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Spire

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"The Spire" manages to brush up against the successful elements of Golding's best work. Although it never reaches the heights of the brilliant "The Lord of the Flies," it does paint vivid and fragmented pictures of man come undone.

William Golding, after seeing the horrors of war firsthand, rejected the foundational thought of humanism that "man is basically good." In "The Lord of the Flies," he used concise language and haunting symbolism to validate his thoughts. And, by creating sympathetic characters, he drew us into his viewpoint. Few of his other novels create such sympathy. It is as though he bought into his own philosophy so deeply that he no longer found value in his fellow man. "Pincher Martin" and "Free Fall" left me impressed with his skills, but intellectually unmoved.

In "The Spire," he moves me again. At first, his protagonist--an anti-hero in every sense--is hard to sympathize with in any fashion. The man, Dean Jocelin, is driven to the point of obsession and insanity by his need to serve God, or, ultimately his need to feel worthy in God's sight. He demands obedience and servitude from those around him, driving them to complete his vision of a 400 ft spire above his cathedral. In the process, some will die, others will lose faith, hope, and love. Only as Jocelin comes to terms with his fallibility do we begin to care about the doomed outcome of his dream. Only as he admits his own pride and stubborness do we hope for his absolution, deserved or not.

This book is an ode to all those who become obsessed by religion and love, who strive for something to the point of sacrificing everything of true value along the way. Here, finally, Golding once again finds a way to show the madness of humanity while still proferring a glimmer of hope.

Golding constructs a fictional account around a real occurrence, the building of a tall spire at Salisbury Cathedral, near where Golding lived.

It is Golding's "Macbeth", whereas "Flies" may be seen as "Hamlet". Short, impressionistic, unrelenting, "The Spire" is writing at its best. There is a lack of physical description, leaving that to the reader's imagination, but much fine dialogue. This is why I have always thought it would make a sensational film (I have always seen Alec Guiness in the role of Jocelyn).

Characters are well drawn, there are inter and intra personal conflicts between Roger, the Master Builder, and Jocelyn, who thinks he is doing God's work and that Roger's skills are his instrument.

Jocelyn, who rose rapidly to become Dean of the Church, is resented by others who had been there longer. At the end, Roger is a drunken wreck, and Jocelyn finds out the truth about his appointment as Dean. It is a crushing revelation, which finally kills him. On his deathbed, he asks to be helped up so that he can see the Spire, which has finally been completed. It took a terrible toll in human life, but this tribute to God is still standing today and can be seen for miles on the flat Salisbury Plain.

This is a much less symbolic story than "Flies", and a lot less heavy handed, and that is why I feel it is much superior. It is a very human story of hubris, obsession, false hope, and ultimate ruination, and Golding accomplishes all this in a very short book. It is like a long epic poem, and while its writing style may take a little getting used to, it is well worth the effort.

To me, this book is a bona fide classic. Do yourself a favor and read it. You will never forget it.

William Golding's reach in this novel is prodigious. Not only does he demonstrate that the one historical constant is human nature, he also manages to flesh out the scope of behaviour admitted in one particlar human being. The novel takes the reader back in time and to an historically, as well as geographically, foreign place. It deals with how human beings cope with pain, loss, ambition, vision and the tenderest of feelings. The novel is a tour de force.

I stumbled upon this book by accident, and decided to read it due to Golding's reputation as author of the wonderful, "Lord of the Flies". "The Spire" is likewise a fairly quick read, and every bit as engaging. Even arguably superior.

Briefly, it is the story of a cleric, Dean Jocelin, who embarks on an over-ambitious building project at the cathedral he oversees. The time and the place is not important, and indeed could be 21st century America (the book seems to be set in 19th century England). The project is the addition of a 400 foot spire. Jocelin is single-minded regarding the project, as he decorously steamrolls the project along under color of devotion to God. The result is disastrous.

I respectfully differ with the several other reviewers that see the spire project as misdirected devotion to glorifying God. There is much evidence in the story that Jocelin is a megalomaniac. The structure is to be self-glorifying. To boot, he is also apparently a closet lecher. He prays, and seems to rationalize the project as an act of devotion - but I think he is really all about self-promotion.

Always woven into the storytelling is the church building itself. Golding paints a vivid picture of the old stone pillars audibly protesting under the ever increasing weight of the spire that slowly grows above them, the construction of the spire, the majesty but the tension, and the feeling of looming catastrophe. Wonderful writing.

This is a great piece of work. It is well worth the quick read and it will stay with you. Recommended.

Reverend Jocelin, Dean of the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary, becomes obsessed with building a 400-foot spire atop the church; the builders warn him that the church's foundation is not strong enough to support the weight of such a spire, but Jocelin insists it be built because of "a vision" he has had. Jocelin loses interest in everything not connected with the spire and truly becomes a man possessed; even religious services are suspended in order for the construction to take place, and people die as it is being built. (The power of this obsession is reminiscent of Captain Ahab and his obsession with Moby Dick.) What might have been a religious inspiration for the churchgoers becomes a personal mania for Jocelin. Sure enough after the spire is completed the building collapses and Jocelin is killed, but amazingly the spire remains upright. Golding captures perfectly the madness in Jocelin's "vision," and it's my favorite of his books - and the one most accessible.

This is written in a "stream of consciousness" style which makes is somewhat inaccessible and difficult to follow. The book is written as the thoughts of the insane bishop building the spire.

What interested me in the book is actually visiting Salisbury cathedral in England and seeing the impossible spire myself. Golding taught at the school attached to Salisbury cathedral and this inspired his story. The hubris of building the tallest tower and stone spire in England on top of thin pillars never meant to hold the weight, themselves built on 4' deep foundations set on wet gravel is amazing. The fact this this was done in the thirteen hundreds is amazing and might inspire one to faith.

Read this classic and then go to see that cathedral that has been continually about to fall since the middle ages.

This book is a masterpiece , Golding really has the Knack of personifying his characters and Ideas in a way that the reader can relate to. A book about the struggle between one man and his ambition his obsession with one building one dream, In which nothing else matters. Truly a classic. Inspiring...

"The Spire," is quite a different novel from Golding's more famous debut novel "Lord of the Flies," except that it, too, demonstrates something about the capacity of individuals to drag others along as they respond to their baser motivations (power, vanity--the list could go on). It concerns a priest named Jocelin, dean of a cathedral somewhere in England, who has a vision that convinces him he must add to the building a soaring spire. This, he says, is to glorify God and the cathedral, but there is a large measure of personal vanity at work as well, since Dean Jocelin is convinced that he is the man who must do it, that this is his particular vocation. If the master builder, Roger Mason, tells him that the building has no foundation and therefore cannot support such a structure, technical details and the experience of builders must move aside for the realization of Jocelin's vision. Jocelin feels at times inspired (by God), at times bewitched (by a woman), at times opposed (by Roger Mason), at times belittled (by everyone). He never doubts his vision, even when it threatens to destroy the cathedral and some of the lives that pass through it--even when it becomes widely derided as Jocelin's Folly. Whether or not the spire will remain standing, Jocelin himself is brought low by the madness of his faith. But this may be seen as a cautionary tale in more than one way: all vanity is blind, but is not all faith also to a certain degree madness? Golding's psychologically-complex tale is both moving and sobering.

With this powerhouse metaphor,Golding has given us a chilling tale of a man and a monumental building project. It takes us into the mind of obsession and drives deep into the foundational relationship between beauty and depravity. Evil may be concealed with elaborate artifice, but it will out - from the soul of a man or the soul of a building. This is a memorably dark exploration of the schitzophrenic condition,the coercion of the good as a means to an end and the ultimate tragedy of power abused. Not a lovely story, but truly well crafted. I was happy to finish reading it, but I can't stop thinking about it. It's scenes replay in my mind unveiling deeper truths. Find it...read it.

I was very disappointed by William Golding's novel The Spire. Golding, whose most famous book is Lord of the Flies, tells in The Spire the story of an Dean Jocelin's obsession to add a 400-foot tall spire to his English Cathedral. All, including the builder, tell Jocelin that this is impossible, as the building lacks adequate foundation. Nonetheless, Jocelin persists, going mad in the process. While much of the writing and language of this book is first-rate, I found it difficult to either pay attention or follow the plot. I found myself rereading many parts of the book with no greater comprehension than the first time through. For me, this was one of those books which I was thankful was short.