A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess

Aug 2011 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

'I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language ... a very funny book' William S. Burroughs

Fifteen-year-old Alex doesn't just like ultra-violence - he also enjoys rape, drugs and Beethoven's ninth. He and his gang of droogs rampage through a dystopian future, hunting for terrible thrills. But when Alex finds himself at the mercy of the state and subject to the ministrations of Dr Brodsky, and the mind-altering treatment of the Ludovico Technique, he discovers that fun is no longer the order of the day. The basis for Stanley Kubrick's notorious 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange is both a virtuoso performance from an electrifying prose stylist and a serious exploration of the morality of free will.

In his introduction, Blake Morrison situates A Clockwork Orange within the context of Anthony Burgess's many other works, explores the author's unhappiness with the Stanley Kubrick film version, analyses the composition of the Nadsat argot spoken by Alex and his droogs, and examines the influences on Burgess's unique, eternally original style.

With an Introduction by Blake Morrison

Ratings and reviews

The movie is a classic, my favourite of all time. The book is hard to understand, if you've never come across nadsat before, but there is a great story behind it and certainly a message and a moral.

The story seems to argue for the necessity of evil, in the formation of our moral decisions. That a society in which it is only permissible to be good is, in fact, a dictatorship. The novel's conclusion is strikingly more optimistic than in Stanley Kubrick's film version.

Great pacing, very ethically and morally driven, very frightening and beautifully crafted from one medium (and unto another). A great, but not so easy, read. Very very horrorshow indeed O' my brothers

About the author

Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917. From 1954 to 1960 he was stationed in Malaysia as an education officer - during this time he started writing The Malayan Trilogy. Diagnosed with an unoperable brain tumour in 1959, Burgess became a full-time writer and went on to write a book a year up until his death in 1993. His many works include: The Complete Enderby, Tremor of Intent, The Kingdom of the Wicked and A Clockwork Orange.