Set amidst the gradual domination of Greece by the Roman Empire, Priestess Arieka struggles with religion, and with what it means to be a woman.
Young Arieka is an unloved misfit – but as rumours of her spiritual powers reach the High Priest of Apollo, her life is transformed. She is taken to Delphi to become a Pythia: a mouthpiece for Apollo, an oracle uttering riddling prophecies to frenzied crowds from a smoky cave. As this sacred role is thrust upon her, she must navigate political conspiracy and the threat of the Romans to preserve her belief – and sanity.
The Double Tongue was Golding’s final novel. He wrote the first draft in early 1993, and the second in the summer of the same year. It was the first time he used a solely female narrator, and the book was written in the first person. Golding intended to write a third draft, but died before this could be completed. Faber and Faber took the unusual step of publishing his first draft for the finished novel, giving readers the opportunity to enjoy Golding’s writing in all its immediacy.
If you appreciated Golding’s exploration of femininity and the development of Arieka’s burgeoning power you might like Darkness Visible, which is partly told from the perspective of Sophy – a woman who seeks her own kind of power.
William Golding: The Faber Letters reveals the remarkable literary collaboration between William Golding and his editor of more than forty years,...
6/1/93 I had what seemed like a good idea the other night – a novel about the long and finally...
In this audio clip, Judy Golding Carver introduces Golding’s final novel, The Double Tongue. Judy explains that Golding’s evocative setting...