The Pyramid

by William Golding

Oliver is eighteen, and wants to enjoy himself before going to university. But this is the 1920s, and he lives in Stilbourne, a small English country town, where everyone knows what everyone else is getting up to, and where love, lust and rebellion are closely followed by revenge and embarrassment. Written with great perception and subtlety, The Pyramid is Golding's funniest and most light-hearted novel, which probes the painful awkwardness of the late teens, and all the tragedy and farce of life in a small community

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Novels, British Literature, Modern Classics, Literature, Historical Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.
As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Reviews

[Vit Babenco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pyramid is a monumental structure… It is a memorial to the past… The novel may be considered as a comedy of manners or a coming-of-age story…
All you need is love… Is it so? Probably, if you are so young… But unrequited love brings torment…

I had played the piano until my head sang – pounded savagely and unavailingly at the C Minor Study of Chopin which had seemed, when Moisewitch played, to express all the width and power of my own love, my own hopeless infatuation. But Imogen was engaged to be married, that was the end.

No… It is just a beginning… Then all the events start galloping… A midnight rescue operation… A lost golden cross… Search… Fight… Giving a rough lift to a girl on the bicycle… He dates another girl a couple of times… Then he finds out he is being used…

For Evie, I was a lightning conductor. To her parents I was a possible suitor.

Nonetheless he uses the situation to his own advantage… His unrequited love is forgotten.
Now he is a student studying chemistry… He comes home for a weekend and takes a part in the amateur play… There he meets his first love who is now married and playing the lead female role…

“She’s a stupid, insensitive, vain woman. She has a neat face and just enough sense to keep smiling. Why! You are three times as – Never let her know your calf-love. It would just go to feed her vanity.”

Years passed… The hero visits his hometown and recalls the days of his youth…
Sexuality is an attribute of physiology, it brings no romance.

[BlackOxford · Rating 4 out of 5]

All Clothed and Ashamed in Our Clothing

As I was reading The Pyramid, news was announced that someone had vandalised one of the Eric Gill carvings outside Broadcasting House in London. It had been well-known for several decades that Gill had sexually abused his daughters during the time he was living at the lay Dominican community in Sussex during the 1930’s. The thought that Gill had never been publicly condemned much less arrested for his crimes apparently incensed the vandal who wanted to spark some kind of public outrage.

For about ten years I taught and took care of the library for Blackfriars the Dominican-run Oxford College that happens to be the oldest (and youngest, but that’s another story) in the University. In the chapel of Blackfriars, the Stations of the Cross were also designed by Gill in his distinctive style. JRR Tolkien attended Mass there regularly and it is said that he got his inspiration for the Orcs in his Lord of the Rings from Gill’s portrayal of Pontius Pilate as a rather frightening bestial half-man.

Although a religious institution, and Catholic at that, Blackfriars resembles Golding’s village of Stilbourne (ah, the Goldingian sarcasm!) in its essential character. At whatever point in its history one chooses to investigate it it is just ‘there.’ Individual people and buildings may come and go but the continuity of the place is remarkable. It exists in a certain kind of timelessness (or perhaps deathlessness). And within it there prevails a formalised intimacy which means that everyone knows everyone else’s business but never discusses what that business is. The result is a sort of strained tolerance which is always on the edge of breaking down, but never quite does.

Part of this tolerance is the acceptance of eccentricity. I have never been among such a collection of diverse individuals - friars, teachers, and students - than at Blackfriars. As in Stilbourne, eccentricity reigns. From the oddness of professional interests to the sometimes outrageous personal habits, it is simply accepted that people are indeed strange creatures and that therefore considerable latitude must be given and judgment rarely voiced except when behaviour is obviously destructive to the community. The threshold leading from quirkiness to evil is left vague lest it resemble some kind of law which might have to be formally enforced, thereby causing communal disruption by outsiders.

As in village life there is also a strict hierarchy. The Dominican Order may be one of the first truly democratic institutions but it also has a very well defined power-structure which can react decisively to threat by expulsion of errant members. As in Stilbourne, everyone knows their place. The only real sin is undue pride, that is acting above one’s station. Everyone has their place and although the hierarchy of power is rarely discussed, its boundaries are known and respected by everyone without comment.

This sort of sociology produces calm. One might say that nothing ever really happens, or perhaps that when something does happen, it happens quickly and subsequently is not talked about. So if a novice leaves, for example, or a friar falls for an attractive English professor, the event causes a stir for a day or two but is communally forgotten. Eventually it will be assimilated into a ‘remember when’ kind of topic of discussion at the dinner table perhaps. It will have lost all poignancy, emotion, or import and become just a matter of innocuous history.

In Golding’s Stilbourne, the ability to contain some fairly horrible things like child abuse, misogyny, grinding poverty, incest, pedophilia, and rape as ‘merely the way things are’ is a consequence of the same mores of tolerance and peaceful co-existence. Anything is acceptable as long as the reputation of the community - to itself, not necessarily outsiders - is maintained. Often this requires active pretence that one likes or admires others when the truth is that others are very unlikeable and even despicable. This is, it seems to me, a functional psychosis. It allows people to live together in apparent harmony, but at some cost. As Golding’s protagonist says of Stilbourne, “We were our own tragedy and did not know we needed catharsis.”

I wonder what Blackfriars’ response to the growing anti-Gill movement will be. It is not dissimilar, although on a different scale, to the anti-Rhodes agitation that has swept through the University during the last year. Like the Rhodes statue at Oriel College and the Institute bearing the Rhodes name, the Gill Stations are part of the fabric of the place. They can’t be denied or re-formulated. They are either there as a persistent reminder of past events and associations, or they are not. And their presence may just prove sufficient to break up and through Blackfriars’ cosy village life. There is real danger of exposure to those outside the village - “All clothed but ashamed in our clothing.” We shall see.

[AiK · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 округлено до 4

Это первая книга Голдинга, которую я прочитала. Почему-то не хотелось начинать с "Повелителя мух", чтобы не сложилось какого-то стереотипного восприятия творчества писателя.
Структурно роман разделен на три части, соединенные, в основном, главным героем Оливером или Олли. Сначала в 1920-е он в явном пубертатном периоде своего развития со свойственными возрасту акцентами на сексуальном познании себя и женщины - в данном случае, Эви, которая преподносится как девушка лёгкого поведения, но не проститутка, поскольку занимается сексом не за деньги, а просто она такая, как ее называют "феномен". Она одновременно находится в отношениях с сыном доктора. Говоря, что хотела лишь любви, она была "доступной вещью". Вторая часть - любительская постановка оперы в глубоко провинциальном Стилборне и Олли уже студент. Третья - Олли в 1960-е взрослый мужчина приезжает в свой городок и узнает о смерти своей учительницы музыки, которую все называли Пружинкой, и вспоминает ее.
На самом деле, Олли никакой не главный герой, а героем является общество - та самая четко иерархическая структура, состоящая из слоев населения, образующих пирамиду, но этот герой подаётся неявно, исподволь, через вскользь сказанные слова, через пренебрежительное отношение или осознанное различие в положении. Голдинг наделяет героев этим чувством иерархичности, когда каждый соизмеряет себя с кем-то по уровню социальной лестнице, а про Генри Уильямса он написал так: "Он отдавал дань успеху, не вникая в его природу. И я, окончательно овладев собой, эту дань принимал. Я ходил с ним по его владеньям, не обращая внимания на вибрацию наших социальных антенн".
Эви - из бедных слоев, она не училась музыке, но в любительской оперной постановке она бы неплохо исполнила партию. Но главная роль достается Имоджен, не умевшей петь, откровенно фальшивившей, потому что она замужем за местным крутиком. Также и в подростковой части, родители Эви здороваются с Олли в надежде, что дочери удастся окрутить и женить его на себе, возвысив их до своего уровня. Но Олли четко понимает разницу в их социальном статусе - он сын фармацевта, он будет учиться в Оксфорде. Все, что ему нужно от Эви - это просто секс, и она с ее лёгкостью, ему удобна. Эви даже немножко жалко, что из-за принадлежности к низшему классу, все мужчины ею лишь пользуются и никто не рассматривает ее в качестве партии. Но она не унывает, и это тоже добавляет ей симпатии.
Этот городок в своей иерархичности погряз в лицемерии, ханжестве, пересудах - типичные для провинциальных городков качества.
Написано неплохо с точки зрения стилистики, но уж так скучно ...

[Tom Parnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

'I did not deceive myself into believing that I was good looking, but I had heard that girls were relatively indifferent to that. I hoped they were; for as I inspected my face in the mirror, I came to the regretful conclusion that it was not the sort of face I should fall in love with myself. There was nothing fragile about it. I tried smiling winningly at myself, but the result made me grimace with disgust.'

I didn't expect this book to make me cry. So much of it is written with an exceptionally witty, darting lightness that I wasn't entirely prepared for the cumulative weight of its emotional insight.

It's a powerful, deft, *modest* novel that brilliantly marries comedy and nostalgia.

William Golding is an outstanding writer. His books are all about — and turn upon — perception. He has a clear-eyed way of inhabiting his characters. In this respect, I think there's a quality of (early) Joyce about his writing. And that's a massive great compliment, I should add.

Golding is stylistically restrained, pellucid. Consistently, he pulls away from the melodramatic, the glib, the tritely resonant. He understands how people — real people — speak and think and feel. He doesn't *give them lines*, like some second-rate dramatist. Again like Joyce, much of the book is concerned with (admirably) stunted, partial exchanges between characters intent upon their own purposes. And when, finally, Golding allows dialogue to erupt into blazoned feeling, it is extraordinarily powerful in its fractured incoherence:

'That's right. That's it exactly—Everything's—*wrong*. Everything. There's no truth and there's no honesty. My God! Life can't—I mean just out there, you have only to look up at the sky—but Stilbourne accepts it as a *roof*. As a—and the way we hide our bodies and the things we don't say, the things we daren't mention, the people we don't meet—and that *stuff* they call music—It's a lie! Don't they understand? It's a lie, a lie! It's—obscene!'

This is a book about growing up and understanding people retrospectively. About the arrogance of adolescence, the sad recognition of one's own limitations. And about the slow, late, partial acquisition of compassion.

It is a beautiful novel.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

See the description for a good summary. A joy to read: well written, interesting story lines. Recommended.

[Rıdvan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Şimdi aslında ben böyle romanları sevmem. Bir çocuk var, ergen. Lise sonda okuyor. Doğal olarak kız peşinde. Şimdi buraya kadar bile biri bana söylemiş olsa, bu kitabı okumazdım. Bunu yazanında Tuna Kiremitçi falan olduğunu düşünürdüm. En azından aklıma William Golding hiç gelmezdi.
Ama işte millet yazdığında berbat bir kitap haline dönüşen bu liseli ergen genç hikayesi, Golding'in elinde çok güzel bir kitaba dönüşmüş. Usta ellerde bir şahesere dönüşmemiş olsa bile çokta güzel bir kitap oluvermiş. Kimseye "okuyun mutlaka bu kitabı" diye tavsiye edemem ama okuyanda çok şey kazanacaktır hani.
Kahramanımızın adı Oliver.
Piramit 3 bölümden oluşuyor. İlk bölümde Oliver bir kızın peşinden koşuyor. Lise sonda o sıra ve üniversiteye hazırlanıyor. Zira Oxford'ta okumak hevesinde kerata.
Nitekim tüm bu hengamenin sonunda isteğine ulaşıyor. Yani hem Oxford'a hemde kıza...
İkinci bölümde ise bir tiyatro oyununu sahneye koymaya çalışıyorlar. Sonunda da binbir zorlukla başarıyorlar. Güzel bi hikaye ama o kadar karışıkki özetini çıkaramıyorum.
Son bölmde ise Oliver'a keman çalmasını öğreten komşusu ve öğretmeni Yo-Yo ile olan anılarına bir bakıyoruz. Zavallı Yo-Yo'nun aşk acısına ve yapayalnızlığına tanık oluyoruz. Tabi bu sırada Oliver ilkokul çocuğu.

Okumayın efenim.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

1992 notebook: Disappointing. Middle class amateur dramatics in a small town. I did like Evie, but Golding is so sexist he almost makes her a stereotype beyond redemption but she's still more interesting than the main character and everybody else put together. A town crier, the major in a bathchair, a lipstick marked doctor. Dull.

[bikerbuddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Pyramid is divided into three sections, each relating a chapter in the life of Oliver, the novel’s first-person protagonist. In the first section, Oliver is a teenager in the 1920s who becomes involved with Evie Babbacombe after he helps her conceal her romantic tryst with Robert Ewen, the doctor’s son, from her father. In the second section he has just completed his first term in Oxford and returns to Stilbourne, his small country town, where he is pressed into service for the local drama production by his mother. In the third section, he is a married man in the early 1960s with children. He returns to Stilbourne, possibly for the last time, and hears of his old music teacher’s death.

This broad summary might make the novel sound a little disjointed. Golding initially wrote the third section of the novel and was told by his publisher that it would need something more to be a viable piece of writing. Yet Golding’s novel hangs together much better than at first it might appear, because the sections are linked by character, setting and the novel’s thematic concerns. Robert Ewen ‘borrows’ Bounce Dawlish’s car in the first section to take Evie Babbacombe to a dance, and later to have sex with her. When he accidentally puts it into a pond, Evie seeks Oliver to help them get it out. In the third section, we hear the story of how Bounce came to own the car, influenced as she was by Henry Williams, the town’s garage owner who initially relied upon Bounce’s goodwill to keep his family financially sound. For her part, Bounce desired Henry, but he only ever used her to get what he wanted. In the second section of the novel Oliver is asked to play violin for a scene onstage for the local production of King of Hearts. He has to play second fiddle (pun-intended) to Norman Claymore, the man who married Imogen, Oliver’s secret teenage crush, now playing opposite her own husband onstage. She can’t sing, but the local production is about who is who in the town and who has power. Oliver finds them contemptible. He may be studying chemistry at university, but his love is music. The third section of the novel tells the story of his studying violin and then piano under Bounce Dawlish.

My first impression of this book was that it is light and fun. For anyone who hasn’t ventured past Golding’s most famous novel, Lord of the Flies, this may come as a surprise. Some of the action is farcical, especially in the first two sections, involving Oliver’s concealments and desires, as well as his ridiculous role in the drama production in the second, recalling some of the farce of Golding’s The Scorpion God.

At the same time, the novel is deeply serious. Evie is a somewhat sad character (I wanted to write ‘tragic’, but that is not technically true, and not an honest portrayal of her). To the young Oliver she is lubricious and available: a girl whose sexual presence is felt by all; a local phenomenon, he tells us, and every, male for miles around was aware of her. Yet Oliver’s pride at winning her overshadows what to the reader becomes obvious but what he clearly fails to see – this is part of the skill of Golding as a novelist – that she has suffered sexual abuse, and she is only fifteen. Captain Wilmot, a war veteran tasked with teaching Evie secretarial skills, has been whipping her backside. And Dr Jones has been kissing Evie, although it is only the older Oliver looking back who makes sense of the lipstick smear on the doctor’s mouth and the real reason for Evie leaving the town ......

Read my full review of The Pyramid by William Golding on the Reading Project

[Sol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spoiler review:

Even moreso than The Spire, this looks like a more conventional novel than Golding's early work. I was initially a little disappointed, but I ended up enjoying it. Rather than a continuous story, The Pyramid is three episodes in the life of Oliver, living in the early 20th century in a smallish town in England, Stilbourne. The first (and longest) covers his tumultuous first sex experiences with a local girl named Evie, the second is a short comic interlude where Oliver is roped into performing in a local musical, and the last is more tragic, as older Oliver returns to Stilbourne and recalls his early memories with his music teacher Miss Dawlish.

Each functions as a single story with differing styles and moods. They do all share a theme of misunderstanding to and from young Oliver. In the first, Oliver sees Evie as an irresistible temptress, whereas it becomes clear later that Evie sees Oliver to be as predatory toward her as the other men of Stilbourne. Both of them wrongly believe the other to have told others their secrets - Oliver, that Evie told her parents about their dalliances, and Evie, that Oliver spread rumours of incest with her father. Neither has a right view of the other, despite lots of furtive watching from distance by Oliver. In the second, the play director Evelyn is clearly a cross-dressing homosexual, who mistakenly reveals himself to Oliver, thinking Oliver is a kindred spirit. Oliver, at the time, does not understand when Evelyn gives him photographs of his crossdressing, and instead laughs in his face. Finally, in the last story, young Oliver fears and dislikes his music teacher Miss Dawlish, and also does not understand the tumultuous dynamic of her thwarted love for Henry, the father of the family that rooms in her large home. Everyone else misunderstands his quiet deference toward her as devotion and love, and he witnesses her long decline into cat-ladyhood.

Each story also ends with someone leaving Stilbourne - Evie for London in the first, Evelyn for Barchester in the second, and Oliver himself in the last.

I found this a lot more affecting than I thought it would be - I found Miss Dawlish's pain and obsession hard to witness, even through Oliver's uncomprehending and unsympathic eyes, but it felt much less substantial than his other works.

[Troy Alexander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just ok. I always want to like William Golding’s novels a bit more than I actually do.

[Tharwat · Rating 3 out of 5]

-31-
الحمد لله رب كل شيء، {إِنَّمَا أَشْكُو بَثِّي وَحُزْنِي إِلَى اللَّهِ وَأَعْلَمُ مِنَ اللَّهِ مَا لَا تَعْلَمُونَ} [يوسف: 86]، كنت في حالٍ سيئة، أركب الأيام علني أصل قبل المغيب، في الظلام لن أرى شيئًا، قال أبو العلاء: "ألا إنما الأيّامُ أبْناءُ واحِد = وهَذي الليالي كلّها أخَوات، فلا تَطْلُبَنْ مِن عندِ يوْم وليْلَة = خِلافَ الذي مَرّتْ به السّنَواتُ"، كنت قد قرأت منذ فترة ليست بالبعيدة قصة "آلهة الذباب" لوليام جولدنج، وأنهيت منذ أيام رواية "الهرم" لنفس الكاتب، والكاتب بريطاني حاز على جائزة نوبل عام 1983، الروايتان من ترجمات دار الهلال القديمة اشتريتهم من سوق الكتب القديمة (الأزبكية) بمعرض الكتاب، في نهاية القراءة المتأنية أرى أن جولدنج محتاج لإعادة بعث ترجماته ثانية بالعربية في حركة الترجمة الحديثة التي يقوم بها شباب يجيدون التعبير الأدبي بالعربية والإنجليزية، فالترجمتان سيئتان عانيت منهما الأمرين، وإن كانت روح جولدنج المتأنية في نظرتها للطبيعة البشرية العفنة لازمتني أثناء قراءة الروايتين، إلهة الذباب في ترجمتها السيئة، الأصح أن تكون "سيد الذباب" أو "أمير الذباب" عنيفة جدًا في رصدها لطبيعة التسلط البشري المسيطرة في جبلة الإنسان الزائل.. {كَلَّا إِنَّ الْإِنْسَانَ لَيَطْغَى} [العلق: 6]، تحكي عن مجموعة أطفال كشافة وقعت بهم طائرة في أحد الجزر المنعزلة، ويبدأون في التأقلهم مع واقعهم ومحاولة التصرف كمجتمع بشري طبيعي، خلاصة نظرية العقد الاجتماعي لروسو، لكن في النهاية يقتلون بعضهم ويتحزبون لجماعات متناحرة في سبيل لا شيء، خلاصة مبتكرة قام بها جولدنج في هذه الرواية خاصة أنها كانت أولى رواياته والتي حاز بها على جائزة نوبل خصيصًا، الرواية الأخرى بعنوان الهرم، ترصد لنا الطبيعة النفسية لمراهق في تطوراتها المختلفة، وبرصد متباين ما بين علاقة المراهق في بدايات فترة مراهقته بالفتاة الفقيرة التي تمتهن نفسها جنسيًا لإخفاء سوء وضعها الاجتماعي، والعزباء العجوز الغنية التي تمتهن نفسها جنسيًا لإخفاء سوء وضعها الحياتي، مونولوج طويل بنهاية القصة عن الآنسة دوليش، بان فيه ولع جولدنج بالتفاصيل الهامشية التي أضفت بعدًا مجهريًا لشخصيات الرواية، أنا أريد أن أنوه من خلال هذه المراجعة على قيمة روايات جولدنج من حيث التحليل النفسي، وأبطال قصصه الأطفال هم خير ثمرة غضة يستطيع الكاتب أن يبني عليها هيكل أي قصة لها هدف أخلاقي بعيد بصورة غير مباشرة، نحن في حاجة لاكتشاف عالم جولدنج بعد قرابة نصف قرن، لدي الآن قصة من قصص أجاثا كريستي من روايات الهلال القديمة، في الحقيقة أحاول إنهاء مجموعة روايات الهلال بترجماتها المملة التي اشتريتها، ترجمات سيئة لواقع سيء، قال أحدهم في إهداء إحدى كتبه: "الخيبات لا تُهدَى".. "أنتِ عطلة آخر السنة، وكلهم بداية امتحان"، يقول ابن الصّائغ الأندلسي: "أغرُّ نفسي بآمالٍ مُزخرفَةٍ = منها : لقاؤُكَ، والأيَّامُ تأْباهُ !"، اللهم إني أحب لقائك، فلا تغلق في وجهي بابك، قال إدريس جماع: "هي نظرة تُنسي الوقار = وتسعد الروح المُعنَّى".

[Viktor Davion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was really amazed while reading this book. Essentially it reminded me "The Catcher in the Rye" but like other Golding's novels this one is rather downbeat. Not so dark as "Lord of the Flies", but any way - downbeat.
The strange thing is that almost all heroes have a kind of mental sickness (e.g. main hero's mother likes to watch life of others and, in fact, torture the life of her husband and son). The whole society of Stillborn is sick with social prejudices and was broken into several social circles. And Golding showed this dirt and filth very bright. A very biting and severe novel about people's prejudice and other social sicknesses.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carry On Golding. It’s the odd one out among the novels and light by his standards - no murders, no burnings, barely even one attempted rape. I don’t think social comedy was Golding’s strong point but he manages it better here than in The Paper Men.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A young man born and raised in a small English town among the jealousy and hidden minds of small minded people., The young man attempts to lift himself from his every day denial that the town is slowly dying due to lack of attention.This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS

[Sam Andrew · Rating 1 out of 5]

"The Pyramid is William Golding's funniest and most light-hearted novel"

The first story features him raping a 15 year old girl.

Like other reviews have called it a sexual tryst, but it is plainly rape and really quite disturbing that others think this is a whimsical story.

[Allie Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very clever, well written and amusing novel. Not sure I liked Oliver terribly much but the book kept me engaged and it was a swift read.

[A. Raca · Rating 3 out of 5]

"İnsan on sekizinde acıya dayanacak kadar güçlüdür; savunma sistemlerini de geliştirmemiştir henüz."

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, he can write. This has the feel of "stream of consciousness" with amazing structure, from someone who presents a credible, complete picture of an inner person.

[Maria Carmo · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Portuguese review further down).

What an interesting book! I did not know exactly what to expect but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. It is very interesting the way in which the Author describes to us a "pyramidal" society in which people have hardly the space to be happy. There is in the young boy a certain "innocence" that includes a lot of ego centrism and selfishness - but one gets the notion that this happens much more out of inexperience and ignorance about the depths of Human Nature...
One thing I enjoyed was the fact that he attempted no "moralizing" conclusions or hints in his writing: in a way, it is a bit "Krishnamurti-an" in the sense that he observes almost without moralist intents, merely telling what IS and only as he gets older and more mature does he capture the full meaning of the situations he lived and of the people he came across. There are some well captured "epiphanies", such as the moment in which he REALIZES that his Mother is ALSO a woman with feelings, not just "his Mum"...
The book introduces us to very strong and rather dramatic characters, such as Evie, Mis Dawlish, Henry, his own Mum...
Definitely worth reading!

Não sabia muito bem o que esperar, mas acabei por gostar deste livro, que adopta um tom muito neutro para descrever uma sociedade "piramidal" em que as pessoas estão tão estratificadas, que não têm por vezes o direito de ser felizes. Desde uma certa inocência na juventude, mas que inconscientemente dá aso a um certo egocentrismo e egoísmo, à vagarosa epifania da descoberta do mundo, das relações pessoais e da forma como sofrem os restantes seres humanos, à constatação dos próprios medos e fobias, o autor escreve duma forma quase "Krishnamurtiana" ( na medido em que não faz comentários "moralistas" sobre tudo o que se está a passar, mas antes surge como um porta voz literário, um tela na qual vemos pintar os quadros da juventude e desenvolvimento intelectual, estético e mental do autor. Dizem que a obra tem o seu què de auto brigráfica - se assim for, percebesse a força dos caracteres, o coclorido da vila e das interacções entre ele, a Família, Evie e Miss Dawlish, etc.

Vale bem a pena ler!

Maria Carmo

Lisboa 19 Março 2012

[Smiley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hope this might be a fine book for those in their teens or those passing their once teen-age years. This novel was not interesting to me but I found reading it curiously and interestingly hilarious since the eighteen-year-old protagonist, Oliver, is the first person who narrates the two key episodes in the 1920s in Stilbourne in England. Claimed to be "William Golding's funniest and most light-hearted novel, probing the painful awkwardness of the late teens, the tragedy and farce of life in a small community and the consoling power of music" (back cover), it is relatively more readable than his seemingly controversial "Lord of the Flies". A reason is that, I think, he has written his novels like other great professional writers who have their own style of writing in terms of his subtlety, therefore, his readers simply cannot help admiring his words and enjoying delicious reading similar to having our favorite food. For instance:

...
"Hang on a minute!"
"I got to go."
"Can't we --"
"P'raps. I don't know. Thanks anyway for the lift."
She scurried over the bridge and vanished down the other side. I examined my bike. The carrier and the rear mudguard had wrapped themselves round the wheel. ... (p. 34)

... In particular there was a shape on the mantelpiece over the fire in which the face became clear to me, bit by bit; and at last I could see that it was Beethoven, with floating, bronze hair, compressed lips, and deep eyes that bored furiously into the tail of the piano. ... (p. 181)

...
Indeed, we were changing, all of us. Bounce was becoming more manly and abrupt, less elastic in stride, and a little fatter. With Henry and Mary she was rough, proprietary. ... (p. 186)

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was aware that Golding was praised for more than just his most famous novel, and as a fairly short novel I thought I would try this one. Unfortunately, it was for the most part as dull as the town he set the novel in, the comedically Christened Stilbourne.

This is really three novellas linked by the narrator, and gets progressively worse. The first story is about the narrator's lust for a local girl, and was a promising start, the flaws in his character exposed and explicitly called out by the girl who elicits a lot of sympathy from the reader, if not her town. There was no real resolution to this, however, calling to mind the David Brent roleplay where everyone goes silent and there is a nervous tension - this was not a role play though, and there was no consequence.

The second story is one long set piece, and again highlights the character deficiency of the narrator. I think this section is first and foremost satirical, but it isn't amusing in itself and Oliver's performance in a play for the town didn't have the farce or slapstick that could have made it more entertaining, and I think a comedy writer could have done a better job with the story. The third story is barely worth mentioning, just very boring and I was waiting for the surprise that would link it to some other thread in the story or a comment on society in general as in the second part. This never came, and was a slog to read through.

Rather sadly, my favourite element of the book was its cover, and having been drawn into the first part I found the subsequent two thirds a big let down. It was obvious what it was lacking and as a standalone novel it would never get a reprint, and would save modern readers being tempted to read it.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is almost like three short stories, each concerning the same central character, Olly.
The book begins with an excellent opening in which Olly’s dreamed about neighbour, Evie, whom he has never spoken to, calls at his house late one night to ask for help. This leads to a story of intrigue and love between the two which is fine work and immediately had me buying more books by Golding.
About half way through, we meet the Olly who has come back from university, only to get roped into amateur theatrics by his mother. For a long time I read this without much concentration or engagement, awaiting the return of Evie. She never arrived, and eventually I was forced to try and value in the new storyline, which I did with limited success.
Around the three-quarter point we moved on again, this time with a more grown up Olly returning to his home village and recalling scenes from his childhood, centring mainly on recollections of his music teacher, disspointingly with no reference to Evie.
The final vignette had some merit, but was profoundly unsatisfying for the lack of closure of the first.

[Kevin Darbyshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had a totally different view of William Gilding as I did Lord of the Flies at school for GCSE and didn't really enjoy it. Thoroughly enjoyed this story and really sad to come to the end. I felt the style was very much in the manner of Evelyn Waugh who I love. Really hysterically funny in sections ( The theatre
Production ) but incredibly sad at the conclusion (Bounce) Wonderful characters and their stories but also the story of the main protagonist coming to terms with life. Feel that this book is one that I will return to again and again. Have now started another William Golding as so impressed with this this tale.

[Steven Doran · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like when books from not-today make references to music you know - listening to it, learning it, playing it - this is a good one. I have three memories of it: someone falling off of their bike, the music teacher who plays Chopin to show the protagonist 'That's what you're up against,' and the same best-boy reflecting that 'Maybe he *could* play the piano loud.' Ha!

I've only ever enjoyed Golding and this is one of his better books: a pleasing trio of stories with side-line commentary on what music has to offer to the people who don't mind waiting for it.

[Mohamed Karaly · Rating 3 out of 5]

يتتبع أوليفر الطابع البائس لبلدته التى يستعد ليتركها للدراسة بأكسفورد وتغيير حياته، وعند مفترق الطرق تتبين له أشياء مقززة بخصوص بؤس الناس العادية والغلبانة فى بلدته، وبؤسه هو بخصوص وضعه الطبقى وأحلامه الساذجة بخصوص الموسيقى والحب والتى تحطمت تماما
أسلوب جميل، هامس ومتمكن من تفاصيل ملهمة يقترب من أسلوب همنجواى، حيث يتناول بؤس أناس يتشبثون بوقار الصمت وهم يعكفون على عادات كتنظيف وتدخين غليون، من أجل التعتيم على أحلام ساذجة وكبت مؤلم بداخلهم

[Aaron Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

The last sentence of Lively's introduction perfectly captures this book: '"The Pyramid" is a powerful piece of fiction into which Golding has packed comedy, tragedy and an extraordinary evocation of a lost way of life - mercifully lost, one may think.' I just finished it, and my confused, melancholic mind can't better that description.

[ნინო ქერდიყოშვილი · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Still, HEAVEN IS MUSIC,isn't it ,Kummer?'
გოლდინგისეული სელენჯერი?:დ დღენი უილიამის სიჭაბუკისანი...^

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extra star for being set in Trollope's Barsetshire snort

[Jennifer John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great coming of age tale, not least because in typical Golding style all the faults of the 'hero' are displayed in a brutal way.

[Katelyn Frohman · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this novel we follow Oliver, who, in the first part, is a young teenager. Through his eyes we discover the town and social constructs he is raised into, which only continue to be revealed throughout the last two parts of the Novel. The way he interacts with other characters evolves, as well as his intentions and perception of those interactions.

Though each section of the novel can be seen as very different as the last, the running themes and nuances connect them very soundlessly. As a reader we witness Oliver as he makes fatal mistakes, we witness how his environment lacks a response to these actions, and then later experience his revelation/ confession.

In the last section, not only do we get a deeper look into Oliver's childhood and the atmosphere of his adolescence, but subsequently dive into the huge contrast of devotion vs. the lust of the first two sections. Oliver devotes himself fully to his mentor, as he witnesses her life as it deteriorates. It's safe to say in this section we meet Oliver as two distinct people: the Oliver of Stillbourne who carries the guilt and heaviness of the town, and the Oliver who left, has loved, and has grown as an individual instead of a citizen of the watchful city. The two parts of himself start to merge, revealing and beautifully resolving the true messages of this novel.

In sum, Oliver commits unexcusable acts, discovers the harm of these actions and lives with the guilt. Then, as the reader, we are thrown into the history of his life, piecing together the parts to fully understand the make of the man. I think it's structured well, and the resolve is well worth struggling to watch as Oliver stumbles into the person he becomes. His growth is remarkable, and that in itself is enough to make it a good read.