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Darkness Visible (Golding)
Encyclopedia
Darkness Visible is a 1979
novel
by British author William Golding
. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
. The title comes from Paradise Lost
, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible".
The novel narrates a struggle between good and evil, using naïveté, sexuality and spirituality throughout. It marked Golding's re-emergence as a novelist, eight years after the publication of his previous book, the collection The Scorpion God
.
A dark and complex novel, it centres on Matty - introduced in chapter one as a naked child emerging horribly disfigured from a bomb explosion during the London Blitz in World War II
. He becomes a ward of the state and is put into a Catholic
boarding school, where he is shunned by the other children and sexually abused by one of his teachers, Mr. Pedigree. When he grows up, however, his selfless kindness and mysterious persona attract a devoted following of people who believe him to be a saint.
The second part of the book is centered on two twins, Toni and Sophy, from the point of view of Sophy. Their story starts from their childhood, when they are around 10 years old, and follows their growth as they become young adults.
The recurring theme in these two stories is madness, Matty being split between his two faces, and Sophy being schizoid as she is split between her and her sister.
1979 in literature
The year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*V.C...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by British author William Golding
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
. The title comes from Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...
, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible".
The novel narrates a struggle between good and evil, using naïveté, sexuality and spirituality throughout. It marked Golding's re-emergence as a novelist, eight years after the publication of his previous book, the collection The Scorpion God
The Scorpion God
The Scorpion God is a novella by William Golding, published in a collection of the same name, along with Clonk Clonk and Envoy Extraordinary ....
.
A dark and complex novel, it centres on Matty - introduced in chapter one as a naked child emerging horribly disfigured from a bomb explosion during the London Blitz in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. He becomes a ward of the state and is put into a Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
boarding school, where he is shunned by the other children and sexually abused by one of his teachers, Mr. Pedigree. When he grows up, however, his selfless kindness and mysterious persona attract a devoted following of people who believe him to be a saint.
The second part of the book is centered on two twins, Toni and Sophy, from the point of view of Sophy. Their story starts from their childhood, when they are around 10 years old, and follows their growth as they become young adults.
The recurring theme in these two stories is madness, Matty being split between his two faces, and Sophy being schizoid as she is split between her and her sister.