Spectacular new adaptation of a classic

https://looneybooks79.blog/2024/10/10/lord-of-the-flies/

I am ashamed to say I haven't read William Golding's Lord of the Flies yet, apart from now this wonderful graphic novel and I have seen the movie adaptation when I was younger... so I went in knowing something about the story, but I was also partly going in blind.

And as I said, this is such a wonderful and beautiful graphic novel. Aimée De Jongh is a Dutch illustrator who adapted Golding's story but as the book was originally written in English I preferred to buy the English version of this graphic novel! (but know it is available in Dutch as well and I'm sure more languages will follow!)

I think most of you will know the story but it wouldn't be a complete review without a bit of an explanation now, would it?

A group of children crashland with their plane on a deserted island. No adults survive the crash so they are left to their own devices. Ralph is the first we see in this story while he stumbles onto the beach. Soon another boy joins him, a kid that will soon be named 'Piggy' although he's not very happy with that nickname. People called him that before (just because he's a bit bigger than the other kids) but the name sticks. When Ralph finds a conch in the sea while swimming he blows it and soon the surviving children from the plane crash appear. Among them some older boys, the choir, under the guidance of Jake.

Waiting to be rescued they start looking for food, a way out, start to build shelters and create a society of children on the island. At first everything seems to work out fine, although there seems to come a rivalry for power between Ralph and Jake. At night the children are afraid and dream of beastlike creatures that dwell on the island. And when one of the children disappears there comes this mass hysteria, that works well for Jake who starts an army of children to go hunting boar, these seem to live on the island.

Everything starts falling apart when children suddenly no longer get to be children and have to become adults very soon but that doesn't work out really well and camps are divided. It's not until the first of the group is killed, that Ralph and 'Piggy' feel they are the only ones left with a sense of responsibility but Jake and his group are relentless!

And then a boar's head is put on a stick in the woods and some of the children see a godlike creature appear in their imagination, The Lord of the Flies! Will it guide them for good or will it divide them even more?

This was originally written and published in 1954 and has been the inspiration of a lot of new stories, movies, television series (like Lost, Yellowjackets, Battle Royale...) where survival is a big part of the storyline and where young people have to grow up faster then they are supposed to do. This is the story that started it all. And now Aimée De Jongh has made this new adaptation where the drawings make the story truly come to life. I love how graphic novels are often great introductions to classic books (recently I read the John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men graphic novel as well and I bought the book shortly after)

And as you can see on the picture below, I have two editions of the novel. The Faber edition I bought, the other older edition I found in an exchange library (or how do you call that in English? Where people put books in and you can take one and put another in or read it and put it back). I felt lucky to have found that edition to be honest. And I'm keeping the Faber edition (white one with the conch on it) because it has a foreword by Stephen King. Might he have gotten his inspiration for his little Maine town's name 'Castle Rock' from this book, maybe?

So yes, this is a work of art! A classic in a new jacket! Beware the Lord of the Flies, never listen to its lies!