A Clockwork Orange - Hardcover
Synopsis
A newly revised text for A Clockwork Orange’s 50th anniversary brings the work closest to its author’s intentions.
A Clockwork Orange is as brilliant, transgressive, and influential as when it was published fifty years ago. A nightmare vision of the future told in its own fantastically inventive lexicon, it has since become a classic of modern literature and the basis for Stanley Kubrick’s once-banned film, whose recent reissue has brought this revolutionary tale on modern civilization to an even wider audience. Andrew Biswell, PhD, director of the International Burgess Foundation, has taken a close look at the three varying published editions alongside the original typescript to recreate the novel as Anthony Burgess envisioned it. We publish this landmark edition with its original British cover and six of Burgess’s own illustrations. 6 illustrations"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Authors
Anthony Burgess (1917–1993) is the author of many works, including The Wanting Seed, Nothing Like the Sun, and Re Joyce. A Clockwork Orange is one of the "100 best novels" of both Time magazine and Modern Library and is on David Bowie's Book List.
Andrew Biswell, PhD, is the author of The Real Life of Anthony Burgess.
Reviews
*Starred Review* It may be a sign of a great work that it can be misinterpreted by detractors and proponents alike. Contemporary readers who saw Burgess’ 1962 dystopian novel as a celebration of youth violence were as far off base as the teens since then who have thrilled to the transgressive violence it—or, at least, Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation—depicts. But paradox is at the heart of this book, as this newly restored, fiftieth-anniversary edition makes more clear than ever. Narrated by Alex, a teenage dandy who revels in language (he speaks a slang called Nadsat), music (especially Bach and Beethoven), and violence, especially violence. When imprisoned for murder, he is offered a chance at reform and leaps at it—but the reform turns out to be brainwashing, an aversion therapy that, alas, leaves him able to enjoy neither beatings nor Beethoven. Upon his release he becomes first a victim of his victims, then a cause célèbre of antigovernment activists before . . . well, publishers offered different endings to British and American audiences, as readers will discover here. What makes A Clockwork Orange so challenging, besides the language (“He looked a malenky bit poogly when he viddied the four of us”), is Burgess’ willingness to use an unsympathetic protagonist to make his point, which is essentially that it may be better to choose evil than to be forced to be good. (For, as it is put by two different characters: “When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.”) Readers can revisit or discover a classic that, while drawing from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World and Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, has in turn influenced authors from Irvine Welsh to Suzanne Collins. Extras include a thoughtful introduction by editor Andrew Biswell, reproductions of manuscript pages annotated by Burgess, and a previously unpublished chapter of a book that was to have been called The Clockwork Condition, in which Burgess intended to set the record straight about his intentions now that Kubrick’s film adaptation had made him famous. Readers will learn much, including the meaning behind the book’s title. All in all, a fitting publication of a book that remains just as shocking and thought provoking as ever. --Keir Graff
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Buy New
View this item
US$ 33.57
US$ 2.29 shipping from Ireland to Hong Kong
Destination, rates & speedsOther Popular Editions of the Same Title
Search results for A Clockwork Orange
Stock Image
A Clockwork Orange
Seller: Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries Ltd., Galway, GY, Ireland
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. 2013. Restored ed. hardcover. . . . . . Seller Inventory # V9780393089134
Quantity: 15 available
Seller Image
A Clockwork Orange
Seller: Rarewaves USA, OSWEGO, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: New. Restored Text. A Clockwork Orange is as brilliant, transgressive, and influential as when it was published fifty years ago. A nightmare vision of the future told in its own fantastically inventive lexicon, it has since become a classic of modern literature and the basis for Stanley Kubrick's once-banned film, whose recent reissue has brought this revolutionary tale on modern civilization to an even wider audience. Andrew Biswell, PhD, director of the International Burgess Foundation, has taken a close look at the three varying published editions alongside the original typescript to recreate the novel as Anthony Burgess envisioned it. We publish this landmark edition with its original British cover and six of Burgess's own illustrations. Seller Inventory # LU-9780393089134
Quantity: 2 available
Stock Image
A Clockwork Orange
Published by
Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W., 2012
ISBN 10: 0393089134
ISBN 13: 9780393089134
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 10491385-6
Quantity: 1 available
Stock Image
A Clockwork Orange
Published by
Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W., 2012
ISBN 10: 0393089134
ISBN 13: 9780393089134
Used
Hardcover
Seller: Better World Books: West, Reno, NV, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Good. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages. Seller Inventory # 10491385-6
Quantity: 1 available
Seller Image
A Clockwork Orange
Seller: Rarewaves.com UK, London, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: New. Restored Text. A Clockwork Orange is as brilliant, transgressive, and influential as when it was published fifty years ago. A nightmare vision of the future told in its own fantastically inventive lexicon, it has since become a classic of modern literature and the basis for Stanley Kubrick's once-banned film, whose recent reissue has brought this revolutionary tale on modern civilization to an even wider audience. Andrew Biswell, PhD, director of the International Burgess Foundation, has taken a close look at the three varying published editions alongside the original typescript to recreate the novel as Anthony Burgess envisioned it. We publish this landmark edition with its original British cover and six of Burgess's own illustrations. Seller Inventory # LU-9780393089134
Quantity: 2 available
Seller Image
Clockwork Orange : The Restored Edition
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 18849904-n
Quantity: 2 available
Seller Image
A Clockwork Orange
Seller: Rarewaves.com USA, London, LONDO, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: New. Restored Text. A Clockwork Orange is as brilliant, transgressive, and influential as when it was published fifty years ago. A nightmare vision of the future told in its own fantastically inventive lexicon, it has since become a classic of modern literature and the basis for Stanley Kubrick's once-banned film, whose recent reissue has brought this revolutionary tale on modern civilization to an even wider audience. Andrew Biswell, PhD, director of the International Burgess Foundation, has taken a close look at the three varying published editions alongside the original typescript to recreate the novel as Anthony Burgess envisioned it. We publish this landmark edition with its original British cover and six of Burgess's own illustrations. Seller Inventory # LU-9780393089134
Quantity: 2 available
Stock Image
A Clockwork Orange
Seller: Kennys Bookstore, Olney, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: New. 2013. Restored ed. hardcover. . . . . . Books ship from the US and Ireland. Seller Inventory # V9780393089134
Quantity: 15 available
Seller Image
A Clockwork Orange
Seller: Rarewaves USA United, OSWEGO, IL, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Hardback. Condition: New. Restored Text. A Clockwork Orange is as brilliant, transgressive, and influential as when it was published fifty years ago. A nightmare vision of the future told in its own fantastically inventive lexicon, it has since become a classic of modern literature and the basis for Stanley Kubrick's once-banned film, whose recent reissue has brought this revolutionary tale on modern civilization to an even wider audience. Andrew Biswell, PhD, director of the International Burgess Foundation, has taken a close look at the three varying published editions alongside the original typescript to recreate the novel as Anthony Burgess envisioned it. We publish this landmark edition with its original British cover and six of Burgess's own illustrations. Seller Inventory # LU-9780393089134
Quantity: 8 available
Seller Image
Clockwork Orange : The Restored Edition
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: As New. Unread book in perfect condition. Seller Inventory # 18849904
Quantity: 2 available