Darkness Visible begins in the London blitz, with the miraculous emergence of the child Matty from a burning bombsite. His mysterious religious quest is woven with the lives of twins Sophy and Toni – with their dark story and its impossible end.
Darkness Visible opens at the height of the London blitz, when a child steps out of an all-consuming fire. Miraculously saved yet scarred by his burns, Matty suffers and survives, in search of some unknown redemption. His destiny is woven with that of twins Sophy and Toni – exquisite but loveless — and all three reach a fiery reckoning.
The publication of Darkness Visible marked the end of a difficult period in Golding’s life. In his journals from the 1970s, he reflected on what he called his ‘crisis’; when writing another novel seemed impossible, and he struggled with a number of health issues. The earliest version of the book, in short story form, dates from 1955, but political events of the 1970s, particularly in terms of international terrorism, had the most significance for the finished narrative.
Golding famously refused to discuss Darkness Visible, but he described Matty as a ‘saint’, like Simon in Lord of the Flies. Read (or re-read!) this book next to explore the comparison.
Reviews for William Golding: The Faber Letters, edited by Tim Kendall, have appeared in various publications. In the Guardian, the book was chosen as ‘Book...
In his 1979 novel, Darkness Visible, Golding created his first narrative from the perspective of a female character. The first section of the novel is centred...
The latest episode of the William Golding podcast focuses on Golding’s 1979 novel, Darkness Visible. Dr Nicola Presley, Publicity and Media Manager for William Golding Limited,...
On 21st October 1980, forty years ago today, William Golding was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage. Golding was 69 and until 2019, when the...
Ann Golding was William Golding's wife, and the most important influence on his life and writing.
William Golding’s novels are scary. There are moments of sheer terror across many of his books but this terror does not come from the supernatural...