A Clockwork Orange

By Anthony Burgess

Book Overview

Fully restored edition of Anthony Burgess' original text of A Clockwork Orange, with a glossary of the teen slang 'Nadsat', explanatory notes, pages from the original typescript, interviews, articles and reviews

Edited by Andrew Biswell With a Foreword by Martin Amis

'It is a horrorshow story ...'

Fifteen-year-old Alex likes lashings of ultraviolence. He and his gang of friends rob, kill and rape their way through a nightmarish future, until the State puts a stop to his riotous excesses. But what will his re-education mean?

A dystopian horror, a black comedy, an exploration of choice, A Clockwork Orange is also a work of exuberant invention which created a new language for its characters. This critical edition restores the text of the novel as Anthony Burgess originally wrote it, and includes a glossary of the teen slang 'Nadsat', explanatory notes, pages from the original typescript, interviews, articles and reviews, shedding light on the enduring fascination of the novel's 'sweet and juicy criminality'.

Anthony Burgess was born in Manchester in 1917 and educated at Xaverian College and Manchester University. He spent six years in the British Army before becoming a schoolmaster and colonial education officer in Malaya and Brunei. After the success of his Malayan Trilogy, he became a full-time writer in 1959. His books have been published all over the world, and they include The Complete Enderby, Nothing Like the Sun, Napoleon Symphony, Tremor of Intent, Earthly Powers and A Dead Man in Deptford. Anthony Burgess died in London in 1993.

Andrew Biswell is the Professor of Modern Literature at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Director of the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. His publications include a biography, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess, which won the Portico Prize in 2006. He is currently editing the letters and short stories of Anthony Burgess.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0141182601
• ISBN13: 9780141182605
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Penguin Classic
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.61 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.8" x 0.4" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Book condition is not in "Good"

Item condition is not "good" as they described. Has notes and writings on almost every pages...

Classic of course

:)

very good book and movie

good ol book, lovely day! cioa!

Great movie, greater book!!

Absolutely undeniably a classic. Phenomenal dystopian novel, engaging perspective prose.

Be prepared I re read lines

There is a lot of jargon written in this book. I love it! It forces you to really pay attention and become engaged with the text. One of the most interesting books I have ever read.

Such a phenomenal book

If you like books that make you think and that don't end where the last page is, this is a book for you. Will definitely check out more by Anthony Burgess.

And all that cal

A Clockwork Orange is the story of good and evil and the value of choice. The main character, is a 15 year old lad named Alex whose life consists of crime, cruelty, and recklessness. After being betrayed by an accomplice, he is sentenced to prison where he volunteers for a program that corrects the seemingly uncorrectable. Only then does he being to suffer the consequences of his crash and burn lifestyle. A Clockwork Orange is what I believe to be a fabulous novel. It may confuse a reader at the start because of the language, but its not that hard to understand the slang dialect if you have a firm grasp on English and are a few pages into the book. Also, one must be patient when reading it because the main ideas aren't revealed until later in the novel. There is a lot of building up the characters before hand, which is valuable information but may bore those who are already have a distaste for the book's violent nature. I also highly recommend that you read the British version because the last or 21st chapter is quite important. Anyways, the book is more oriented those who can see past the gore and sex and can grasp the main ideas the author is trying to convey through a clockwork orange.