Rites of Passage
By William Golding
 
First edition, first impression, published by Faber and Faber in 1980. Signed by the author to the front endpaper.
 
Octavo. Original dark green cloth, spine lettered in gilt. Signed by the author, "William Golding," on the front free endpaper.
 
A near fine copy: a small biro mark to the fore-edge, with a little very faint spotting to the top, otherwise bright and sound. In the fine, unclipped dust jacket (£5.95 net), retaining the original wraparound promotional band announcing the Booker McConnell Prize. One closed tear to the upper panel of the band, which is otherwise excellent and bright.
 
Winner of the 1980 Booker Prize, Rites of Passage is the first volume of Golding's Sea Trilogy, completed by Close Quarters (1987) and Fire Down Below (1989) and later published together as To the Ends of the Earth. The trilogy was adapted by the BBC as a three-part television serial of the same name in 2005, directed by David Attwood and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Sam Neill, Jared Harris, and Charles Dance; it received six BAFTA nominations. Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. Rare with the Booker band, which is frequently absent, but survives here intact.