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"A Clockwork Orange" is a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess about a violent young man in a dystopian future. It remains significant for its controversial exploration of free will, morality, and whether society can or should forcibly reform violent criminals.
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Book · Open Library
- Author
- Anthony Burgess
- First published
- 1962
- Editions
- 136
- Subjects
- bible, aversion therapy, unintended consequences, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, gang rape, psychiatric hospitals, maturity, metanoia
via Open Library
Key facts
- Author
- Anthony Burgess
- Cover artist
- Barry Trengove
- Language
- English
- Genre
- Science fiction , dystopian fiction , satire , black comedy
- Published
- 17 March 1962 ( William Heinemann , UK)
- Publication place
- United Kingdom
- Media type
- Print ( hardback & paperback ) & audio book ( cassette , CD )
- Pages
- 192 pages (hardback edition), 176 pages (paperback edition)
- Isbn
- 978-0-434-09800-2
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
Show 5 more facts
- Commons category
- A Clockwork Orange
- publication date
- 1962-01-01
- title
- A Clockwork Orange
- first line
- “What's it going to be then, eh?” There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry.
- last line
- And all that cal. A terrible grahzny vonny world, really, O my brothers. And so farewell from your little droog. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lipmusic brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal.
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Article
A Clockwork Orange is a novel by the English writer Anthony Burgess, published on 17 March 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to '-teen' in English. According to Burgess, the novel was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks.
In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book has been kept at McMaster University's William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since the institution purchased the documents in 1971. It is considered one of the most influential dystopian books.