The Inheritors (Magill’s Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: William Golding
- First Published: 1955
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Fantasy—evolutionary fantasy
- Time of Work: Prehistoric
- Setting: Europe
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Fantasy
- Subjects: Europe or Europeans, Leadership, Communication, Jealousy, envy, or resentment, Fear, Good and evil, Hunting or hunters, Naivete, Prehistoric humans, Prehistoric times, Stone Age
- Locales: Ancient world
The Plot
Like most of William Golding’s novels, The Inheritors uses the “alien” in order to talk about the present. A tiny band of people return to their summer cave beside a river, near a large waterfall. The people are based in part on the Neanderthals but are described as physically much more primitive; to themselves, they are simply the people. The first and longest part of the novel is told through the eyes of one of them, the male Lok, and presents the value system of the people.
The cave is a place where they are safe from animals, but its location...
[The entire page is 1217 words long]
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