I stopped doing that and tried to understand what he was seeing through his own eyes. Or in other words, just read what was written without attaching my own labels to it. This m...more

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Apr 25, 2011

Spencer rated it

A family of Neanderthals struggles with fascination, bewilderment, and the threat of extinction when they encounter the first humans.

Very slow going in the beginning (I almost stopped halfway) but it really picks up in the middle and only gets better from there. Nearly every scene with the band of humans is great, and the last two chapters are thoughtful and incredibly heartbreaking. Because it's William Golding, there's tons of natural symbolism and religious allusion, if you're into ...more

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Jul 27, 2011

Paul Blakemore added it · review of another edition

This is a really cleverly crafted book - full of big and interesting ideas and fascinating details and insights of how prehistoric humanoids might have thought and acted. I didn't enjoy it though and I think that was down to the mental strain of having to work out what Lok was describing half the time. His was a sense of the world so removed from a modern human perspective (which was admittedly the point of the book) that it meant it was really hard work following his train of thought or even hi...more

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Jun 12, 2009

Juli rated it

Shelves: books-i-read-with-my-students-or-ch

Golding's concept is an intriguing one - it's survival of the fittest as the more evolved Homo Sapiens take over the simple and meek Neanderthals, - but the narration is frustrating as is alternates between the voice of Lok, the main Neanderthal (who doesn't have language to describe the "pictures" he sees in his head - or in Lok's case, the pictures he doesn't see; this point was actually something that I did find humorous - the female Neanderthals mental superiority) and a third part...more

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Jan 04, 2011

Adam Calhoun rated it

Everyone says that you can't say you like an author if you have only read one of their books. I loved Lord of the Flies, so I figured I should read William Golding's other critically acclaimed novel ("his best writing!" reads the blurb). It is unfortunate, then, that this book is SO BORING. Like constant eye-glossing boring - and I don't usually mind boring writing.

The story is one of Neanderthals meets humans; or at least, the 1950s conception of neanderthals meet humans....more

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Jan 31, 2011

Anthony rated it

To approach this story as any other is to board a train going the wrong direction. Before reading the first page you have to understand that this tale begins before human intelligence, and that every thought, every sight, sound, smell, taste, and feeling is a simple interpretation by a lower order of being. Just as many have spoken of much of what is written in the Bible as things interpretted by those less technologically advanced as ourselves, Golding endeavors to strip away a million years of...more

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Aug 05, 2008

Marty rated it

· review of another edition

One of my favourite 5 novels of all time, have read it 4 times. It is a highly original, beautifully constructed and intensely tragic novel about the last family of neanderthals on earth. We get to know the 8 family members well, Lok, Fa, baby Liku et al. They are peaceful, simple people who live a harsh, cave dwelling, subsistence life but care for their elders and communicate in part by thought transfer. They are already struggling for survival when they come across a tribe of strange looking ...more

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Jun 27, 2008

Wendy rated it

· review of another edition

This book has been one of my favourites since the first time I read it, at school, many years ago.

It is set in the distant past at a time when Neanderthal man is disappearing and a new stronger, more intelligent type of man - our ancestor - is spreading his grip across the land.

We follow a small family group of Neanderthal man as they live out their peaceful lives. They are upset by the change in climate, the new arrivals and the bad omens from their God. Their environmen...more

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About William Golding

Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the Booker Prize for literature in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage, the first book of the trilogy To the Ends of the Earth.

In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on their list of "The 50 greatest British w...more

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“The moon was through to the sunset side of the gap, but its light was hardly noticeable on the earth for the ruddy brilliance of the firelight.” — 1 person liked it

“Lok was running as fast as he could. His head was down and he carried his thorn bush horizontally for balance and smacked the drifts of vivid buds aside with his free hand.” — 1 person liked it

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