A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

I own the 1972 Penguin Books edition with the distinctive cover designed by David Pelham. As I'm on holiday I thought it would be nice to reread this classic by Anthony Burgess. ANTHONY BURGESS Born John Anthony Burgess Wilson in 1917. Amazingly enough the man was in the Army for six years, then worked in education and only wrote books in his spare time. It was only in 1959 that Burgess turned writing into a fulltime occupation. This was because he was diagnosed as having terminal disease and given only a year to live. In this groundbreaking year he wrote five brilliant novels, and thankfully ... more

I can’t remember why I brought this book, I just remember my 13 year old self dragging my mother round Waterstones in South Kensington, telling her we weren’t leaving the shop until we found it. Then 3 pages into it on the tube, wondering what on earth I had done. However, Ten years on and at least 30 re-reads later, although my book is looking remarkably dog-eared, I am still glad I brought this book. I adore this book, I will rave to strangers on trains about it and give copies away to the needy. The needy of course being those who still need to read it. Although it is not a very long novel ... more

Hello my Ciaoing droogs, I want to govoreet to you about Nadsat, so pour yourselves a long cold peet of breakfast moloko or a steaming chasha of chai to go with your eggiwegs and soldiers and I’ll begin. Do you think Kirsty1 has gone a bit bezoomny? Well you may be right. But before you ookadeet entirely cheeching “gloopy chepooka” let me tell you chellovecks something: I make no appy polly loggy for chumbling along in genuine Nadsat. What’s more I won’t be giving you a polyclef for every single slovo so no doubt you will soon all be platching in frustration over this oozhassny malenky opinion ... more

I know this review has been done before, but I thought I might as well give my opinion on the book that I pinched my Ciao username from* - not because I identified with the ultraviolent ways of the main character, you understand, but rather because I thought it was kewl ;-) p.s. didn't intend for this to be so long(!) so please bear with me. THE AUTHOR - ANTHONY BURGESS Born in Manchester, 1917, John Anthony Burgess Wilson displayed a high level of interest in literature and music from an early age. He served in the army for six years, and then occupied several teaching and other educational ... more

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is probably my favorite novel of all time, yet I rarely find myself recommending this book to my friends. With other favorite books of mine, like Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and King's Misery, I found myself recommending them to everyone. Why won't I recommend A Clockwork Orange to everyone? Well, it takes dedication to read. The book is only about 200 pages yet it will probably take you about as much time as a 400 page book. Why is it such a challenging book to read? Well here is an average outtake from the book: But then I counted odin dva tree and ... more