Cover of Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

William Golding, 1954

British novelist, 1911–1993. Won the Booker Prize in 1980.

Lord of the Flies is a 1954 novel by William Golding.

In dystopian

On 8 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.

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At a glance

Author
William Golding
First published
1954
Length
225 pages (UK paperback)
Genre
Literary fiction, Adventure, Dystopian

Is Lord of the Flies worth reading?

8 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them 100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library) and 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime (Amazon.co.uk).

ListPlaceOriginal
100 Best Novels (board's list) (Modern Library, 1998)No. 41See the list
100 Books to Read in a Lifetime (Amazon.co.uk, 2014)ListedSee the list
100 novels that shaped our world (BBC Arts, 2019)ListedSee the list
All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005)ListedSee the list
The 100 best novels written in English (The Guardian / Observer, 2015)ListedSee the list
The 100 greatest British novels (BBC Culture, 2015)No. 93See the list
The 100 greatest novels of all time (The Observer, 2003)ListedSee the list
The Big Read top 100 (BBC, 2003)No. 70See the list

Best edition of Lord of the Flies

The edition we link to is the Faber & Faber paperback (1997), 225 pages.

Publisher
Faber & Faber (paperback, 1997)
Pages
225
ISBN
9780571191475

How critics and readers rate Lord of the Flies

Critics rate it most highly: it earned 48% of the points available on critics' lists, against 27% on readers' and booksellers' lists.

Critics
48%
Prizes
Not eligible for any of these lists yet
Readers and booksellers
27%

Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work

Books like Lord of the Flies

If you liked Lord of the Flies, try Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World or The Handmaid's Tale.

Lists used on this page