"Golding, William - Lord Of The Flies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Golding William)

LORD OF THE FLIES
a novel by
WILLIAM GOLDING

With a biographical and critical note by E. L. Epstein

A Perigee Book
Published by The Berkley Publishing Group
200 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016

Copyright 1954 by William Golding

Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number 59-11717

ISBN 0-399-50148-7

Contents
1. The Sound of the Shell page 7
2. Fire on the Mountain 32
3. Huts on the Beach 48
4. Painted Faces and Long Hair 58
5. Beast from Water 76
6. Beast from Air 95
7. Shadows and Tall Trees 109
8. Gift for the Darkness 124
9. A View to a Death 145
10. The Shell and the Glasses 155
11. Castle Rock 169
12. Cry of the Hunters 183
Notes 203


For my mother and father


CHAPTER ONE
The Sound of the Shell

The boy with fair hair lowered himself down the last few feet of rock and began to pick his way toward the lagoon. Though he had taken off his school sweater and trailed it now from one hand, his grey shirt stuck to him and his hair was plastered to his forehead. All round him the long scar smashed into the jungle was a bath of heat. He was clambering heavily among the creepers and broken trunks when a bird, a vision of red and yellow, flashed upwards with a witch-like cry; and this cry was echoed by another.
"Hi!" it said. "Wait a minute!"
The undergrowth at the side of the scar was shaken and a multitude of raindrops fell pattering.
"Wait a minute," the voice said. "I got caught up."
The fair boy stopped and jerked his stockings with an automatic gesture that made the jungle seem for a moment like the Home Counties.
The voice spoke again.
"I can't hardly move with all these creeper things."
The owner of the voice came backing out of the undergrowth so that twigs scratched on a greasy wind-breaker. The naked crooks of his knees were plump, caught and scratched by thorns. He bent down, removed the thorns carefully, and turned around. He was shorter than the fair boy and very fat. He came forward, searching out safe lodgments for his feet, and then looked up through thick spectacles.
"Where's the man with the megaphone?"
The fair boy shook his head.
"This is an island. At least I think it's an island. That's a reef out in the sea. Perhaps there aren't any grownups anywhere."