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Book Details

A Clockwork Orange

78.6% complete
1962
67,280
1985
1 time
See 6
1 - Part One
7 Chapters
2 - Part Two
7 Chapters
3 - Part Three
6 Chapters
Book Cover
Has a genre Has a synopsis Has a year read Has a rating In my library 
145
No series
Copyright © 1962 by Anthony Burgess 
Copyright © 1963 by W. W. Norton and Company, Inc.
No dedication.
'What's it going to be then, eh?'
May contain spoilers
I was cured all right.
No comments on file
Synopsis (may contain spoilers)
This story is told from the point of view of a fifteen-year-old street gang leader.  It follows them through some of their exploits which leads eventually to the leader, Alex's, arrest and imprisonment.  After a while in jail, he volunteers for a new treatment that will allow him to go free.  Scientists condition him against violence and sex by injecting him with drugs and forcing him to watch movies.  A side effect of the conditioning is that he also becomes conditioned against Beethoven, his favorite composer, as it was in the soundtrack to the movies he watched.

When he goes free, he meets people that he wronged before and they take advantage of his conditioning to torture and almost kill him.  In order to save face, the government must do something with him quickly or face unpopularity in the polls.

Extract not on file

 

Added: 29-Dec-2002
Last Updated: 08-Mar-2023

Publications

 12-Jul-1983
Ballantine Books
Mass Market Paperback
In my libraryI read this editionOrder from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
12-Jul-1983
Format:
Mass Market Paperback
Cover Price:
$2.50
Pages*:
187
Read:
Once
Reading(s):
1)   1 Oct 1985 - 1 Oct 1985
Cover Link(s):
Internal ID:
197
Publisher:
ISBN:
0-345-31483-2
ISBN-13:
978-0-345-31483-3
Printing:
26
Country:
United States
Language:
English
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
by Anthony Burgess


The famous 20th Century Classic of a world dominated by teenage gangs...

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
by Anthony Burgess


"One of the few books I have been able to read in recent years."  - William Burroughs

"A terrifying and marvelous book."  - Roald Dahl

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
by Anthony Burgess


"A brilliant novel... a tour de force in nastiness, an inventive primer in total violence, a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds."  - New York Times
Cover:
Book CoverBook Back CoverBook Spine
Notes and Comments:
First Ballantine Books Edition: September 1965
Twenty-sixth Printing: July 1983

I read this book my Sophomore year in college.  I saw the movie first and found it to be a fascinating view of the future, especially with the slang that they used.  I wanted to read the book for that reason.  It is almost necessary to have the Glossary of NADSAT Language at the back of the book to understand it.
 17-Apr-1995
W.W. Norton & Company
Trade Paperback
Order from amazon.comHas a cover imageBook Edition Cover
Date Issued:
17-Apr-1995
Format:
Trade Paperback
Cover Price:
$10.00
Pages*:
192
Internal ID:
198
ISBN:
0-393-31283-6
ISBN-13:
978-0-393-31283-6
Country:
United States
Language:
English
Credits:
Robert Longo  - Cover Artist
"I DO NOT KNOW OF ANY OTHER WRITER WHO HAS DONE AS MUCH WITH LANGUAGE AS MR. BURGESS HAS DONE HERE - THE FACT THAT THIS IS ALSO A VERY FUNNY BOOK MAY PASS UNNOTICED."  - WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS

A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic.  In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology.  A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom.  And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to "redeem" him, the novel asks, "At what cost?"

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."

ANTHONY BURGESS is the author of many works, including The Long Day Wanes, The Wanting Seed, The Doctor Is Sick, Nothing Like the Sun, Honey for the Bears, and Re Joyce, all available from Norton.

"A brilliant novel... a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds."  - New York Times

"Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little shocker, but is really that rare thing in English letters: a philosophical novel."  - Time

"A terrifying and marvelous book."  - Roald Dahl
Cover:
Book Cover
Notes and Comments:
Image File
12-Jul-1983
Ballantine Books
Mass Market Paperback

Image File
17-Apr-1995
W.W. Norton & Company
Trade Paperback

Related

Author(s)

 Anthony Burgess
Birth: 25 Feb 1917 Manchester, England, UK
Death: 25 Nov 1993 London, England, UK

Notes:
Anthony Burgess was born on February 25, 1917 in Manchester, England.  His full name is John Anthony Burgess Wilson.  Burgess spoke eight languages other than English.   He wrote A Clockwork Orange based on the death of his wife during World War II.  She was assaulted while he was at war and she died about a month after that from internal bleeding.  She was pregnant at the time and the baby was also killed.  Anthony Burgess died of cancer at age seventy-six, on November 25, 1993.

Awards

No awards found
*
  • I try to maintain page numbers for audiobooks even though obviously there aren't any. I do this to keep track of pages read and I try to use the Kindle version page numbers for this.
  • Synopses marked with an asterisk (*) were generated by an AI. There aren't a lot since this is an iffy way to do it - AI seems to make stuff up.
  • When specific publication dates are unknown (ie prefixed with a "Cir"), I try to get the publication date that is closest to the specific printing that I can.
  • When listing chapters, I only list chapters relevant to the story. I will usually leave off Author Notes, Indices, Acknowledgements, etc unless they are relevant to the story or the book is non-fiction.
  • Page numbers on this site are for the end of the main story. I normally do not include appendices, extra material, and other miscellaneous stuff at the end of the book in the page count.






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Presented: 22-Nov-2024 11:02:34

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