GOLDING, William (1911–1993). Darkness Visible. London: Faber and Faber, 1979.

FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING, with “First published in 1979 by Faber and Faber Limited” on the copyright page and no later impression stated. In the original pictorial dust jacket, retaining the publisher’s £4.95 net price.

Published twenty-five years after Lord of the Flies, Darkness Visible is one of Golding’s darkest and most elusive novels. It begins during the Blitz, when a badly burned child named Matty emerges from a burning building. Whether he is simply a survivor, a visionary, or something stranger becomes one of the questions around which the novel develops.

Matty’s story eventually intersects with those of the twins Sophy and Toni and with Sebastian Pedigree, as Golding moves through violence, religious experience, sexuality, terror, and the unstable border between revelation and madness.

The title invokes the paradox of “darkness visible,” associated with Milton’s Paradise Lost, and the novel opens with the Latin phrase Sit mihi fas audita loqui, placing the book immediately within a language of testimony, vision, and things heard but not easily explained.

The original dust jacket reproduces Russell Drysdale’s painting The Rainmaker and retains the original £4.95 net price.

Original burgundy cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Printed in Great Britain by Lowe and Brydone Printers Limited, Thetford, Norfolk. ISBN 0-571-11454-7.

Condition: Very good in the original price-intact dust jacket. Binding sound and firmly bound. The text block shows pronounced but even age-toning throughout, clearly visible in the photographs. Dust jacket with light shelf and handling wear, substantially complete, and protected in a removable clear archival sleeve.