title: Lord of the Flies: Text, Notes & Criticism
author: William Golding
description: "<b><i>Lord of the Flies</i></b>is one of my favorite books. That was a big influence on me as a teenager, I still read it every couple of years."<br /><b>Suzanne Collins, author of<i>The Hunger Games</i></b><br /><br />"As exciting, relevant, and thought-provoking now as it was when Golding published it in 1954."<br /><b><i>Stephen King</i></b><br /><br />"The most influential novel...since Salinger's<i>Catcher in the Rye</i>."<br /><b><b></b>Time</b><br /><br />"This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man's return (in a few weeks) to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge. Fully to succeed, a fantasy must approach very close to reality.<b><i>Lord of the Flies</i></b>does. It must also be superbly written. It is."<br /><b><b></b>The New York Times Book Review</b><br /><br />"Sparely and elegantly written...<b><i>Lord of the Flies</i></b>is a grim anti-pastoral in which adults are disguised as children who replicate the worst of their elders' heritage of ignorance, violence, and warfare."<br /><b><b></b>Joyce Carol Oates, New York Review of Books</b>
zlib_text: Lord of the Flies
  by William Golding
  
  Lord of the Flies
  Shmoop Literature Guide
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  Lord of the Flies
  Shmoop Literature Guide
  Table of Contents
  Introduction .......................................................... 3
  Why Should I Care ..................................................... 4
  Summary ............................................................ 5
  Brief Summary .....