TEHRAN (IBNA) -- Third print of the Persian translation of ‘Lord of the Flies’, a 1954 debut novel by ‎the Nobel Prize-winning British novelist, playwright, and poet William Golding has been ‎released and is available in Iranian bookstores.‎
Written in 12 chapters, the acclaimed dystopian novel has been translated into Persian by Javad Paiman. Tehran-based Amir-Kabir Publishing has released the third print of ‘Lord of the Flies’ in 327 pages and in 500 copies.
At the dawn of the next world war, a plane crashes on an uncharted island, stranding a group of schoolboys. At first, with no adult supervision, their freedom is something to celebrate. This far from civilization they can do anything they want. Anything. But as order collapses, as strange howls echo in the night, as terror begins its reign, the hope of adventure seems as far removed from reality as the hope of being rescued.
At an allegorical level, the central theme of the novel is the conflicting human impulses toward civilization and social organization – living by rules, peacefully and in harmony – and toward the will to power. Themes include the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality.
The New York Times Book Review commented on this book: “This brilliant work is a frightening parody on man’s return [in a few weeks] to that state of darkness from which it took him thousands of years to emerge. Fully to succeed, a fantasy must approach very close to reality. Lord of the Flies does. It must also be superbly written. It is.”
William Golding was born in Cornwall, England, in 1911 and educated at Oxford University. His first book, ‘Poems’, was published in 1935. Following a stint in the Royal Navy during World War II, Golding wrote ‘Lord of the Flies’ while teaching school. It was the first of several works, including the novels ‘Pincher Martin’, ‘Free Fall’, and ‘The Inheritors’ and a play, ‘The Brass Butterfly’, which led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.