Golding’s debut novel was not the first he had written and followed on from unsuccessful attempts to get three earlier novels published. It is well known that he had great trouble placing even this work, which was sent to publishing houses under the title “Strangers from Within”. Also, at the press which finally published both

and subsequently the rest of Golding’s works, Faber and Faber, the manuscript was initially marked for rejection by the in-house reader and only rescued from the return pile by Charles Monteith, the editor who would become Golding’s friend and mentor.

Golding’s finished novel, twelve chapters long, is a series of dramatic tableaux that almost seem to be stages of an argument. The book has sharply drawn characters, intense and charged

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Citation: Childs, Peter. "Lord of the Flies". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 February 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3868, accessed 21 November 2024.]