Pincher Martin

An hour on this rock is a lifetime. A Penguin Classic Drowning in the freezing North Atlantic, Christopher “Pincher” Martin, temporary lieutenant, happens upon a grotesque rock, an island that appears only on weather charts. To drink, there is a pool of rainwater; to eat, there are weeds and sea anemones. Through the long hours with only himself to talk to, Martin must try to assemble the truth of his fate, piece by terrible piece. After Lord of the Flies, William Golding wrote novels that further explored the complexities of human nature, not only social tendencies but the psychological underpinnings of human consciousness. This edition provides a Suggestions for Further Exploration section that identifies key themes throughout Golding’s novels—including Pincher Martin, first published in 1956—and connections to classic and contemporary fiction, nonfiction, film, and television. Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

William Golding (1911–1993) was born in Cornwall, England, and educated at Oxford University. His first book, Poems, was published in 1934. Following a stint in the Royal Navy and other activities during and after World War II, Golding wrote his first novel, Lord of the Flies (1954), while teaching school. Many novels followed, including The Inheritors (1955), Pincher Martin (1956), Free Fall (1959), and The Spire (1964), as well as a play, The Brass Butterfly (1958), and a collection of shorter works, The Hot Gates and Other Occasional Pieces (1965). He received the James Tait Black Prize for Darkness Visible (1979) and the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage (1980). In 1983, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today.” He was awarded the title “Companion of Literature” by the Royal Society of Literature in 1983 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988. William Golding died in June 1993 and is buried in Holy Trinity churchyard in Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, in England. Marlon James (introduction) is the author of John Crow's Devil, The Book of Night Women, the 2015 Man Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, National Book Award finalist Black Leopard, Red Wolf, and NYT-bestseller Moon Witch, Spider King, the second book in the Dark Star trilogy.