Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Inheritors by William Golding ISBN: 0-15-644379-1 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: September, 1963 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.36 (22 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A Tale of Two Species
Comment: I'm sure there are plenty of inaccuracies in this book regarding the actual lifestyles of Neanderthals and early humans during this time. But, this novel works better as mythological, or symbolic fable (like Lord of the Flies) than as a historical sketch of the dawn of humanity. The broader themes are more important that the fossil record here.
Based on my appreciation for Lord of the Flies, and based on the intriguing premise advertized on this novel's cover, I was really looking forward to seeing how well Golding was able to capture the minds of the Neanderthals through his prose. I was very impressed with how well he immersed his own authorship in their world. In fact, he may have been TOO successful.
Be advised, potential reader, that very little familiar detail is given to explain all that takes place. You'll be confused, on one level, but also inescapably aware of what's happening on another, and this is the real strength of the story. If you allow yourself to feel both you'll be on a very similar learning curve as the protagonists throughout their plight for survival, but with a slightly more distressing feeling in your heart because... well, you know how it all turned out in the long run, right?
Moderately experienced readers with vivid imaginations should give this one a try.
Rating: 5
Summary: After All These Years
Comment: I read THE INHERITORS back in the early 60's when I was a home mother with six kids. The book was so intellectually stimulating that I could not forget it. I have been a Great Books leader, a journalist, and a novelist in the forty or so years since reading THE INHERITORS and I still consider it a classic. I have been asked to nominate a book of the 60's to Pinellas County, Fl. libraries for discussion and have chosen THE INHERITORS. It combines the depth of literature with an implicit concept of the underpinnings of the 60's. My books are STAND FAST and FREEDOM'S COST.
Rating: 5
Summary: I loved it
Comment: I haven't been so emotionally involved in a book since...well, for a long time.
This novel is about a family group of Neanderthals who travel to their cave for the warmer part of the year and meet there a group of modern men. The resulting events are as intense and terrifying for the reader as they are for the Neanderthals. Because Golding shows everything from their point of view, we are often left as puzzled and uncomprehending as they. The descriptions of objects the we know about -- bows and arrows, boats, alcohol -- are written as the Neanderthals saw them. The actions of the modern humans -- their rituals and hierarchy -- Golding makes successfully foreign -- but when we sit and think about what we've read, we realize, wait, I *know* this, this is what humans do.
The characterization is achieved deftly and sensitively, Lok and Fa are compelling as is their fate. Prehistory was very likely *not* like this -- but the themes stand, and this book is powerful.
I do not think Golding is doing a disservice to our species, because this is how we are. He is telling a damn good, if tragic, story. I will re-read this book over and over again, I know. Golding is truly great, and this book is greater, in my opinion, than the oft-assigned "Lord of the Flies."
 |
Title: The Spire by William Golding ISBN: 0156027828 Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: November, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Darkness Visible by William Golding ISBN: 0374525609 Publisher: Noonday Press Pub. Date: 15 February, 1999 List Price(USD): $21.00 |
 |
Title: Rites of Passage by William Golding ISBN: 0374526400 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: December, 1980 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: Dance of the Tiger: A Novel of the Ice Age by Bjorn Kurten, Stephen Jay Gould ISBN: 0520202775 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: September, 1995 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: Pincher Martin: The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin by William Golding ISBN: 015602781X Publisher: Harvest Books Pub. Date: December, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
