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Close Quarters
Introduced by Helen Castor
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See moreLose yourself in an epic naval journey in the second novel in the Booker Prize-winning Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.
Introduced by Helen Castor, lose yourself in an epic naval journey in the second novel in the Booker Prize-winning historical fiction Sea Trilogy by the author of Lord of the Flies.
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Description
This tropical nowhere was the whole world - the whole imaginable world.
A decrepit warship is becalmed halfway to Australia, stilled in an ocean wilderness of heat and sea mists. In this surreal, fête-like atmosphere, a ball is held with a passing ship: the passengers dance and flirt, while beneath them seaweed like green hair spreads ominously over the hull. Half-mad with fear, drink, love, and opium, both vessel and passengers feel themselves going to pieces: and the very planks seem to twist themselves alive as the ship comes apart at the seams...
'No living writer has represented the fragility of man's experience so marvellously as Golding.' - AS Byatt
'It is in Golding's magnificent, therapeutic, terrifying descriptions of seascapes that the deepest meanings can be found.' - Kate Mosse
To The Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy - Book Two
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Close Quarters by William Golding is praised for its thrilling narrative and imaginative storytelling. The novel is described as exceptionally vivid and absorbing, using powerful and subtle language to captivate readers. It successfully blends excitement with an impressive dream-like quality.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780571371662
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 07 April 2022
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Faber & Faber
Edition: Main
Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 19.0mm
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 266g
Pages: 320
About the Author
William Golding (1911 - 1993) was born in Cornwall and educated at Marlborough Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Before becoming a writer, he was an actor, small-boat sailor, musician and schoolteacher. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and took part in the D-Day operation and liberation of Holland. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was rejected by several publishers but rescued from the 'reject pile' at Faber and published in 1954. It became a modern classic selling millions of copies, translated into 44 languages and made into a film by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding wrote eleven other novels, a play and two essay collections. He won the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage in 1980 and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988 and died in 1993. www.william-golding.co.uk
Helen Castor is a historian of the later middle ages and sixteenth century and a Bye-Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. Her books include the prize-winning Blood & Roses, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, Joan of Arc: A History and Elizabeth I: A Study in Insecurity (for the Penguin Monarchs series). Castor has also presented programmes for BBC TV and radio and Channel 4, including BBC documentaries based on She-Wolves and Joan of Arc. She has one son, and lives in London.
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