This book is a classic tale of society in microcosm, an introductory text on political science and, apparently, an attempt to illustrate the evils of human nature. Re-reading it recently (I first read it in high school), I was struck by just how antiquated the book was - particularly its obsession with the line between civilzation and savagery, or the assumed belief in the inherent uprightness of British people. Nor did I pick out, on my first read-through, just how much this book lives in the shadow of atomic warfare, which certainly makes sense.

On a separate note - I found some of the writing quite a bit more opaque than it could have been; frequently it was difficult to see what, exactly, Golding was trying to describe. Perhaps that was intentional - an effort to mimic the cloudy reasoning in Ralph’s mind, or something - but it was quite confusing.

All the same, I very much enjoyed returning to this book; it was quite impressive.