British schoolboys crash on a deserted island and attempt to govern themselves, with results that darken as the novel progresses. Golding wrote this after serving in World War II, and the veneer of civilization peels away quickly. The conch shell that represents order; the beast that may or may not exist; the fire that becomes destruction: the symbols are obvious but effective. The novel was rejected by twenty-one publishers before finding one. It is now taught in every school, sometimes too early for students to feel its horror. Golding later won the Nobel Prize. The island remains a test we keep failing.