The Inheritors

By: William Golding, Rachel Greenwald Smith, Ben Okri - introduction

Narrated by: David Dawson

This was a different voice; not the voice of the people. It was the voice of other.

A Penguin Classic

William Golding considered The Inheritors his finest novel, a beautifully realized tale about the last days of the Neanderthal people and our fear of the “other.” The action is revealed through the eyes of the Neanderthals, whose peaceful world is threatened by the emergence of Homo sapiens. The struggle between the simple Neanderthals and the malevolent modern humans ends tragically. Featuring similar themes to Lord of the Flies, although with very different content, The Inheritors is about the breakdown of a civilization and uncompromising savagery.

After Lord of the Flies, William Golding wrote novels that further explored the complexities of human nature, not only social tendencies but the psychological underpinnings of human consciousness. This edition provides a Suggestions for Further Exploration section that identifies key themes throughout Golding’s novels—including The Inheritors, first published in 1955—and connections to classic and contemporary fiction, nonfiction, film, and television.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Critic reviews

“...absolutely riveting (…) What makes it so particularly effective is the narrator intentionally limiting the knowledge of the reader to the perspective of the Neanderthals themselves.(…) It truly is quite worthwhile.”—John E. Riutta, The Well-read Naturalist