Rating: 
Summary: Astonishingly well made
Review: The novel Lord of the Flies written by William Golding is astonishingly well made with details of what it is like to live and survive without government and rules/society. Ralph, 13 year old protagonist who led a normal life; his life hit a tragic down spiral when he was in a plane with his Boy Scout troop heading on a tour of tropical islands. Their plane failed to fly and crashed into the ocean with no adult survivors. Ralph encounters many conflicts such as person vs. person, as in the time when he and Jack fought with closed fists until one of them gets hurt person vs. nature, like the time when the raging hurricane whips through their island and destroys everything in it's path and lastly person vs. self, when Ralph doubts himself and is stressing his decisions. Many of the camp members turn against him and go out on their own, it is up to Ralph to stay alive and help his companions, but can he tame a lawless beast like the hunters? I found this novel flawless and exhilarating; William Golding did a truly great job on this awesome novel. The author made me feel Ralph's pain and also made me feel Jack's anger. It made me feel as if I was one of the boys in the group, choosing which side to take, the hunters or Ralph. I felt the joy the hunters had when they killed their first pig, and their fear when they encountered the beast. I found myself reasoning with the hunter's plans but saw the point of Ralph's logic to stick together. I felt the shocking thunder and the clash of waves during the hurricane and felt the adrenaline rushing through my body. Even though all of these things were great I also saw some flaws in the book. I felt as if the wild pig detail was kind of weird; how that in the middle of the ocean on a deserted tropical island there would be pigs, other than that one detail I felt the book was magnificent.
Rating:
Summary: Not for the hurried, or un-reflective
Review: Lord of the Flies... boring? Now that's a new one on me. Golding wrote his book with young readers in mind--the very sort that would enjoy action, and adventure. And perhaps more so young male readers as his experiences of children and their behavior are from a boy's school playground. Some reviews have the effrontery to suggest that this Nobel prize winner adjust his style to accomodate their laziness. To that I say... Nuts! The ignorance is in proportion to the self-righteousness of the young critics who are prompted by their teachers to write such tripe. And there is no shortage of opinionated critics who haven't made the least effort to try to understand the book or attempt to read authorially or for that matter examine themselves in a critical light. At least have the curiousity to find out more. There are plenty of smart readers within easy reach. If nothing else, read the Coles Notes, York Notes or any critical guide for that matter to get a sense of how much one can get from reading and re-reading this book. Is it really cheating if you do it responsibly? And by the way, there is a purpose to the book's detailed (what some impatiently call the "boring" and "long-winded") scene descriptions. Find out what critics say. The beauty of the novel (the writing, that is) lies in the poetic descriptions that we are offered. Some reviewers talk about the "realistic" flavor that Golding brings to the story. Far from being "realistic" I see these scenes as having a dream-like and timelessness about them. When Simon lies in a trance in his hiding place near the clearing, watching the butterflies above the tall grass, there is a sense that time has stopped. Human time has little significance on the island. Watching butterflies may be "realistic"; but the full value of the scene comes through the words which form the less-real images in our reading minds. They are vivid, but being "realistic" is hardly the point of the scenes. Experience is. A very new, strange, unusual feel to our lives. Isn't this the value of writing literately? Not to offer realistic images of "real" life but to offer unspoken, often unthought but very much felt experience and sensation. Anyway, the butterfly scene connects to another one, where some of the littl'uns are playing at the edge of the beach. The narrator offers up images of distant shores and time and the movement of rock and sediment. The sheer scale of cosmic time compared to the puny activities of the children (pooping, hunting, fighting, squabbling) is breathtaking. The narrator treats us to poetic visions--what some reviewers lumpishly call "all that long-winded description." To cut scenes like this out would be like reducing a poem to some prosaic "message" and claiming that it all "boils down to the same thing". Such nonsense. A teacher's chestnut for this novel (judging from some of the reviews) is to have a trial to wind things up. I cringe when I hear this. What young readers are being asked to do is assign blame and re-establish a moral order that Golding puts precisely in question throughout his novel. The last paragraphs drive the point home.
Rating:
Summary: one of the finest novels ever written
Review: I pretty much gave up on becoming a novelist after I read this book, just as I gave up on playing the guitar after listening to Eric Clapton. Golding's microcosm of humanity and its base nature is a far-flung island populated by refugee children. And it's his very use of children as main characters that makes the story so chilling. Their mixture of innocence and brutality proves lethal. The final chapter is as thrilling as anything I've ever seen on a movie screen. Largely thanks to "Lord of the Flies," Golding won the Nobel Prize for Literature, in 1983. The only problem I have with the book is that it has obscured Golding's other novels, which confirm him as one of the "heavyweights." Kids, you are forced to read this book in school because it is one of true masterpieces of literature, but you probably won't appreciate how great it is until you're my age. So I suggest you come back to it when you're forty-something. Then you'll realize that things like "Lord of the Rings" and the Harry Potter tomes are nice enough but just don't endure.
Rating:
Summary: Annotation, Author Bio and Evaluation of an Amazing Book
Review: Annotation: Set during World War II, two adolescents: Ralph and Piggy, find themselves as survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island. There are no grown ups to show them how to live, but they soon meet more children and band together. As problems unfold, Inherent evil takes over in this masterpiece of human psychology.
Author Bio: William Golding was born in the village of St. Columb Minor in Cornwall. He started writing at the age of seven, but he didn't pursue it until after attending Brasenose College, in Oxford. His first book, which was no more than a collection of poems, was finished one year before getting his B.A. After graduation, he moved to London and wrote plays. He lived in a settlement house, but moved to Salisbury in 1939. He enlisted in the Royal Navy during WWII, and hated it. He called it "a waste of four years of my life." After the war he returned to Salisbury with a dark view on humanity's processes. His first novel: The Lord Of the Flies was declined by 21 publishers, but when it did get published in 1954 it was an instant hit in England and a bestseller in America. After that he wrote The Inheritors (1955), PINCHER MARTIN (1956), FREE FALL (1959), THE SPIRE (1964), RITES OF PASSAGE (1980), THE PAPER MEN (1984), CLOSE QUARTERS (1987), FIRE DOWN BELOW (1989), and THE DOUBLE TONGUE, left in draft at his death, was published in 1995.
Evaluation: I've heard many things about this book. That is the reason I decided to read it, and I must say, it lived up to every single expectation. The pessimistic view on human nature is frighteningly real, and it is portrayed through an entertaining adventure story with a group of children stranded on an island. My favorite character was Piggy because he was the rational character. He was the intelligent member of the democratic "tribe" on the island, and a tragic hero in the end. The Antagonist on the island was Jack. He started as a good-natured leader of the hunters. This physical job eventually brought out the inherent evil that Golding thought was in every human being. All hell breaks loose when the hunting tribe splits from the rational tribe, and they go on a pig hunt. This is, in my opinion, the best scene ever portrayed in a book. The haunting image of a skewered pig's head that represents the devil sticks in my mind whenever I think of the book. He takes the innocent life of Simon hours before the other children do. The end of the book is tragically ironic when the Navy man walks in on a childish manhunt, yet he is doing the same exact thing on his ship. An easy read, but unbelievable book. I give it 5 out of 5 stars, and it's now my favorite book.
Rating:
Summary: Hearts of Darkness
Review: In "The Lord of the Flies" Golding wrote a very different yet very comparable story to Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". A group of English schoolboys, ages six to twelve, are stranded on a tropical island when their plane crashes and all the adults are killed. After initial attempts to organize, the children gradually descend, first to disorganized and purposeless play, then to struggles of dominance and an attempt at establishing an hierarchy, and finally, with a few exceptions, to barbarism and violence. Ralph is the good leader, but he gradually loses his ability to think logically; Piggy is the myopic, overweight, asthmatic, indolent but intelligent voice of civilization; Jack is the authoritarian, dominant, aggressive leader; and Roger is the mysterious, secretive, suppressed savage, who gradually shows how extreme he can become in his violence. How far will things go before somebody stops and says, "Wait a minute! What are we doing?' AND the others listen? As I read this well-written, well-paced, highly descriptive novel, two things kept popping into my head: What would I have done in this situation? How does the savagery described in the book fit with some of the extremes seen in the behavior of today's children and adolescents? I work, as a therapist, with emotionally disturbed, low-income children and teens, and the behavior I see in a few of my clients parallels what happened with Jack and Roger of Golding's book. I want to believe I would have done better, at twelve, than the boys in the book, but I don't know how my then-peers might have handled it, or if I would have ended up being like Ralph, fighting a battle for survival and gradually losing. "The Lord of the Flies"is a very dark and disturbing novel, that is also brilliant. It is a timeless, thought-provoking story, and I can see why it is often required reading in schools. I didn't discover it until age 43, but I still found it worthwhile and moving.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting?
Review: Well, I can honestly say this wasn't the best book I've read in my life. I think the author had a great idea on his hands when he decided to write this. Perhaps the author had trouble getting it on paper? I know some of my classmates feel the same when I say it wasn't as well-written as it could have been. I'm not saying he didn't use big enough words! He was extremely wordy, and a little too descriptive at times. I have nothing against words, as I love books myself. But, there was a point in the book (and I don't want to spoil this for people who haven't read it,) where he discussed things about blood staining sand, and the beast being dead, and 3 pages later which were FULL of description, we see, "and Simon's dead body drifted out to sea," or something very similar. And all he would have needed was that last sentence! He didn't NEED 4 pages of blood and gore! But, alas. It isn't like we can have all the books turn out how we want them. My English teacher saw me with a book by Tolkien, "The Silmarillion," and she said,
"No Tolkien until after 'Lord of the Flies!'" Well, I've had enough of "Flies." No more 'Lord of the Flies'!
What I need is 'Lord of the Rings'!
Sincerely,
A total book worm who breathes for Fiction Fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: I have to give it a 5
Review: I read this book out of curiosity. I was impressed for a book this old. I have to give it a 5 because, to me, it is better than the 4 it has. Probably it is being rated against other classic and we expect so much of it. Compared to most recent books I would give it a 5. This is an exciting book. The characters are excellent. They are realistic and give us a good look at who we (humans) are. The kids do natural things that we did as kids but the consequences are more severe because of the situation. It reminds me that we all could have been Nazis.
It is refreshing compared to all the "socially significant, politically correct stuff written to make us feel good (feel we are good).
Rating: 
Summary: Dull
Review: Even though I had to read this for school, I though it was a very boring book. I managed to suffer through it. I suggest avioding it at all costs. I think the only worse story is Oliver Twist. While it's obvious the Golding is an excellent writer, he doesn't ensnare the reader as do the better books.
Rating: 
Summary: Novel review of the Lord of the Flies
Review: The Lord of the Flies by William Golding wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. I thought that the idea of the book was very good and the theme was well thought out, but i don't think it was well written. Some parts could have been better, but it was interesting. Somethings I disliked were that there were only boys on the island and no girls. If there were girls I think the story would have been different. I also didn't like how Piggy died. I think the book would have had a better ending if Piggy stayed alive.
Some things that i liked about the book were most of it was realistic. The schoolboys made rules for themselves, and there became two sides. I liked how the characters were described and how the meanings of their names mathed their actual names.
Rating: 
Summary: A startling insight
Review: William Golding's classic book Lord of the Flies is a startling insight into human nature. It shows humans acting at their most basic, primal level, which to us in modern times is the worst level. This level is one of instincts, fear, and a will to dominate and survive. However, Golding is in many parts too wordy, which interferes with the flow of the plot. I recommend this book to anyone who does not mind a little bit of gore.
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