Darkness Visible (novel)

For other uses, see Darkness Visible (disambiguation).

Darkness Visible
1st edition cover
Author(s)	William Golding
Cover artist	Russel Drysdale
Country	UK
Language	English
Publisher	Faber & Faber
Publication date	1979
Published in English	1979
Media type	Print
Pages	265
ISBN	0-571-11646-9
OCLC Number	5754188

Darkness Visible is a 1979 novel by British author William Golding. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The title comes from Paradise Lost, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible".

The novel narrates a struggle between good and evil, using naïveté, sexuality and spirituality throughout. It marked Golding's re-emergence as a novelist, eight years after the publication of his previous book, the collection The Scorpion God.

A dark and complex novel, it centres on Matty - introduced in chapter one as a naked child emerging horribly disfigured from a bomb explosion during the London Blitz in World War II. He becomes a ward of the state and is put into a Catholic boarding school, where he is shunned by the other children and sexually abused by one of his teachers, Mr. Pedigree. When he grows up, however, his selfless kindness and mysterious persona attract a devoted following of people who believe him to be a saint.