A Clockwork Orange is the daring and electrifying book by Anthony Burgess that
inspired one of the most notorious films ever made, beautifully repackaged as
part of the Penguin Essentials range. 'What's it going to be then, eh?' In this
nightmare vision of youth in revolt, fifteen-year-old Alex and his friends set
out on a diabolical orgy of robbery, rape, torture and murder. Alex is jailed
for his teenage delinquency and the State tries to reform him - but at what
cost? Social prophecy? Black comedy? Study of freewill? A Clockwork Orange is
all of these. It is also a dazzling experiment in language, as Burgess creates a
new language - 'nadsat', the teenage slang of a not-too-distant future. 'Every
generation should discover this book' Time Out 'A gruesomely witty cautionary
tale' Time 'Not only about man's violent nature and his capacity to choose
between good and evil. It is about the excitements and intoxicating effects of
language' Daily Telegraph 'I do not know of any other writer who has done as
much with language...a very funny book' William S. Burroughs 'One of the
cleverest and most original writers of his generation' The Times Anthony Burgess
was born in Manchester in 1917. He studied English at Manchester University and
joined the army in 1940 where he spent six years in the Education Corps. After
demobilization, he worked first as a college lecturer in Speech and Drama and
then as a grammar-school master before becoming an education officer in the
Colonial Service, stationed in Malay and Borneo. In 1959 Burgess was diagnosed
with an inoperable brain tumour and decided to become a full-time writer.
Despite being given less than a year to live, Burgess went on to write at least
a book a year - including A Clockwork Orange (1962), M/F (1971), Man of Nazareth
(1979), Earthly Powers (1980) and The Kingdom of the Wicked (1985) - and
hundreds of book reviews right up until his death. He was also a prolific
composer and produced many full-scale works for orchestra and other media during
his lifetime. Anthony Burgess died in 1993.