William Golding - Nobel Prize in Literature, 1983 (17 books)

WILLIAM GOLDING (1911-1993) was an English novelist, playwright, and poet. He was awarded the 1980 Booker Prize for his novel RITES OF PASSAGE and the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature "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."

Golding's first novel and best-known work, LORD OF THE FLIES (1954), describes a group of boys stranded on a tropical island reverting to savagery. THE INHERITORS (1955) shows "new people" (generally identified with Homo sapiens sapiens), triumphing over a gentler race (generally identified with Neanderthals) by deceit and violence. PINCHER MARTIN (1956) records the delusions experienced by a drowning sailor in his last moments. FREE FALL (1959) explores the issue of free choice as a prisoner held in solitary confinement in a German POW camp during World War Two looks back over his life. THE SPIRE (1964) follows the building (and near collapse) of a huge spire onto a medieval cathedral (generally assumed to be Salisbury Cathedral); the spire symbolizing both spiritual aspiration and worldly vanity.

In THE PYRAMID (1967) three separate stories in a shared setting (a small English town in the 1920s) are linked by a narrator, and THE SCORPION GOD (1971) consists of three novellas, the first set in a prehistoric African hunter-gatherer band ("Clonk, Clonk"), the second in an ancient Egyptian court ("The Scorpion God") and the third in the court of a Roman emperor ("Envoy Extraordinary"). The last of these reworks his 1958 play THE BRASS BUTTERFLY.

His later novels include DARKNESS VISIBLE (1979), which is about a terrorist group, a paedophile teacher, and a mysterious angel-like figure who survives a fire in The Blitz; THE PAPER MEN (1984) which is about the conflict between a writer and his biographer; and a sea trilogy TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, which includes the RITES OF PASSAGE (1980), CLOSE QUARTERS (1987), and FIRE DOWN BELOW (1989), the first book of which (originally intended as a stand-alone novel) won the Booker Prize. THE DOUBLE TONGUE, a novel left in draft at his death, was published in 1995.

This torrent includes all Golding's novels in recently-issued editions from Faber & Faber, a play, a chronicle of his travels through Egypt, and a collection of essays.


The following books are in ePUB format unless otherwise indicated:


Fiction

* CLOSE QUARTERS (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Ronald Blythe.

* DARKNESS VISIBLE (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Philip Hensher.

* THE DOUBLE TONGUE (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Meg Rosoff.

* FIRE DOWN BELOW (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Victoria Glendinning.

* FREE FALL (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by John Gray.

* THE INHERITORS (Faber & Faber, 2012). Introduction by John Carey.

* LORD OF THE FLIES (Penguin, 1999 / Faber & Faber, 2012). Introduction by Stephen King (ePUB). -- PDF + ePUB

* THE PAPER MEN (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Andrew Martin.

* PINCHER MARTIN (Faber & Faber, 2013). Afterword by Phillippa Gregory.

* THE PYRAMID (The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin) (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Penelope Lively.

* RITES OF PASSAGE (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Robert McCrum.

* THE SCORPION GOD (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by Craig Raine.

* THE SPIRE (Faber & Faber, 2013). Introduction by John Mullan.

* TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH: A Sea Trilogy [Rites of Passage / Close Quarters / Fire Down Below] (Faber & Faber, 2013).


Plays

* THE BRASS BUTTERFLY: A Play in Three Acts (Faber & Faber, 2014).


Non-fiction

* AN EGYPTIAN JOURNAL (Faber, 1985). -- PDF

* A MOVING TARGET (FSG, 1982). -- PDF