LITERATURE 32 “Ralph Wept For The End Of Innocence, The Darkness Of Man’s Heart…” First edition of one of the best-known novels in modern literature, Golding’s “profoundly disturbing reflection on the innate, irrepressible savagery of humanity” (Fantasy and Horror 6-143), especially rare in original dust jacket. Rescued from Faber and Faber’s “slush pile” by a junior editor, Golding’s first and greatest novel reflected many Westerners’ increasingly apocalyptic fears at the height of the Cold War. It captured the public’s imagination by asking hard questions about human nature and whether society is, in fact, worth saving. “The novel constitutes a complex utterance about the darkness of the human condition and the shapes human nature takes when ‘free’ to do so” (Clute & Nicholls, 507). “A collection of modern fiction would never be complete without it” (Connolly, 136). First issue dust jacket, without reviews. Without scarce wrap-around band. Book fine, bright dust jacket with a few very short closed tears, a bit of faint foxing to rear panel. A beautiful copy. 32 GOLDING, William. Lord of the Flies. London, 1954. Octavo, original red cloth, dust jacket, custom clamshell box. $19,500 “The world, that understandable and lawful world, was slipping away.”
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