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To the Ends of the Earth [Paperback]

William Golding (Author)
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £14.99
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Book Description

Publication Date: 5 Aug 2004

A new one-volume edition of this classic sequence of sea novels set in the early nineteenth century, about a voyage from England to Australia.

Rites of Passage (Winner of the Booker Prize)

'The work of a master at the full stretch of his age and wisdom.' The Times

Close Quarters

'A feat of imaginative reconstruction, as vivid as a dream.' Daily Mail

Fire Down Below

'Laden to the waterline with a rich cargo of practicalities and poetry, pain and hilarity, drama and exaltation.' Sunday Times

Frequently Bought Together

To the Ends of the Earth + The Inheritors + The Spire
Price For All Three: £20.61

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  • The Inheritors by William Golding Paperback £5.51
  • The Spire by William Golding Paperback £5.51

Product details

  • Paperback: 784 pages
  • Publisher: Faber and Faber; New Ed edition (5 Aug 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0571223214
  • ISBN-13: 978-0571223213
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 15.4 x 23.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 144,775 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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William Golding
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Review

"'[Rites of Passage] is the work of a master at the full stretch of his age and wisdom.' The Times; 'Laden to the waterline with a rich cargo of practicalities and poetry, pain and hilarity, drama and exaltation.' Sunday Times"

About the Author

William Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911 and was educated at Marlborough Grammar School and at Brasenose College, Oxford. Before he became a schoolmaster he was an actor, a lecturer, a small-boat sailor and a musician. A now rare volume, Poems, appeared in 1934. In 1940 he joined the Royal Navy and saw action against battleships, and also took part in the pursuit of the Bismarck. He finished the war as a Lieutenant in command of a rocket ship, which was off the French coast for the D-Day invasion, and later at the island of Walcheren. After the war he returned to Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury and was there when his first novel, Lord of the Flies, was published in 1954. He gave up teaching in 1961. Lord of the Flies was filmed by Peter Brook in 1963. Golding listed his hobbies as music, chess, sailing, archaeology and classical Greek (which he taught himself). Many of these subjects appear in his essay collections The Hot Gates and A Moving Target. He won the Booker Prize for his novel Rites of Passage in 1980, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. He was knighted in 1988. He died at his home in the summer of 1993. The Double Tongue, a novel left in draft at his death, was published in June 1995.

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Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
9 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Read Indeed! 15 Aug 2009
By Kevin James
Format:Hardcover
"Rites of Passage", the first of this trilogy, is a stunning stand-alone book. That this compelling story unfolds via an unreliable narrator's enthusiastic and erratic journal is the author's masterstroke, an extended literary feat brilliantly executed.

Edmund Talbot is priviledged by class and education, and yet utterly hidebound socially. His arrogant sense of superiority leads him to flout ship's rules immediately and to get in the way at every stage of the voyage. It is a deft balancing act to let us laugh at his clumsiness, hypocrisy and snobbishness, yet still retain some sympathetic feeling for him. Golding manages this. Edmund is young, after all. He will learn!

There is wonderful humour in Rites of Passage, (the seduction of Zenobia being a standout scene), and there is great pathos too, most obviously in the plight of poor Reverend Colley. This book is an English classic, no question.

Golding's admits in his excelllent introduction that the sequels ("Close Quarters" and "Fire Down Below") were not planned from the outset, but that he felt there was more to discover about Edmund and his co-travellers, so allowed his imagination to extend the full length of the voyage. How marvellous for us that he did so!

Read on their own, books 2 and 3 would possess less of the beautiful structural arch of the first (a fact cunningly acknowledged by our unreliable narrator midway through Close Quarters!) However, read right through, they gather momentum, transforming into a terrific, page-turning sea adventure. Gradually the pretense of an interrupted journal narrative gives way to a more suitable novelistic treatment. By the end, Edmund has emerged as quite the hero (though still somewhat accident-prone!) More importantly, he has gained some much-needed self-awareness along the way.

Through all three books, fascinating explanations of nautical terminology and ship structure are smoothly interwoven with the human trials and tribulations. In fact, by the final installment, the ship itself has almost become the central character.

Very well-researched, and very well written indeed. I couldn't recommend this trilogy more highly.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The "Good Read" 17 Dec 2000
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
William Golding himself wrote an introduction for this new combined edition of his trilogy. In it he basically justified the revisions he made etc. He realised in editing the book again that he had failed to name the ship upon which the majority of the trilogy takes place. He left this uncorrected, but his hope was that the ship's name would be surmised as being nothing more than "The Good Read."

He is not disappointed in his hope, as I found his trilogy absolutely absorbing and engaging. Honestly I place it as some of the most enjoyable prose I've ever read. I'm actually considering doing a research project on him for my degree, is the extent to which this book has impressed me.

It's just refreshing hearing Golding write through such a thoroughly happy and upbeat narrator. It infuses the book with a cheerfulness despite Golding's perrenial themes of social class and human nature.

Certainly this trilogy must be seen as central in Golding's work, not just for its sheer size, but also since it most clearly manifests Golding's frequent allusions to existence as a sea journey. In this case we see these existences being played out literally on a journey to the ends of the earth, from England to the Antipodes.

The journey presented is undeniably fraught, and for a work of serious fiction, remarkably exciting at a vary basic level. Alongside it's obvious literary credentials, it stands on its own as simply and enjoyable book.

What's the essence of this journey that's presented? In my opinion, nothing more or less than the journey through a "Good Read."

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Cracking old-time adventure on the high seas 23 Aug 2010
By Meredith Byrne
Format:Paperback
Based on 'Lord of the Flies', I was expecting this series to be dark and violent. What I didn't expect was that it would be so funny (and not nearly as violent as I'd expected). I was somewhat disappointed at the end of the first book, which won the Booker Prize, having expected something really horrible to happen (but that says more about our present society and the graphic violence we see on TV these days).

However, by the time I was well into the second book, I had realised that it was more of a comedy, as well as being a comment on the English class system. By the third book, I couldn't put it down and didn't want it to end.

The ending was a bit soft for my taste, but I absolutely loved the main character, Edmund Talbot (and having recently learned that he was played in the BBC's version by Benedict Cumberbatch, I love him even more!).

The three books describe a voyage to Australia on a ship that is literally falling apart. Edmund is a young aristocrat who initially sees the crew as jolly tars there to serve him, and barely registers the poor emigrants in the other part of the ship. He thinks that because he himself receives fine food and brandy, the sailors have no cause for complaint.

Gradually, however, he begins to change his attitude and see his fellow voyagers as people, particularly when disaster threatens them all, and the food begins to run out, even for the rich passengers.

Now that I've been encouraged to read the rest of William Golding's novels, I can see where he was going with 'To the Ends of the Earth'. I'm definitely going to read it again very soon!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars Golding's insightfullness....
...Golding's insightful observations of human behaviour/misbehaviour in a small enclosed community could only be derived by personal & intimate experience. Read more
Published 9 months ago by 1957
5.0 out of 5 stars God Bless HMS Good Read and all who sail in her!
I feel torn in writing this review. If I let my inclination have free rein I would write such a gushing review that it would hardly be credible and may even put some of you off. Read more
Published 15 months ago by C. M. Turcan
5.0 out of 5 stars No dashing heroes in here.
While filming the television adaptation, Benedict Cumberbatch described the trilogy as the ultimate gap year. Read more
Published 21 months ago by Red Ribbit
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb entertainment
Each of the constituent parts of this magnificent trilogy (Rites of Passage (Sea Trilogy), Close Quarters (Sea Trilogy) and Fire Down Below (Sea Trilogy) I have discussed in more... Read more
Published on 14 Mar 2010 by Didier
5.0 out of 5 stars TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
William Golding at his best which is very good indeed. I have not read all the other contenders for best account of the 'Napoleonic' and post Napoleonic Maritime age but I have... Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2010 by Bjorn Tolouse
3.0 out of 5 stars lengthy nautical tome
Having ploughed through this large trilogy I would comment 1) lots and lots of detail about sailing ships, napoleonic sea warfare, the british navy in the early C19 and so on. Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2001 by brixtonite
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