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Lord of the Flies  By  cover art

Lord of the Flies

By: William Golding
Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
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Publisher's summary

A plane crashes on a desert island, and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assembles on the beach and waits to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys’ delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.

©1954 William Golding (P)2012 Faber Audio

What listeners say about Lord of the Flies

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Story of cruel innocence

It's a story of spiralling down into savagery and brutality, a story of making a choice between good and evil, peace and war, God and Satan. The name Lord of the flies is actually translated as Beelzebul, one of the three main fallen angels along with Lucifer and Astaroth.
It is revolting to see how quickly and without compunction children can lose their innocence and become unruly bloodthirsty criminals.
As for the narrator, I was overwhelmed listening to M. Jarvis' performance. His rendition was exceptional.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Classic - if a bit disturbing.

Another classic that I have been seeking on audio to add to my library for a while. This one because I had read it as a boy and enjoyed it greatly and wanted to add it to my rotating library of repeat listens. It makes it to that list very very easily.

The basic story is probably fairly well known. Group of boys. Desert Island. Add some time and wait for chaos to reign. I remembered that much from my boyhood read but there are layers here that I didn't get as a spotty teen.

And I'm coming to the conclusion that this is what makes a great book great.

Every time you read it it makes you think about some element of it differently and see some feature in a new light. Ostensibly this is a book about how small boys will happily become savages if left without authority. It is also wider, deeper and longer than that if you pause the recoding every now and then and let your mind wander over a scene for a few minutes and think about whatever else it throws into your head. Bit like tasting a good wine where you can (I'm told - cheap plonk man myself) start to seperate out individual notes from the flavour. "I'm getting - the beginnings of religion - the draw of superstition - mans inhumanity to man.........."

That said , if all you want is a good book with a good story well told and well read then this will do that for you too. Just that there is more there if you want it.

Martin Jarvis does an excellent job on the narration.

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Add a small chapter at the end for ralph.

I loved the book but wish thet there was another chapter at the end for Ralph to get his justice and for Jack to be reprimanded.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Was forced to read this book but it was ok

Decent book, decent story line, better than reading the words.

And I have to add another 10 words to make this count

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A masterful classic deserving of the Nobel Prize

This is a truly masterful classic. A true reminder of what darkness lies in the human heart.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Didn’t have Bingus or Walt jr

Wish it had a Bingus Walt jr cross over. Bad. Very bad. Sad. Very sad

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Always a thought provoking classic

If you are not familiar with the book this is a great reading enjoy it

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • RF
  • 12-12-19

Golding says ululating a lot.

That's it, great book, killer ending, poor Piggy, oops spoilers, you knew, fifteen words byeeeeeeeeee!

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Carried away in thoughts

I sometimes got carried away in thoughts. Not a good sign that it was a book for me.

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The book was one of the best I've read, but

Overall this was a great book, but the emense amount of discription of the environment made it a lot more boring to read and listen to. Other than that the book was amazing, the story, characters and this weird concept made you really think about how cruel the world is. Hey, and I liked the narrator to!

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