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Lord of the Flies
- Narrated by: Martin Jarvis
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Classics
Non-member price: $37.98
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Publisher's Summary
A plane crashes on a desert island, and the only survivors, a group of schoolboys, assembles on the beach and waits to be rescued. By day they inhabit a land of bright fantastic birds and dark blue seas, but at night their dreams are haunted by the image of a terrifying beast. As the boys’ delicate sense of order fades, so their childish dreams are transformed into something more primitive and their behaviour starts to take on a murderous, savage significance.
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What listeners say about Lord of the Flies
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Janette
- 05-05-2019
Old memories
Read this when I was a kid. It was good to read it again. The narration reminded me of old radio broadcasts. Still a great listen.
1 person found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-10-2020
A classic book
Read it in my childhood as a English literature book in school, loved it then and loved it now. shows us how easy for us humans to become savages even more so for a group of young boys without supervision.
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- Daniel
- 22-09-2020
The Human Condition
Masterpiece of English literature. A singular classic exposing the base instincts that lie at our core. This gripping story will hold you until it's over. This work is essential reading, up there with the likes of Orwell, Swift, Twain, Tolkien and Voltaire!
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- Anonymous User
- 04-12-2018
Disturbing tragedy
The book somehow gives me an indescribable heavy feeling towards the human nature of mankind.
1 person found this helpful
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- ESK
- 12-11-2012
Story of cruel innocence
It's a story of spiralling down into savagery and brutality, a story of making a choice between good and evil, peace and war, God and Satan. The name Lord of the flies is actually translated as Beelzebul, one of the three main fallen angels along with Lucifer and Astaroth.
It is revolting to see how quickly and without compunction children can lose their innocence and become unruly bloodthirsty criminals.
As for the narrator, I was overwhelmed listening to M. Jarvis' performance. His rendition was exceptional.
3 people found this helpful
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- Ian
- 20-09-2012
Classic - if a bit disturbing.
Another classic that I have been seeking on audio to add to my library for a while. This one because I had read it as a boy and enjoyed it greatly and wanted to add it to my rotating library of repeat listens. It makes it to that list very very easily.
The basic story is probably fairly well known. Group of boys. Desert Island. Add some time and wait for chaos to reign. I remembered that much from my boyhood read but there are layers here that I didn't get as a spotty teen.
And I'm coming to the conclusion that this is what makes a great book great.
Every time you read it it makes you think about some element of it differently and see some feature in a new light. Ostensibly this is a book about how small boys will happily become savages if left without authority. It is also wider, deeper and longer than that if you pause the recoding every now and then and let your mind wander over a scene for a few minutes and think about whatever else it throws into your head. Bit like tasting a good wine where you can (I'm told - cheap plonk man myself) start to seperate out individual notes from the flavour. "I'm getting - the beginnings of religion - the draw of superstition - mans inhumanity to man.........."
That said , if all you want is a good book with a good story well told and well read then this will do that for you too. Just that there is more there if you want it.
Martin Jarvis does an excellent job on the narration.
3 people found this helpful
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- Matthew
- 25-01-2021
Add a small chapter at the end for ralph.
I loved the book but wish thet there was another chapter at the end for Ralph to get his justice and for Jack to be reprimanded.
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- Kerry
- 18-04-2020
Always a thought provoking classic
If you are not familiar with the book this is a great reading enjoy it
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- RF
- 12-12-2019
Golding says ululating a lot.
That's it, great book, killer ending, poor Piggy, oops spoilers, you knew, fifteen words byeeeeeeeeee!
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- Henrik Ebbeskog
- 25-09-2019
Carried away in thoughts
I sometimes got carried away in thoughts. Not a good sign that it was a book for me.
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- Anonymous User
- 18-03-2019
The book was one of the best I've read, but
Overall this was a great book, but the emense amount of discription of the environment made it a lot more boring to read and listen to. Other than that the book was amazing, the story, characters and this weird concept made you really think about how cruel the world is. Hey, and I liked the narrator to!
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- Bev Cox
- 17-03-2019
Too many metaphors
It was a walk down memory lane, have not read this since a child. Unfortunately, I had never realised how repetitious and heavy-handed the Author was until now. Still a great look at Human behaviour and entertaining #Team Ralph
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- Kindle Customer
- 09-02-2019
lord of the flies
Loved it! Narrator was excellent! Long time overdue book for me to 'read'. Well done
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- Phelan Hourigan
- 21-09-2017
Important Ideas but a boring story
I appreciated the writing, themes, and ideas. However, the plot is slow and cumbersomeand I struggled to finish the book.
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- Ant
- 12-12-2013
There's a reason it's a classic
A very well told story of descent into savagery. This is one of those "I really should read" books, which I am very glad I did.
Every part of this story is etched into my mind by the author's descriptive artistry brought to life by Martin Jarvis' exceptional story telling. I can still see Piggy quite clearly when I recollect the book, along with the pig trails in the jungle and the boys camp next to the shallow rock pool.
If you have any desire to read this book then I doubt it will be a disappointment.
15 people found this helpful
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- stephen
- 28-04-2013
Not a single word wasted.
Being uneducated and semi-literate, Lord of The Flies has been one of the many books floating around in the ether that was unlikely for me ever to read. It turns out that my nephew, who is also my ward along with his four siblings, must study it for his Junior Certificate state examinations in Ireland. So I got the audiobook. I'm sure, like many people, I have had a vague idea of what it was about. I didn't realise that it was so modern, what with aeroplanes and televisions etc. What impressed me was the simplicity in the style of writing. I'm sure that this book is not abridgeable, unlike Victor Hugo and even my dear sweet Charles Dickens, and in truth William Golding has not wasted a single word. As to Martin Jarvis, here is an actor who can really bring a book to life, he reads beautifully and interprets characters brilliantly. I would highly recommend this audiobook.
37 people found this helpful
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- eileen
- 26-04-2013
lord of the flies
I read this book when I was 11 and enjoyed it then so I thought that it would be nice to give it another try and I must say it was just as enjoyable this time round, I found that I just had to keep reading until I had finished it. A great read, sad and funny.
10 people found this helpful
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- Philippa
- 23-12-2012
Atmospheric
This reading suits perfectly the dramatic story that unfolds. The pace at which the story is told does justice to the powerful atmosphere that Golding creates. I played the death scenes to class while they were studying it and it made the story all the most accessible to them.
9 people found this helpful
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- Carrie
- 21-06-2014
Wonderful
I really enjoyed this book it gripped me throughout. The reader was fantastic and there was very little that didnt add to the story.
8 people found this helpful
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- Claire
- 22-03-2020
Sadly a true depiction of mankind
Golding shows through the behaviour of the children in the book what happens in a lawless society and how quickly it descends into anarchy. Sadly I think this is a pretty accurate description of how mankind will behave and unfortunately the reactions of many people in our current Coronavirus situation, has done nothing to dissaude me of that!
5 people found this helpful
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- Nicola Esler
- 16-12-2019
a bit sad..
I've always put off reading this, expecting it to be full of evil savagery.... but loved it! Most of it.... Martin Jarvis was the perfect narrator. I just didn't like the sad bits but then I guess, that was kind of the whole point of the story.... mans inhumanity to man.
4 people found this helpful
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- Sarah Davies
- 20-06-2019
Brilliant narrator for such a powerful book
I haven't read this for years although it's one that stays with you. As an adult revisiting it there's an added layer of nuance I think as you truly understand the last few lines. The reader was superb and I really enjoyed this.
4 people found this helpful
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- Carly
- 01-12-2012
Excellent narration
Martin Jarvis did a very good job here, bringing the characters to life. A pleasure to listen to.
6 people found this helpful
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- miriam ryan
- 30-11-2019
Great story but...
Brilliant story about the true nature of humanity and its darker roots. However I thought the narration by Martin Jarvis was a poor choice, as he sounds as if he is bored and isn’t giving the characters enough of a voice to fully imagine the scene. Just my opinion though 🤷🏻♂️
2 people found this helpful
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