Stranded on a remote Pacific island, a group of schoolboys wait to be rescued; by day they inhabit a tropical paradise, but at night their dreams are haunted by a terrifying beast—one they created themselves. Earning the praise of authors as diverse as E.M. Forster and Stephen King, William Golding's gripping 1954 parable of civilization and savagery has been ranked in Top 100 polls by the BBC, Time Magazine, and the Modern Library.