, Golding’s second novel, was published in 1955, the year after

, and again pitches two groups against one another. He worked on the book quickly, finishing it in under a month in late 1954, and undertook little research to back up his representation of early anthropoids, relying instead on his own imagination, as usual. The book is told primarily from the perspective of one member of the group on whom the narrative is focused, but at the close it moves to an external perspective and then to that of another people who see the first as “red creatures”. Because of their greater technological understanding, their linguistic ability, and their hunting skills, this new group threatens to conquer the “red people” about whom we have been reading. In fact,…

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Citation: Childs, Peter. "The Inheritors". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 May 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11695, accessed 16 April 2024.]