The Inheritors (William Golding)

The Inheritors (William Golding)

infobox Book |
name=The Inheritors
title_orig=
translator=


image_caption=First edition cover depicting The Sorcerer
author=William Golding
cover_artist=
country=United Kingdom
language=English
series=
genre=Novel
publisher=Faber & Faber
release_date=1955
media_type=Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages=233 pp
isbn=NA
preceded_by=
followed_by=

The Inheritors is the 1955 second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for "Lord of the Flies". It was his personal favorite of all his novels and concerns the extinction of the last remaining tribe of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated (and malevolent) newly-evolved Homo sapiens.

Plot introduction

This novel is an imaginative reconstruction of the life of a band of Neanderthals. It is written in such a way that the reader might assume the group to be modern "Homo sapiens" as they gesture and speak simply among themselves, and bury their dead with heartfelt, solemn rituals.

The plot centers on one neanderthal, Lok, who rises among his small band to prominence when the elder members are killed by a group of early humans. The humans are portrayed as strange, godlike beings as the neanderthals witness their mastery of fire, neolithic weapons and sailing.

All save the last chapter of the novel are written in a stark, simple style, reflecting the animal-like perspective of the Neanderthal group. Their observations of early human behavior serve as a filter for Golding's exercise in paleoanthropology, in which modern readers will recognize prefigurations of later human spirituality and culture. In the final chapter, after the conclusive showdown between humans and Neanderthals over the young kidnapped neanderthals, the humans ultimately flee the area in their boats, revealing a terrible fear on the part of the humans who believe the neanderthals to be devils of the forest. This last chapter is the only one written from the humans' vantage, and here Golding's style assumes full depth in the humans' ability to describe and comprehend what has happened.

References in other works

The novel inspired the title song of the album A Trick of the Tail by progressive rock band Genesis. Written by keyboardist Tony Banks, the lyrics tell the tale of "a beast that can talk" that lived among many of his kind in a "city of gold"; until he left "in search of another for sharing his life", and came upon a human village - "they've got no horns and they've got no tail" -, whose inhabitants capture the "beast", and decide to display it in a cage.

ee also

* Neanderthal interaction with Cro-Magnons
* "Dance of the Tiger", a novel depicting Neandertal and Cro-Magnon interaction, by paleontologist Björn Kurtén


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  • William Golding — Sir William Gerald Golding (* 19. September 1911 in St. Columb Minor, Cornwall; † 19. Juni 1993 in Perranarworthal, Cornwall) war ein britischer Schriftsteller und 1983 der Träger des Nobelpreises für Literatur. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

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  • Golding, Sir William — ▪ British novelist in full  Sir William Gerald Golding  born Sept. 19, 1911, St. Columb Minor, near Newquay, Cornwall, Eng. died June 19, 1993, Perranarworthal, near Falmouth, Cornwall  English novelist who in 1983 won the Nobel Prize for… …   Universalium

  • GOLDING (W.) — GOLDING WILLIAM (1911 1993) L’œuvre de Golding est celle d’un moraliste qui utilise avec brio l’allégorie et la métaphore pour réaliser progressivement, au fil de ses romans, son dessein: peindre l’homme à travers une unité de vision, celle de la …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • William G. Golding — William Golding William Golding est un écrivain britannique appartenant au courant postmoderniste. Il est né le 19 septembre 1911 en Cornouailles (Angleterre) et mort le 19 juin 1993. Il a obtenu le Prix Nobel de littérature en 1983. Biographie… …   Wikipédia en Français

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  • Golding —   [ gəʊldɪȖ], Sir (seit 1988) William Gerald englischer Schriftsteller, * Saint Columb Minor (County Cornwall) 19. 9. 1911, ✝ Perranarworthall (bei Falmouth) 19. 6. 1993. Seine streng gebauten, sprachlich dichten Romane sind skeptische Kommentare …   Universal-Lexikon

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