Golding, William

William Gerald Golding was born on September 19, 1911 in the village of St. Columb Minor ( Cornwall ) in the family of Alec Golding, a school teacher and author of several textbooks. William retained a few memories of his preschool childhood: he had no acquaintances and friends, the circle of contacts was limited to family members and the nanny Lily. Only walks in the countryside, long trips to the Cornish sea coast, and also fascination with “the horrors and gloom of the family mansion in Marlborough and the nearby cemetery” were remembered. In these early years, Golding had two addictions: reading and mathematics. The boy began his self-education with the classics ( Odyssey , Homer ), read the novels by J. Swift , E. R. Burroughs , Jules Verne , E. A. Poe . In 1921, William entered the Marlborough Grammar School , where his father Alec taught science. ^[2] Here, for the first time, the young man had the idea to start writing: at the age of twelve he conceived his first work of art devoted to the theme of the origin of the trade union movement. Only the first phrase of the planned 12-volume epic has survived: “I was born in the Duchy of Cornwall on October 11, 1792; my parents were rich but honest people. ” As noted later, the use of “but” has already said a lot ^[3] .

In 1930, focusing on Latin , William Golding entered Brasenose College at Oxford University , where, following the will of his parents, he decided to study the natural sciences . It took him two years to understand the fallacy of choice and in 1932, changing the curriculum, concentrate on learning English and literature ^[3] . At the same time, Golding not only preserved, but also developed an interest in antiquity; in particular, to the history of primitive communities. It was this interest (according to critic B. Oldsey ) that determined the ideological foundation of his first serious works. In June 1934, he graduated from college with a second degree diploma ^[2] .

Literary Debut

As a student at Oxford, Golding began writing poetry; At first, this hobby served as a kind of psychological counterbalance to the need to dive into the exact sciences. As Bernard F. Dick wrote, the novice writer simply began to “write down his observations - about nature, unrequited love, the call of the seas and the temptations of rationalism” ^[3] . One of his student friends compiled these passages into a collection on his own and sent them to Macmillan, which was preparing a special series of publications of poetry by young authors. One morning, in the fall of 1934 ^[2] , Golding unexpectedly received a check for five pounds for the collection Poems by WG Golding , thus learning about the beginning of his literary career ^[3] .

Subsequently, Golding repeatedly expressed regret that this collection saw the light of day; once even acquired a second-hand copy - solely to tear it up and throw it away (only later did he learn that he had destroyed the collection rarity). However, the poems of the 23-year-old poet were subsequently considered by critics as completely “mature and distinctive” ^[4] ; in addition, it was noted that they clearly characterize the spectrum of interests of the author, the central place in which is occupied by the topic of the separation of society and criticism of rationalism ^[5] . Among the poems that researchers subsequently drew attention to were Non-Philosopher's Song, a sonnet about the conflict of “mind and heart,” and the anti-rationalist work “Mr. Pope. " In 1935, the collection was sold by shilling for a copy; subsequently, when its author became famous, the value of a rare book jumped to several thousand dollars ^[3] .

In 1935, Golding received a bachelor of arts degree and in the fall, as a teacher, he began working at Michael Hall in Streetham in the south of London ^[2] . During these years, working part-time in a clearing house ^[6] and social services (in particular, in a London shelter for the homeless), he began to write plays that he himself staged in a small London theater. In the fall of 1938, Golding returned to Oxford to graduate; next January, he began preparatory teaching practice at the Salisbury School of Bishop Wordsworth ^[2] , initially at Maidstone High School ( Maidstone Grammar School ), where he met Ann Brookfield, a specialist in analytical chemistry. In September 1939, they got married and moved to Salisbury: here the novice writer began teaching English and philosophy - already directly at the Wordsworth School ^[7] . In December of that year, shortly after the birth of the first-born, Golding left to serve in the Navy .

War: 1941-1945

Golds' first warship was the HMS Galatea , operating in the North Atlantic Ocean . In early 1942, Golding was transferred to Liverpool , where as part of a maritime patrol unit, he carried many hours of duty on the Gladstone dock. In the spring of 1942 he was sent to MD1, a military research center in Buckinghamshire , and in early 1943, in accordance with the petition, was returned to the active fleet. Soon, Golding was in New York , where he began organizing the transportation of destroyers - from the manufacturer's docks in New Jersey to the UK. Having undergone special training on a landing ship- rocket carrier, as the commander of such a ship, he took part in the events of D Day : the landing of the Allies in Normandy and the invasion of the island of Valkeren ^[2] .

The life experience of the war years, as the writer himself later admitted, deprived him of any illusions about the properties of human nature. “I began to understand what people are capable of. Anyone who has gone through the war and does not understand that people do evil just like a bee produces honey is either blind or out of his mind ” ^[7] ,” he said. “As a young man, before the war I had lightly-naive ideas about a person. But I went through the war, and that changed me. The war taught me - and many others - something completely different ” ^[3] ,” the writer said in an interview with Douglas A. Davis, New Republic .

World famous

Demobilized in September 1945, William Golding returned to teaching at Wordsworth School in Salisbury; in the same days, he began a serious study of ancient Greek literature. “If I really had to choose foster literary parents, I would say such big names as Euripides , Sophocles , perhaps Herodotus ... I can also notice that <in those years> I developed a deep love for Homer ," said writer to J. Baker (William Golding, A Critical Study). Then Golding returned to his pre-war hobby: literary activity; at first - to write reviews and articles for magazines. Not one of the four early novels of the writer was published; all manuscripts were subsequently lost. Golding later said that these attempts were doomed to failure in advance, because in them he tried to satisfy needs - not his own, but publishing. From the writer who went through the war, they expected something based on military experience - memoirs or a novel ^[3] .

In 1952, Golding began work on a novel entitled " Strangers from Within " ( Strangers from Within ); in January of the following year, he began to send manuscripts to publishers, repeatedly receiving rejections. In 1953, the novel was read and rejected by publishers for seven months; reviewer Faber & Faber found the work “absurd, uninteresting, empty and boring” ^[8] . A total of twenty-one publishers returned the manuscript to the author. And then Charles Monteith, in the recent past, a lawyer who had been accepted by the publisher as an editor the month before, almost literally took the novel out of the trash. He persuaded Faber & Faber to buy the work - for a ridiculous amount of £ 60 ^[8] .

An allegorical novel about a group of schoolchildren who found themselves on an island during a certain war (unfolding, most likely, in the near future), in a tightly edited version of Monteith and under the new heading “ Lord of the Flies ” was released in September 1954. . Originally conceived as an ironic “commentary” on R.M. Ballantyne 's “ Coral Island, ” it was a complex allegory of original sin combined with reflections on the deepest human essence. The first responses to this work, adventure in the plot, apocalyptic in spirit, were restrained and ambiguous. After the release of the softcover book in the UK became a bestseller; as the reputation of the novel grew, so did the attitude of literary criticism towards it. In the end, “Lord of the Flies” in terms of interest from analysts was comparable with the two main books of J. Orwell ^[3] . In 1955, Golding was elected to the Royal Society of Literature. The popularity in the USA came to the writer after the next reprint of The Lord of the Flies in 1959 ^[7] .

Golding considered his most famous novel “boring and raw” all his life, and his language was “scholarly” ( English O-level stuff ). To the fact that “Lord of the Flies” is considered a modern classic, he did not take it very seriously, and considered the money earned on it as something equivalent to “winning the Monopoly ”. The writer sincerely did not understand how this novel could leave his more powerful books in the shadow: The Heirs, The Spire, and The Martin Thief. At the end of his life, Golding was unable to even force himself to re-read the manuscript in its original, unedited form, fearing that it would be so upset that "it could create something terrible with itself." Meanwhile, in the diary, Golding also revealed the deeper reasons for his aversion to “Lord of the Flies”: “In essence, I despise myself, and it’s important for me not to be opened, not exposed, not recognized, not seduced” ( Eng. .. .basically I despise myself and am anxious not to be discovered, uncovered, detected, rumbled ) ^[8] .

1955-1963

Golding continued to engage in teaching activities until 1960: all this time he wrote in his spare hours. In 1955, his second novel, The Heirs , was released; the theme "social vice as a consequence of the initial depravity of human nature" has received new development here. The novel, which takes place at the dawn of the emergence of humanity, Golding later called his beloved; praised the work and literary critics, paying attention to how the author developed here the ideas of "Lord of the Flies."

In 1956, the novel "The Thief Martin " ( English Pincher Martin ) was published; one of the most difficult works of the writer in the USA was published under the heading “Two deaths of Christopher Martin”: publishers feared that the reader might not be aware of the slang meaning of the word “pincher” (“petty thief”). The story of “modern Faust, ” who “refuses to accept death even from the hands of the Lord” ^[9] , a shipwrecked naval officer who climbs onto a cliff that seems to him an island and clings in vain to life, completed the “primitive” stage in Golding’s work only formally; the study of the main themes of the first two novels here was continued in a new vein ^[7] , in the experimental structure and with sophisticated attention to the smallest details ^[10] .

In the second half of the 1950s, Golding began to take an active part in the capital's literary life, to collaborate as a reviewer with publications such as The Bookman and The Listener , to speak on the radio. In the same year, his story Envoy Extraordinary was featured in Sometime, Never (Eyre and Spottiswoode), along with stories by John Wyndham and Mervyn Peak. February 24, 1958 in Oxford, the premiere of the play “ The Brass Butterfly ” ( The Brass Butterfly , starring Alistair Sim), staged based on the story “Ambassador Extraordinary”. The performance was successfully held in many cities in Britain, a month was shown on the capital's stage. The text of the play was published in July. In the fall of 1958, the Goldings moved to the village of Bowerchalke. Over the next two years, the writer suffered two heavy losses: his father and mother died.

In 1959, the novel “ Free Fall ” was published; the work, the main idea of ​​which, according to the author, was an attempt to show that "life is initially illogical <and remains so> until we ourselves impose logic on it", is considered by many to be the strongest in its legacy ^[11] . Reflected in an artistic form on the boundaries of a person’s free choice, they differed from Goldís first works by the absence of allegory and a strictly drawn plot; nevertheless, the development of the basic ideas concerning criticism of the basic concepts of human life and its meaning was continued here ^[11] .

In the fall of 1961, Golding and his wife went to the USA, where he worked for a year at the Hollins Women's College of Art (Virginia). Here in 1962, he began work on his next novel, The Spire, and also delivered the first version of the lecture “The Parable” - about the novel “Lord of the Flies”. Explaining the essence of his worldview in a 1962 interview regarding the main theme of his first novels, Golding said: “At heart, I am an optimist. On an intellectual level, understanding that ... the chances of mankind blowing itself up are about one-to-one, on an emotional level, I just don’t believe that it will do it ” ^[12] . In the same year, Golding quit Wordsworth School and became a professional writer. ^[7] Speaking at a meeting of European writers in Leningrad in 1963 , he formulated ^[13] his philosophical concept, expressed in novels that made him famous:

The author of the movie “Lord of the Flies” of 1963, directed by Peter Brook, contributed to the worldwide recognition of the author ^[7] .

1964-1983

One of the most important works of Gold is considered " The Spire " ( Eng. The Spire , 1964). In the novel, firmly intertwining myth and reality, the author turned to the study of the nature of inspiration and reflection on what price a person has to pay for the right to be a creator ^[14] . In 1965, the Hot Gates collection was published, which included journalistic and critical works written in 1960-1962 for the Spectator magazine ^[7] . How outstanding were the essays about childhood (“Billy the Kid”, “The Ladder and the Tree”) and the essay “Proverb”, in which the author tried to answer all the questions asked about the novel “Lord of the Flies” by readers and specialists ^{[9 ]} . By this time, Golding had gained mass popularity as well as authority among critics. Then, however, a long pause occurred in the writer's work, when only stories and short stories came out of his pen.

In 1967, a collection of three short stories was released under the general title “The Pyramid ”, united by the scene, the provincial Steelbourne, where eighteen-year-old Oliver recognizes life as “a complicated pile of hypocrisy, naivety, cruelty, perversion and cold calculation” ^[15] . The work, in some elements autobiographical, caused controversial responses; not all critics considered it to be the full novel, but many noted an unusual combination of social satire and elements of a psychological novel. The collection “ The Scorpion God ” ( The Scorpion God: Three Short Novels , 1971) was much warmer, three novels of which take the reader to Ancient Rome (“Extraordinary Ambassador”), to primitive Africa (“Clone Clone”) and to the coast Nile in the 4th millennium BC ("God Scorpio"). The book returned the writer to the more familiar parable genre, which he used here to analyze the philosophical issues of human life that are relevant for modern times ^[16] , but retained elements of social satire ^[17] .

In subsequent years, critics were at a loss about what happened in the 1970s with a writer who markedly reduced creative activity; the darkest forecasts were expressed related to the worldview crisis, a creative impasse into which the “tired prophet” from Salisbury allegedly entered ^[18] . Но в 1979 году роман « Зримая тьма » (заголовок которого был заимствован из поэмы Мильтона « Потерянный рай »; такое определение поэт-классик давал Преисподней) ознаменовал возвращение Голдинга в литературу больших форм и был удостоен мемориальной премии Джеймса Тейта Блэка ( James Tait Black Memorial Prize ). Первые же сцены книги, в которых маленький ребёнок со страшными ожогами выходит из огня во время бомбардировки Лондона, заставили критиков вновь заговорить о библейских аналогиях и взглядах писателя на проблему изначального, первобытного Зла. Исследователи отмечали, что в конце 1970-х годов у Голдинга словно бы открылось «второе дыхание»; за последующие десять лет из-под его пера вышли пять книг, по глубине проблематики и мастерству исполнения не уступавших его первым произведениям ^[18] .

За романом «Зримая тьма» (1979) последовали « Ритуалы плавания » (1980), принесшие автору Премию Букера и положившие начало «Морской трилогии» — социально-философскому иносказательному повествованию об Англии, «плывущей в неизвестность по волнам истории» ^[18] . В 1982 году Голдинг опубликовал сборник эссе, озаглавленный «Движущаяся мишень» («A Moving Target», 1982), а год спустя стал обладателем наивысшей литературной награды.

Присуждение Нобелевской премии

В 1983 году Уильям Голдинг был удостоен Нобелевской премии по литературе — «за романы, которые с ясностью реалистического повествовательного искусства в сочетании с многообразием и универсальностью мифа помогают постигнуть условия существования человека в современном мире» ^[7] . Для многих явилось неожиданностью то, что Голдинга предпочли другому английскому кандидату, Грэму Грину . Более того, один из членов Шведской академии, литературовед Артур Лунквист, голосуя против избрания Голдинга, заявил, что этот автор — явление чисто английское и его произведения «не представляют существенного интереса». Иную оценку произведениям кандидата дал Ларс Июлленстен: «Романы и рассказы Голдинга — это не только угрюмые нравоучения и темные мифы о зле и предательских разрушительных силах, это ещё и занимательные приключенческие истории, которые могут читаться ради удовольствия» ^[7] , — говорил представитель Шведской академии. «Его книги волнуют и увлекают. Их можно читать с удовольствием и пользой, не прилагая особых усилий… Но при этом они возбудили необычайный интерес среди профессиональных литературных критиков, которые обнаружили огромный пласт сложностей и двусмысленностей в работах Голдинга» ^[3] , — говорилось в официальном заявлении Шведской академии.

В Нобелевской лекции Уильям Голдинг в шутливой форме отрёкся от репутации безнадежного пессимиста, сказав, что он — «универсальный пессимист, но космический оптимист».

Последние годы жизни

В 1988 году Голдинг получил от Королевы Елизаветы Второй рыцарский титул . За четыре года до этого писатель опубликовал роман « Бумажные людишки » ( The Paper Men ), в англо-американской прессе вызвавший ожесточённые споры. За ним последовали « Тесное соседство » ( Close Quarters , 1987) и « Пожар внизу » ( Fire Down Below , 1989). В 1991 году писатель, незадолго до этого отпраздновавший свой восьмидесятый день рождения, самостоятельно объединил три романа в цикл, который был издан под одной обложкой под заголовком «На край света: морская трилогия».

В 1992 году Голдинг узнал о том, что страдает злокачественной меланомой ; в конце декабря опухоль была удалена, но стало ясно, что здоровье писателя подорвано. В начале 1993 года он приступил к работе над новой книгой, завершить которую не успел. Роман « Двойной язык » ( The Double Tongue ), восстановленное по незавершённым наброскам и потому сравнительно небольшое произведение, рассказывающее (от первого лица) историю прорицательницы Пифии , был опубликован в июне 1995 года , через два года после смерти автора ^[19] .

Уильям Голдинг скоропостижно скончался от обширного инфаркта у себя дома в Перранауортоле 19 июня 1993 года . Его похоронили на церковном кладбище в Бауэрчоке, а панихиду отслужили в солсберийском кафедральном соборе под тем самым шпилем, который вдохновил писателя на одно из его самых известных произведений ^[18] .

Как отмечал литературовед А. А. Чамеев, проза Уильяма Голдинга, «пластичная, красочная, напряжённая», принадлежит к самым «ярким явлениям послевоенной британской литературы». Для произведений Голдинга характерны драматизм, философская глубина, разнообразие и сложность метафорического языка; за кажущимися простотой и непринуждённостью повествования в книгах автора «скрываются цельность и строгость формы, выверенная слаженность деталей» ^[18] . Согласно У. Аллену, каждый компонент произведения писателя, сохраняя художественную самостоятельность, «работает» на заранее заданную философскую концепцию, нередко противоречивую и спорную, но «неизменно продиктованную искренней тревогой за судьбу человека в вывихнутом мире; претворённая в плоть и кровь художественных образов, эта концепция превращает всю конструкцию в обобщение почти космической широты» ^[20] .

Концепции Голдинга, в основном, основывались на крайне пессимистическом отношении к природе человека и перспективах его эволюции. «Оптимистическое представление о целесообразности и необратимости исторического процесса, вера в разум, в научный прогресс, в общественное переустройство, в изначальную доброту человеческой природы кажутся Голдингу — в свете опыта военных лет — не более чем иллюзиями, обезоруживающими человека в его отчаянных попытках преодолеть трагизм бытия» ^[18] , — писал А. Чамеев. Формулируя свои цели, писатель ставил во главу угла проблему исследования человека со всеми его тёмными сторонами. «Человек страдает от чудовищного неведения своей собственной природы. Истинность этого положения для меня несомненна. Я целиком посвятил своё творчество решению проблемы, в чём существо человеческое» ^[21] , — писал он в 1957 году.

Исследователи по-разному классифицировали жанр произведений У. Голдинга: «притча», «парабола», «философско-аллегорический роман», отмечая, что его персонажи, как правило, вырваны из повседневности и поставлены в обстоятельства, где нет тех удобных лазеек, что существуют в обычных условиях. Сам писатель не отрицал притчевого характера своей прозы; более того, посвятил размышлениям на эту тему лекцию, прочитанную американским студентам в 1962 году ^[22] . Признавая свою приверженность мифотворчеству, он трактовал «миф» как «ключ к существованию, открывающий конечный смысл бытия и вбирающий в себя жизненный опыт целиком и без остатка» ^{[18] [23]} . Исследователями отмечалось своеобразие «мира Голдинга»: его малонаселенность, нередко — замкнутость (остров в «Повелителе мух», участок первобытного леса в «Наследниках», одинокая скала посреди океана в «Воришке Мартине»). Именно пространственная ограниченность поля действия открывает автору «простор для моделирования разного рода экстремальных (пограничных — в экзистенциалистской терминологии) ситуаций», обеспечивая тем самым «чистоту опыта» ^[18] , — считал А. Чамеев.

Отзывы критики

Творчество Уильяма Голдинга всегда вызывало разноречивые, нередко полярные отклики и оценки. Американский критик Стенли Э. Хаймен называл его «самым интересным современным английским писателем». Того же мнения придерживался английский романист и критик В. С. Притчетт . Однако аллегоричность прозы Голдинга давала критикам повод для многочисленных споров. Высказывались мнения о том, что иносказания отягощают повествовательную канву его книг; многим писательская манера автора казалась претенциозной ^[7] . Фредерик Карл критиковал Голдинга за «неспособность… дать интеллектуальное обоснование своим темам», а также за «дидактический тон». «Его эксцентрическим темам недостает равновесия и зрелости, которые свидетельствовали бы о литературном мастерстве» ^[7] , — утверждал этот же критик. Джонатан Рабан считал Голдинга не столько романистом, сколько «проповедником от литературы», озабоченным исключительно решением глобальных вопросов бытия. «Его книги следуют проповеднической традиции — как минимум в той же степени, в какой они следуют традиции романа. Голдинг не слишком преуспевает в воспроизведении реальности; вымышленные события в его романах происходят так, как происходят они в притчах. Стиль его прозы лишён мелодичности и часто выглядит неуклюжим» ^[3] , — писал Рабан в журнале The Atlantic .

«Повелитель мух» и «Наследники»

Первые отклики на дебютный роман Голдинга были сдержанными. По мере того, как репутация и популярность романа росли, стало меняться и отношение к нему. Литературные критики, поначалу воспринявшие произведение как очередную приключенческую историю, — вскоре стали выстраивать вокруг него целые теоретические структуры. В конечном итоге «Повелитель мух» был включён в основные образовательные программы; более того, по уровню интереса к нему со стороны аналитиков оказался сравним с двумя основными книгами Дж. Оруэлла ^[3] . В США, как отмечал Дуайт Гарнер, обозреватель «Нью-Йорк Таймс», именно «Повелитель мух» «заменил сэлинджеровскую ' Над пропастью во ржи ' в качестве Библии несчастливого детства» ^[24] .

Основную идею романа, состоящую в том, что «так называемая цивилизованность человека, есть нечто, в лучшем случае лишь поверхностное» (Джеймс Стерн, New York Times Book Review ), критика формулировала, следуя высказываниям самого автора о своём детище. Начиная с этого момента, Голдинга стали считать выразителем пессимистического взгляда на человеческую природу; мастером аллегории, использующим жанр романа для анализа непрекращающейся борьбы в человеке цивилизованного «я» с его тёмной первобытной природой ^[3] . Некоторые исследователи усматривали в «Повелителе мух» присутствие библейских мотивов (Дэвид Андерсон считал, что это «сложная версия истории Каина — человека, который — после того, как его сигнальный костер не сработал, убил брата своего»), отмечая, что роман «исследует истоки моральной деградации человечества». К. Б. Кокс назвал в 1960 году «Повелитель мух», «возможно, самым важным романом, созданным в 1950-е». В списке The Times «The Best 60 Books of the Past 60 years» роман занял строку лучшего романа 1954 года ^[25] . Лайонел Триллинг придавал произведению значение поворотного пункта в истории современной английской литературы: после него «…Бог, возможно, и умер, но Дьявол расцвёл — особенно в английских общественных школах» ^[26] .

Второй роман Голдинга, «Наследники», рассматривался, с одной стороны, как неявное продолжение первого, с другой — как полемика с «Очерком истории» ( англ. Outline of History ) Герберта Уэллса , исповедовавшего оптимистический, рационалистский взгляд на прогресс человечества. Times Literary Supplement отмечал, что два эти произведения даже в чём-то близки стилистически. Голдинг вспоминал, что его отец-рационалист именно эту работу Уэллса рассматривал как «истину в последней инстанции». Питер Грин ( A Review of English Literature ), отмечая внутреннюю связь «Наследников» с «Повелителем мух», писал, что Голдинг в своём втором романе «…всего лишь создал вторую рабочую модель для того, чтобы истинную человеческую природу показать под иным углом». Другой британский критик, Олдси, продолжил ту же параллель в религиозном ключе: оба романа, в его представлении, исследуют регресс человека — не в дарвинистском , но в библейском ключе. Мальчики из «Повелителя мух» регрессируют, неандертальцы — вытолкнуты пришельцами вперёд, к прогрессу, но результат оказывается одинаков. В совокупности два первых романа Голдинга, по мнению Лоуренса Р. Райса («Wolf Masks: Violence in Contemporary Fiction»), являют собой «исследование человеческой природы, в котором на первый план выведено насилие; агрессия, человеком обращённая против себе подобных» ^[3] .

Романы 1959—1964 годов

«Первобытный» период в творчестве Голдинга с публикацией третьего романа, « Воришка Мартин », завершился, но критики отметили в нём отголоски знакомых идей. Аллегория смехотворности мелочной борьбы человека, чье «видимое существование является как бы добровольным чистилищем, отказом принять Божью милость и умереть» ^[7] рассматривалась и в библейских категориях: так, Southern Review отметил, что эпизоды произведения выстроены «в шестидневную структуру… предсмертного жизненного опыта», которая, включая безвременье, в котором происходят вымышленные события островитянина, «служит ужасающей пародией на шесть дней Сотворения…». «Тьма <для автора> становится универсальным символом: это мрак существа, лишенного способности видеть себя, …мрак подсознания, мрак сна, смерти и за смертью — неба» ^[3] , — писал Стивен Медкалф в книге «Уильям Голдинг».

Роман « Свободное падение » (1958), посвящённый исследованию вопроса о границах свободного выбора человека, отличался от первых произведений Голдинга отсутствием всякой иносказательности. Вместе с тем, критика подметила и здесь продолжение ряда линий, начатых в ранних романах: исследуя переход от детской невинности к взрослости, для которой характерна полная утрата внутренней свободы, автор подверг сомнению базовые понятия о человеческой жизни и её смысле. Стивен Медкалф усмотрел в «Свободном падении» параллели с Данте (первую возлюбленную героя, которая впоследствии оказывается в клинике для умалишенных, зовут Беатрис), отметив, что Голдинг в своём романе прослеживает падение человека непосредственно — там, где Данте ограничивается намёками ^[3] .

В романе « Шпиль » (1964) У. Голдинг, как писал С. Медкалф, вновь проявил «интерес к замутнённым областям человеческого характера», продолжив «исследование человеческой воли, готовой всё принести себе в жертву». История настоятеля Джослина, оказавшегося во власти навязчивой идеи о собственной «миссии», получила множество толкований: так, New York Review of Books назвал Шпиль «книгой о предвидении и цене за него», которая «затрагивает тему мотивации в искусстве и молитве», а шпиль использует — как символ, с одной стороны, фаллический, с другой — как олицетворение соития двух начал: человеческого и божественного. New York Times Book Review отмечал, что «Шпиль» можно толковать и как точное описание автором своего художественного метода, суть которого состоит в попытке «вознестись ввысь, оставаясь при этом прикованным к земле». «Мистер Голдинг в своих устремлениях поднимается подобно лозе, цепляясь за любую твердь. Это особенно проявляется в 'Шпиле', где каждый камень, каждый этаж лесов, каждый карниз и узел используется автором, чтобы подтянуться к небесам» ^[3] , — писал Найджел Деннис. При том, что сам Голдинг подчёркивал «земной» смысл финала книги (Джослин-фанатик умирает, ощутив перед смертью красоту окружающего мира) он же отмечал: собственную маниакальность главный герой воспринимает как безумство божественное, полагая, что Бог сам толкает человека на «безумные дела» во имя самопрославления ^[27] . Английские критики М. Кинкид-Уикс и И. Грегор сочли именно «Шпиль» поворотным пунктом в творчестве Голдинга, которое с этих пор раздвоилось на русла: метафизическое и социальное ^[3] .

1967—1979: «Пирамида» и «Зримая тьма»

Не все литературные критики сочли « Пирамиду » — сборник трёх новелл, объединённых местом действия, провинциальным английским городком Стилбурном, — романом. Некоторые из них назвали это произведение слабейшим в наследии писателя, другие отметили его непохожесть на остальные: согласно Times Literary Supplement , книга — «не притча, не содержит очевидных аллегорий, не рассказывает о некоем упрощённом или отдаленном мире. Она принадлежит иной, более знакомой традиции в английской литературе: это непритязательный реалистический роман о мальчике, взрослеющем в маленьком городке — такую книгу мог бы написать Герберт Дж. Уэллс, если бы внимательнее относился к своему стилю письма» ^[3] .

Более благосклонно был встречен критикой «Бог-скорпион» ( The Scorpion God: Three Short Novels ), сборник 1971 года. Так, рецензент Times Literary Supplement счёл его демонстрацией «чисто голдинговского дара». Заглавная новелла, по словам критика, переносит читателя в мир Древнего Египта, «применяя знакомые критерии к незнакомому… Это блестящий тур-де-фор, как и Наследники , разве что, в более скромном масштабе» ^[3] .

В 1979 году вышел роман Голдинга «Зримая тьма» . Как отмечал критик Сэмюэл Хайнс ( Washington Post Book World ), пропустив пятнадцать лет, в мир романа Голдинг вернулся практически не изменившись, всё тем же «моралистом и создателем притч»:

Моралисту требуется верить в существование добра и зла, и Голдинг верит; вообще, можно сказать, что исследование природы добра и зла и есть его единственная тема. Создатель притч должен верить, что моральный смысл может быть выражен в самой ткани повествования, более того, некоторые аспекты этого смысла только так и могут быть выражены, — и вновь это голдинговский принцип.

— Сэмюэл Хайнс, Washington Post Book World , 1979

Многие исследователи отметили возвращение автора к библейским аллегориям. Именно в таких категориях рассматривала Сюзан Ф. Шеффер ( Chicago Tribune Book World ) противостояние Мэтти, чудом спасшегося в огне мальчика, который становится ясновидящим и олицетворяет свет, и сестёр-близняшек Тони и Софи Стэнхоуп, открывающих для себя «соблазны мрака» ^[3] .

Последние романы Голдинга

The cycle “To the End of the World: Sea Trilogy” (1991) included the novels “ Rituals of Swimming ” (1980), “ Close Neighborhood ” (1987) and “ Fire below ” (1989). The historical saga, which takes place in the 18th century, returned the writer to the genre of allegory: it is generally accepted that the ship here serves as a symbol of the British Empire ^[3] . Blake Morrison ( New Statesman observer) noted that the trilogy’s first novel echoes Lord of the Flies - at least in the basic idea that a person, as a “fallen creature,” is capable of “atrocities for which there is no description words ” ^[3] . A ship with passengers on board, remaining a real and life-like space (according to A. Chameyev), “... metaphorically fulfills the function of completely non-spatial relationships: <this> is a micromodel of society in the British version, and at the same time it is a symbol of all humanity, vain, torn by contradictions, moving among dangers in an unknown direction ” ^[18] .

In the second novel of the trilogy, “Close Neighborhood,” continuing the story of Talbot's voyage to Australia, the ship appears to the reader at a different stage of its existence: it symbolizes Britain on the verge of collapse. The work raised many questions from critics: for example, the Los Angeles Times Book Review reviewer Richard Howe wrote that the second novel was hardly perceived out of the general context; By itself, it’s at least puzzling: “This is not an allegory and not fantasy, not an adventure prose, and not even a finished novel, because it has a beginning and, it seems, a middle, but its end seems to be carried out into the uncertain future” ^[3] .

Paul Stuy, a reviewer for Quill and Quire , described the novel “Fire Below” as the trilogy, which was “ambitious” and “generally successful,” and the ending was exciting. W. L. Webb ( New Statesman & Society ), although he considered the second and third parts of the trilogy to be inferior to the first, remarked that “they hold the reader’s attention ... the magical pictures of the sea created by Golding, the faces painted on the deck on a moonlit night, terrible shadows, discarded by figures of people in fog amid drizzling rain, lightnings and a drone of wind, a bee swarm of sailors on a damaged ship rushing towards the cliffs. ” “There is nothing like this anymore in our literature” ^[3] , ”the reviewer concluded.

The novel " Paper Men " (1984), in the center of which is the conflict between an elderly British writer and an ambitious American literary critic, marked the first (after the "Pyramid") return to the social comedy genre and received mixed reviews in the Anglo-American press, turning out to be the most controversial the work of the author. The main idea of ​​this "farce", according to Michael Ratcliffe of the London Times , boiled down to the fact that "the biography is the subject of commercial scam." Blake Morrison, however, once again discovered the possibility of drawing a religious parallel here (“At one level, this is a defense of talent from the threat hanging over a living writer ... in the form of a dead hand of science]. At another level, Tucker can be considered either as a Christ-like image atone for Barclay’s sins, or as Satan ... whose temptations Barclay must reject ”). For the most part, critics considered the novel to be inconsistent with the highest standards of Golding skill: “Judging by the tired, capricious tone of the narrative, Mr. Golding looks like his hero not only externally” (Michiko Kakutani, New York Times ); “No matter what the writer creates after receiving the Nobel Prize, he is disappointed, and the new <his> novel ... is no exception” (David Lodge, New Republic) ^[3] .

The father of the writer Alec Golding taught natural sciences and served as deputy director at the Marlboro School, which his son subsequently graduated from. Golding Sr. wrote several textbooks on botany , chemistry , zoology , physics and geography , and in addition he was an excellent musician: he played the violin , piano , viola , cello and flute . As noted later, it was the writer’s father, an enthusiast and scholar, in love with science and always surrounded by a crowd of students, that served as the prototype of one of the characters in the novel “Free Fall” - a science teacher named Nick Shales ^[18] . In November 1958, Alec Golding was diagnosed with cancer; he underwent surgery to remove the tumor, but on December 12 he suddenly died in a hospital from a heart attack ^[2] .

The writer’s mother, Mildred Golding, was a woman of strong character and strong convictions, a suffragist and feminist . Two lines - scientific-rationalistic (paternal) and socially active (maternal) - for some time equally influenced the formation of the boy's character; ultimately the first of them prevailed. Although, as Joyce T. Forbes later noted, it was the mother’s comment about the death of the Titanic regarding the fact that man was defenseless against the forces of nature, in a sense, was the seed from which Golding’s critical attitude toward “stubborn rationalism ” ^[3] . Mildred Golding died in 1960. ^[2]

Personal life

In 1939, William Golding married Ann Brookfield, a specialist in analytical chemistry; then the couple moved to Salisbury, Wiltshire , where they lived most of their lives. In September 1940, Golding's son David was born; daughter Judith Diana was born in July 1945. Anne Golding died on December 31, 1995 and was buried with her husband in a cemetery in Bowerchock. ^[2]

Golding's daughter Judith Carver wrote a biography “Children of Lovers” ( Faber & Faber , May 2011), dedicated to the centenary of the writer’s birthday.

“The title of the book partly indicates a saying: 'Children of lovers are always orphans”; our parents were too passionate about each other and each other ... ”, Carver told the Guardian. The author claimed that her father “was in many ways a very kind, understanding, sweet, warm and cheerful person”, remarking: “It is strange, but no one believes in it: everyone is convinced that he was extremely gloomy” ^[28] . In many ways, this view of Golding’s personality traits was promoted by the publication in 2009 of John Carey's biography “William Golding: the Man Who Wrote Lord of the Flies”, which, despite the scandalous nature of some revelations, received the full support of Judith Carver. The author of the book focused on those personality traits of Golding that made the writer a “monster” in his own eyes.

Golding had an unhappy childhood: according to the biography of John Carey, he “grew up a timid, hypersensitive, shy boy”, suffered from loneliness and alienation. The author of the biography believed that the psychological problems of Golding's childhood were largely predetermined by deep class motives: his father, an impoverished intellectual, taught in a secondary school, which was not far from the elite Marlborough College . The students of this institution alone made their young Golding feel “dirty and humiliated” by their appearance alone. His desire for literary success was largely motivated by a “lust for revenge”: “In truth, I had one desire deep down in my soul: to wipe my nose with this Malborian ...” ^[29] , the Nobel laureate later admitted. Class prejudices later persecuted Golding: at Breiznouz College, he was assigned unflattering characteristics-abbreviations: “NTS” (“not top shelf”, “not upper class”) and “NQ” (“Not quite <gentleman>”, “not quite <gentleman> "). The writer carried his hatred of snobbery throughout his life: in one of the reviews he even admitted that he always dreamed of “wrapping Eaton with a mile or two wire, loading several hundred tons of TNT ” with a detonator and for a moment “... feeling like Jehovah ” ^[24] .

People who talked with Golding in the last years of his life paid attention to the “marine” seal that lay on his whole appearance. “He looked more like an old man who was about to set out to advertise fish fins or burst into a sailor song, but not at all like a Nobel Prize winner who created several extremely original works of the last century,” remarked the observer of Telegraph Books ^[30] . In 1966, when the BBC correspondent asked the sculptor and artist Michael Ayrton to characterize the Human Goldman, he replied: “the middle between Captain Hornblower and St. Augustine .” As R. Douglas-Fairhurst noted in this connection, in the second part of this comparison we could talk, perhaps, "about Augustine before he adopted Christianity." Golding wrote about himself in his diary: “Someday, if my literary reputation remains at the same high level, people will begin to study my life and find that I am a monster” ^[30] .

As John Carey noted in the biography William Golding: The Man Who Written The Lord of the Flies, there was a dark side to the character of the writer even before the war, the origins of which remained unclear. The biographer assumed that in the life of the writer there was a certain long-standing "monstrous" episode; “Hidden obscenity ”, the essence of which for strangers remained hidden. Perhaps this was related to the experiences of early childhood: it is known that Golding's mother suffered from a strange mental disorder, which “turned dark into a dangerous maniac after dark: she threw knives, pieces of mirror, teapots with boiling water in little William” ^[31] . Judith's daughter confirmed: the writer “... despised himself, and the roots of this feeling were very deep. Sometimes he took it jokingly, "getting off" with self-derogatory ridicule, but sometimes it was felt that <somewhere in it was hidden> something so dark that he simply could not live with it " ^[28] .

In connection with the novel “Free Fall”, which expressively and in detail described the details of the psychological torture that the protagonist underwent in the Nazi prison camp, Golding himself noted that he “understood the Nazis”, because “he himself is by nature.” The writer's diaries contain descriptions of several acts committed by him, of which he was ashamed all his life; for example, the story of how he shot a rabbit in Cornwall, and how he looked at the killer before falling, “with an expression of amazement and anger in the face” ^[8] .

One of the most scandalous episodes of Carey’s biography concerns Golding’s description of his failed attempt to rape a fifteen-year-old girl ^[8] . The writer justified his act by saying that she, “defective by nature,” at age 14, was “as sexy as a monkey”. It is believed that this episode was indirectly used in the novel "The Thief Martin" ^[30] . True, Judith Carver, a fragment of a biography describing “inept” rape was not too shocking: she said that her father belonged to a sexually complex generation and could exaggerate her own cruelty here ^[28] . However, Carver’s husband claimed that all his life the writer “practiced humiliating others - of course, in those cases when he condescended to the point that they even existed to notice” ^[8] .

Judging by some diary entries, Golding often seemed to work out on real people some episodes of his future works. Of particular interest in this regard were the descriptions regarding his teaching activities. It is known that, starting the rehearsals of "Julius Caesar", he placed special emphasis on making all boys "feel the sensations of a crowd hungry for blood." At the same time, he explained in detail to one of the young actors how to use a dagger (“stick in the stomach, rip it up”. Having organized a school expedition to the Neolithic excavations near Salisbury, the Golding teacher divided the boys into two groups, one of which defended the fortification, the other attacked him. Both cases reminded reviewers of the relevant episodes in Lord of the Flies and Heirs. All this, wrote Douglas-Fairhurst, indicates that the writer "was tempted to use life situations to work out elements of prose." Sometimes, according to the reviewer, Golding “treated the students as wasps in a bank, which they can shake well - just to look at the result” ^[30] . It is also known that writers were haunted by nightmares, some of which resembled sketches for certain events in novels and often became such later ^[8] .

Golding was not aggressive; on the contrary, according to Carey’s biography, he was “a man of many sorrows who walked through life, overcoming obstacles arising one after another with unbending perseverance.” The writer “was afraid of heights, injections, crustaceans, insects and everything that creeps ... Being an experienced sailor, he did not have a sense of direction; one of his boats sank. At the wheel of a car, he could get lost while being a few miles from his own home ” ^[24] . A significant part of these problems is known to be related to alcohol abuse. Not being a clinical alcoholic, Golding drank a lot, fell into binges - then he made his wildest antics. Once, waking up in the house of his London acquaintances in a panic from his own nightmare, he jumped up and tore apart Bob Dylan's doll, because he imagined that it was in this guise that Satan himself appeared before him. The Guardian reviewer noted that, not only in novels, but in life, the writer was constantly fighting “the demons swarming in his head”; felt a continuous struggle in itself of “religiosity and rationality, myths and science” ^[8] . At the same time, R. Douglas-Fairhurst noted: the facts presented in the biography of John Carey reveal to the reader not so much a “monster” as a person who “recognized in himself a monster living in all of humanity”: because he has a painful interest in violence, suffering and everything, "what is on the wrong side of civilization." Golding, according to the Telegraph reviewer, had the ability to both feel evil in himself and sympathize with those who were victims of cruelty ^[30] .

• Journey to the End of the Earth / To the Ends of the Earth , (United Kingdom, 2005, miniseries, dir. David Attwood)
• The Lord of the Flies / Lord of the Flies , (United Kingdom, 1963, dir. Peter Brook )
• Lord of the Flies / Lord of the Flies , (USA, 1990, dir. Harry Hook)
• Lord of the Flies - TV show at the Art House Theater (Russia, 2004, dir. Vadim Tukhvatullin)

• Arena - The Dreams of William Golding (2012)

• Bernard Bergonzi, JS Whitely . William Golding (1982, Sussex Publications. Audio Edition. ISBN 0-905272-33-1 )
• Bernard F. Dick . William Golding (1986, Twayne Publishers Inc., US, ISBN 0-8057-6925-0 )
• G. Handley . Brodie's Notes on William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1990, ISBN 0-333-58098-2 )
• RA Gekoski, PA Grogan . William Golding. A Bibliography 1934-1993 (1994, ISBN 0-233-98611-1 )
• Pralhad A Kulkarni . William Golding: A Critical Study (1994)
• Kevin McCarron . William Golding) Writers and Their Work) (1994 ISBN 0-7463-1143-5 )
• Andrew Bent . A Study Course on William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1995 ISBN 1-86083-036-6 )
• Harold Bloom . William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1995 ISBN 1-60413-814-9 )
• Virginia Tiger . William Golding - the Unmoved (1999 ISBN 0-7145-3042-5 ).
• M. Kinkead-Weekes, I. Gregor . William Golding (2002, Faber & Faber)

• Ефимова Д. А. Библейские аллюзии и образ Саймона в романе Уильяма Голдинга «Повелитель мух» // Электронный журнал « Знание. Понимание. Skill . " — 2009. — № 5 — Филология .
• Голдинг, Уильям в библиотеке Максима Мошкова
• Полный текст Нобелевской речи У. Голдинга (англ).
• Уильям Голдинг на сайте www.fantasticfiction.co.uk