The Novels of William Golding (Hardbound-2022)

The Novels of William Golding seeks to explore both the structures of Golding’s novels in some detail and their meanings in a sufficiently sustained fashion. Golding has achieved the unique distinction of being both a fabulist and a realist. His charm lies in the complex blend of seemingly irreconcilable polarities like spirit and flesh, good and evil, pleasure and pain, joy and grief, in his novels. His novels are in a paradoxical sense set in a time prelapsarian: The Inheritors—medieval; The Spire—eighteenth century; Rites of Passage, Close Quarters, and Fire Down Below—twentieth century; Darkness Visible, The Pyramid, Pincher Martin, Free Fall, and Lord of the Flies—yet timeless as the mortal context of man, in a moral landscape, remain fixed. The present book aims at examining Golding’s preoccupation with contemporary evils challenging the soul of man. Firstly, the upsurge of violence, terrorism, war mania that has unleashed the beast in man to stalk innocent prey. Next, the evil of sexual perversions, man’s libido liberated from shame, guilt, and fear. Thirdly, the predominant disease of modern society—class-conflict or the evils of social stratification that oppress man’s sense of equality and joy. Finally, religion, a personal matter between man and his Maker, perverted in the twentieth century by fanaticism, nihilism, and various evil practices.

Indu Kulkarni, M.A. (English), Ph.D. (English Literature), is a retired Principal from Bhavan’s College, Andheri, West Mumbai. She has about 35 years of experience in teaching in graduate and post-graduate classes. She began her teaching career from St. Joseph’s Convent in 1966. She joined Bhavan’s College as a Lecturer in 1971 and retired from there as Principal in 2006. She has also taught communication skills in the S.P.C. Engineering College for nine years and in the S.P. Jain Institute of Management for two years. She has worked on various boards like the Govt. Staff Selection, Maharashtra Public Service Commission, and Directorate of Marine Engineering. She has also met with Sir William Golding and interviewed him. She has published a number of critical books on English and American Literature. She has delivered talks at various colleges in the course of work on major novelists and read papers in seminars and conferences.