Lord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning English author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on an uninhabited island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results. Its stances on the already-controversial subjects ofhuman nature and individual welfare versus the common good earned it position 68 on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–1999.[1] In 2005 the novel was chosen by TIME magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.[2] It was awarded a place on both lists of Modern Library 100 Best Novels, reaching #41 on the editor's list, and #25 on the reader's list.
Published in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding’s first novel. Although it was not a great success at the time — selling fewer than 3,000 copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print — it soon went on to become a best-seller, and by the early 1960s was required reading in many schools and colleges; the novel is currently renowned for being a popular choice of study for GCSE English Literature courses in the United Kingdom. It was adapted to film in 1963 by Peter Brook, andagain in 1990 by Harry Hook.
