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Nov 29, 2010

Silvana rated it:

This book is horrifying. I'm scared like hell. Totally.
I was expecting an adventure book telling about some children who got stranded in an island, but ended up with goosebumps.

A bit of synopsis: A number of English school boys suffered from a plane accident causing them to get stranded in an uninhibited island. The period was maybe during the World War II. Trying to be civilized, they elected a leader for themselves as well started the division of tasks (hunters, fire-watchers More...

8 comments like (90 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Nancy rated it:

Lord of the Flies is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. It was required high school reading and since then, I've read it four more times. It is as disturbing now as it was then. Using a group of innocent schoolboys stranded on an island, the author very realistically portrays human behavior in an environment where civilization no longer has meaning.

6 comments like (41 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Bird Brian rated it:

Manny's review of The Authoritarians got me thinking about Lord of the Flies (LOTF) this week. I'm surprised at all the negative reviews out there on LOTF, but not in a bad way. I just always thought the merits of the book were apparent, and widely acknowledged. Some of the criticisms have been quite fair, however. ((((GoodReads)))) I've been taking them all in, and they've opened my eyes to some of the book's flaws. But I still think it is wonderful.

Let's be fair to the critics. I More...

26 comments like (34 people liked it)

Sep 28, 2007

Nora rated it:

I read this book a long time ago, long enough to where I barely remembered anything past the basic premise. So I picked it up again, only to wish I hadn't. There's a reason why they teach this book in middle school--in order to enjoy this book, one's intellectual cognizance must be that of a child, because otherwise you'll spend the entire time picking out everything that's wrong with the book. And there's a lot to pick out.

From what little of the story that is actually coherent, I c More...

49 comments like (89 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Andrew rated it:

I was tempted to give this five stars, since in so many ways it strikes me as the kind of masterpiece, like Heart of Darkness, that I imagine will retain its horror and readability for centuries. The prose veers (or as Golding would say it, "tends") from plain to painterly. The story is well known: a sort of allegorical morality play set in modern times -- fancy English boys left to their own devices don't so much as revert to darkness as discover primitive outlets for the darkness ref More...

0 comments like (39 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Yulia rated it:

I was Piggy (well, in personality at least, though not in portliness). I hated everyone who picked on him. I still do. Should people be forgiven for what they do on a deserted island? That depends on whether you think their true nature has revealed itself, or their humanity has been corrupted by circumstance and stress. In a world where almost every human trait is now considered a product of both nature and nurture, would Golding have written his tale differently today? No, I don't believe More...

2 comments like (21 people liked it)

Mar 07, 2008

Mk rated it:

I hated this book. First off, as I remember, it talks about humans failure to govern ourselves, or more broadly the failures of human nature. There are a few reasons why I think simply dropping a group of kids on a desert island does not in fact prove anything.

1) These kids were raised in a capitalist, nominally demcratic society. The first thing they do is appoint leaders. As someone who spends my time working in consensus based groups seeking to challenge hierarchical structures More...

13 comments like (39 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2011

Josephine rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2012

Tanu rated it:

Rating: 3.5

A group of British boys get stranded on an island after their plane crashes. At first, the kids revel in their freedom, and lack of an authority figure. But slowly, these well educated kids turn into savages, and give way to their natural animalistic side. The political and biblical undertones of this novel are very interesting. So is symbolism of the conch shell and lord of the flies. It has a deeper meaning than what meets the eye.

I think the characters, a More...

8 comments like (9 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Jennifer rated it:

Lord of the Flies written by William Golding is about a large group of private school boys that end up stranded on a deserted island after their plane crashes. Due to the war that is happening in reality at the time of the crash the boys wonder if this was a crash, or an attack. Either way, one thing becomes clear to them rather quickly. They are without any adult supervision which they find frightning and exciting all at once.

Though there are many different characters in this s More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Feb 02, 2010

Karson rated it:

Just read this book actually. Didn't read it in school growing up. I must have skipped over it or something. I was drawn in very fast by the exciting premise. Kids on an island! No adults! Kind of like that movie Camp Nowhere except more morbid. I was carried through the book quickly until somewhere in the middle I began to lose steam, but then i was drawn back in towards the end of the book by the profundity of the statement Golding was trying to make. I was trying to figure it out. It More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Gothadh rated it:

I absolutely hated this book. That's my over-riding memory of it I'm afraid. I had to read it in secondary school when I was about 12 and I never remember disliking a book so much which was surprising as I was a voracious reader.

I just remember having absolutely nothing in common with the characters - a group of English upper / middle class school boys whereas I was a Scottish working class girl. I just could not relate to the story at all and just wished they would all kill each More...

6 comments like (24 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

David rated it:

I just don't buy it.

This book is famous for unmasking what brutes we are, just under the surface, but, well, for all the hype, it just isn't convincing. People--even teenage boys--just aren't as savage as Golding seems to want us to believe, and nothing in this book persuades me otherwise.

Perhaps if I'd gone to English boarding school I'd feel differently--but then that's the real irony of this book, that the brutality from which the British Empire was supposed to save s More...

14 comments like (19 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Henry rated it:

A British airplane crashes on a deserted South Sea's island, in the middle of an atomic war.All the grownups are killed and only children 12 and younger survive.How are they to cope? (Basically an allegorical story of what is human nature , good or evil ?)Ralph is chosen leader,"Piggy", the intellectual sidekick.This beautiful tropical coral isle ,with a lagoon,palm trees and plenty of bananas and other fruit.Wild pigs in the forest,fish in the ocean, so no worries,right?Wrong!Ralph More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Amanda rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 08, 2008

Verónica rated it:

Simply, it is such an excellent and influential novel of adventure with a story that is incredibly interesting and entertaining, which is also dramatic and emotional. It takes place in a very unusual setting and explains and shows what we can become if we do not have respect, rules and order which could cause deadly and irreversible chaos.
The author, William Golding, describes the novel in a deep and detailed manner not wanting to leave out any insignificant detail; so it makes the story More...

1 comment like (9 people liked it)

Nov 06, 2008

Marka added it

I HATE THIS BOOK!!!

8 comments like (22 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2011

K.D. rated it:

This book is one of those that I regret not reading earlier in my life. There are just too many lessons that one can learn and apply at various stages of one's life. Wikipedia says that there have been two movie adaptations of this classic novel originally published in 1954: the first one in 1963 and the other one in 1990. However, they did not count its Tagalog movie adaptation in 1976 entitled Alkitrang Dugo directed by Lupita Aquino-Kashiwahara starring, among others, the young Roderick Paula More...

5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Mar 28, 2011

Jason rated it:

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com:]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

The CCLaP 100: In which I read for the first time a hundred so-called "classics," then write reports on whether or not they deserve the label

Essay #46: Lord of the Flies (1954), by William Golding

The story in a nutshell:
First published in the beginning y More...

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Jan 14, 2012

Kathy rated it:

Well, this is my 2nd reading and I'm sorry to say, it's not getting any better. I made a pact w/ my sons that I would read anything and everything with them that they read for school. And for the most part, I am thrilled to keep my word. Unfortunately, there are a few exceptions....and this is one of them. I seriously wonder if it's because I'm reading from the point of view of a "mom" and I just want to shake these kids and how badly they behave. I understand what the author is saying More...

9 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Helen (Helena/Nell) rated it:

Over the years I must have read this book five or six times. Last night I was reading it on a train with a highlighter in my hand, because I decided to teach it this year again. Teachers wreck books, of course. We all know that. On the other hand, whatever you have to study-read, you tend to carry a bit of it with you. You don't forget that book, at least. Although I must add, that it's quite risky introducing to a Scottish classroom a book with the memorable words: "The English are best at More...

3 comments like (26 people liked it)

Sep 03, 2008

Stella rated it:

Well written, accurate, and insightful about the human nature of man, especially if left to itself and unbridled. But once again, it's full of hate and evil and lack of conscience which certainly exists all around us but you won't feel good if you read this book. You won't feel uplifted and motivated to be a better person...you'll just shudder at how awful, cruel, and evil mankind can be. It will probably make you more cynical and doubtful. Now how is that helpful in the long run?

More...

5 comments like (17 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Angus rated it:

Disclaimer: This is not a review. This may have spoilers. Read at your own risk. Visit original post at Book Rhapsody.

***

Intro

This is the book that me and my friend call “The Book That Cannot Be Named.” It is currently in my Top Ten Books of All Time, although it is now standing on shaky grounds because my current read is impressing me big time.

Anyway, why is it that we gave it that name? A better book title? No. It’s for the simple reason that my friend h More...

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 26, 2010

Lavinia rated it:

I think I expected more from this book. I started it 7 years ago and stopped reading it, because I found it too boring, I guess. I suppose it’s a good book, but I’m not a fan of dystopias or science fiction, and no, I don’t want to read a book without any women. And yet, I just did. :)

***
am reluat lord of the flies la o distanta de 7 ani fata de incercarea initiala, din mai multe motive. primul ar fi recenta obsesie de a-mi citi cartile cumparate si necitite [in mod norma More...

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2011

Isaiah! rated it:

Five words. This book is totally depressing.

If you want to read a book with a dismal ending and is about human injustice from cover to cover, then this book is for you. Since I don't want to tell the whole story, let me sum up the characters for you instead:

Ralph is a sissy. He knows the right things to do, but he can't get anything right.

Jack is a b*tch. And don't tell that the unprintable term I used is for girls only. In our generation, a b*tch can pertain to bot More...

4 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jun 15, 2008

Mister Jones rated it:

A disclaimer: it wasn't my idea to read this book; a colleague selected this book as part of our students' summer reading program.

If there was a time in my life that I liked this book, it must have been in the wee hormonal epoch of my early youth.

Frankly, I didn't like it. I found myself not having any empathy for the characters; I found the prose rather tedious, and the plot obviously contrived, and it seemed that Golding made a particular, but obvious effort to attemp More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 02, 2008

P. rated it:

Goldng is one of the best, if not the best British author. He was in center of the intellectual ferment of the late ninteenth/early 20th centuries. The sad part about this novel is that schoolmarms keep insisting that this wouldn't or couldn't happen. Golding used as a premis, the fact that the creatures were cogniznat.

His whole career as an author consisted or dry treatises and stunning flights from the scientific knowledge to a personalized novel. Mr. DeBarger, you, with your t More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 09, 2011

Lisa rated it:

Book about civilized boys stranded alone on an island and how many of them change for the worse when no longer bound by the trappings of their old civilized culture. Horrifying with graphic violence. But I really liked it when I read it at about age 13. What’s interesting is I really remember enjoying reading it and being absorbed in the book, but I read it only once. Especially back then, it was unusual for me to read a book I enjoyed only once. Think it was just too intense for me. Would be in More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Oct 26, 2011

Hyrum rated it:

I really enjoyed this book, I gave it 5 stars because I loved the way it was written. It had a lot of great scenes where it was really easy to picture what was happening. When I am able to get a picture in my head of what is happening in the book it makes it a lot easier for me to focus and understand what's happening.

My favorite part of the book was when the kids were first setting up their little settlement they made to try and survive on the island. It was interesting to me to see h More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2008

Edwin rated it:

Some times when I read something or learn something that I have heard about my whole life, it sort of fills a void in me. This book filled that void with a bunch of rubbish! How it became a classic is totally beyond me.

It had a singular message, and that message was totally wrong, stupid, and depressing.

8 comments like (11 people liked it)