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Free Fall

Author William Golding
Foreword by John Gray
Contributions by Rachel Greenwald Smith
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Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Classics
On sale Mar 03, 2026 | 304 Pages | 9780593512937
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Question everything in this philosophical tale by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by John Gray

A Penguin Classic

Sammy Mountjoy is an artist who has risen from poverty to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War II, he is captured as a German prisoner of war, threatened with torture and locked in a cell of total darkness. He emerges transfigured by his ordeal, realising how his choices have made him the author of his life, interrogating religion and rationality, early loves and formative beliefs – and questioning freedom itself.
William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he participated in the invasion of Normandy. Golding’s experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest success came with Lord of the Flies (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Golding died in 1993. View titles by William Golding

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Question everything in this philosophical tale by the radical Nobel Laureate and author of Lord of the Flies, introduced by John Gray

A Penguin Classic

Sammy Mountjoy is an artist who has risen from poverty to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War II, he is captured as a German prisoner of war, threatened with torture and locked in a cell of total darkness. He emerges transfigured by his ordeal, realising how his choices have made him the author of his life, interrogating religion and rationality, early loves and formative beliefs – and questioning freedom itself.

Author

William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Cornwall, England. After graduating from Oxford, he worked briefly as a theater actor and director, wrote poetry, and then became a schoolteacher. In 1940, a year after England entered World War II, Golding joined the Royal Navy, where he participated in the invasion of Normandy. Golding’s experience in World War II had a profound effect on his view of humanity and the evils of which it was capable. After the war, Golding resumed teaching and started to write novels. His first and greatest success came with Lord of the Flies (1954), which ultimately became a bestseller in both Britain and the United States after more than twenty publishers rejected it. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Golding died in 1993. View titles by William Golding

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