Lord of the Flies [antikvár]

Introduction The urge to put things into catégories seems to satisfy some deep human need and in this matter at least, critics and historians of literature are very human people indeed. A brief glancé at the English Literature section of any library catalogue will show what I mean. There we find literature divided up into various kinds of writings, and within the kinds we have historical periods, and within the periods we have groups or movements, and within the groups individuáis who write various kinds. . . . Now up to a point of course this sort of classification serves a very useful purpose. We need a map if we are going to do any exploring, and the fact that it is the countryside we have come to enjoy, not the map, doesn't make the map any less necessary. If we take out a map of The Novel we find, if it is a general one, that it falls into three sections—the eight-eenth-century novel, the Victorian novel, and the modera novel. And these descriptions point not simply to three centuries, but to decisive changes that have taken place within the form of the novel. These changes are often due to historical circumstances, and sometimes they can be des-cribed in terms of the ruling ideas of the age or the literary expectations of the readers, but there are other changes and i