Pincher Martin (Masterplots II: British and Commonwealth Fiction Series)
At a glance:
- Author: William Golding
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Work: Psychological fable
- Time of Work: World War II
- Setting: A barren rock in the North Atlantic
- Principal Characters: Christopher Hadley (“Pincher”) Martin, Nathaniel “Nat” Walterson, Mary Lovell, Pete
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Fable
- Subjects: Nature, Self, World War II, Religion, God, Reality, Islands, Death or dying, Imagination, Atlantic Ocean, Shipwrecks, Military life or service, Navies, Lobsters
- Locales: Islands, Oceans
The Novel
The action of Pincher Martin seems quite simple at first. A British navy officer is blown off his ship by a German torpedo and must try to survive alone on a small, rocky island in the North Atlantic. Yet, although many of the details of Christopher’s heroic efforts to stay alive are starkly realistic in a sort of Robinson Crusoe fashion, more often his island world and his grotesque struggle seem strangely unreal. His battle is described as though it were against some mystical force within himself as much as against the hard, cold rock that seems to...
[The entire page is 2128 words long]
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