| | A Clockwork Orange |  | Author: Anthony Burgess
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Category: Book
Buy Used: £12.00
New (3) from £83.60
Avg. Customer Rating:  168 reviews
Sales Rank: 1896728
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Rev Sub
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0393024393
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780393024395
ASIN: 0393024393
Publication Date: July 1987
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: This ex library book has usual marks inside and is a hardback published by Compact Books. It is a reasonable reading copy with tanned pages and plastic protected dust cover.FAST UK DISPATCH.
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 163 more reviews...
 A choodessny classic November 15, 2008
A Clockwork Orange is a novel written by Anthony Burgess and released in England in 1962. It is now considered to a classic piece of English literature, but was, at the time of release, highly controversial and parts have been banned during different periods of time.
The novel is written in three parts, similar to the music section formation A-B-A. This is a connection to both Burgess's and Alex's love of classical music. Altogether, there are twenty-one chapters, a symbol of Alex growing up at the end of the novel and slowly making changes to becoming an adult. In addition, the title A Clockwork Orange, refers to the cockney slang, "As queer as clockwork orange." The word 'clockwork' is an obvious reference to machines and a less-obvious reference to 'human'. 'Orange' is a reference to the Malay word 'orang', which means 'man', and was inspired by Burgess's stay in Malaysia during World War II.
The narration of the story is in the first-person, by fifteen year-old anti-hero Alex, in a not-so-distant future (apparently, it is set in 1995, as imagined from the 1960s). He narrates the story in a mixture of English and 'nadsat' English-a fragmented, new type of English teenage slang, based on Russian, Polari, Slavic, Cockney rhyming slang and some words made up by Burgess himself.
Alex's nights, and sometimes days, consist of murder and rape. Ironically, he uses classic cultural music, or more specifically, his favourite piece, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, to get ready for his escapades.
However, he later runs in to trouble and is at the mercy of the government, and becomes part of a psychological experiment to 'cure him' of his violent and disturbing behaviour. Burgess questions what real 'goodness' is, and what 'liberalism' is versus 'conformation' in society.
I decided to read A Clockwork Orange as I felt it fitted very well in to our current environment of a lack of morality, violence, rape, crime and overall destruction. I wanted to understand why our society is like it is today, which is similar to the dystopia described in the novel.
Burgess imbued me to believe that it is more important to be an individual than to be controlled to conform to society. Burgess believes that once someone's freedom of choice is deprived, they no longer become human; instead they become a 'machine', something which is worst than death and is most certainly not what God 'intended'. However, in opposition to this, Burgess also outlines that if individuals are left to their own devices, without any law and order, this can be equally dangerous and also destabilises society. He questions his readers on how to "weigh the values and dangers of both individual liberty and state control, and consider how much liberty we're willing to give up for order, and how much order we're willing to give up for liberty."
Although a seemingly straight forward balance of arguments, the ways in which Burgess lifts the novel are extraordinary. Unusually, he uses a teenage anti-hero to demonstrate his arguments, and Alex's childlike yet extremely intellectual wording is persuasive and allows the reader to be sympathetic to him. The use of 'nadsat'-slang jargon used by teenagers, makes the novel futuristic and unreal, giving a certain strange detachment between the reader and the novel, making it almost sci-fi-esque and the crimes distant and somewhat more bearable. Some would argue that these comedic devices undermine the book, as well as make it very individual in terms of written style.
However, ironically, by the 1960s, the violent and disrespectful behaviour demonstrated throughout the novel had already come to light and has increased since. Despite the seemingly large difference between the phonics of 'nadsat' and 'formal English', it is easy to work out what the words mean through context and a few similar phonic sounds. This makes the novel interesting, as 'nadsat' words replace some of the slang used both in the 1960s and now, for example, "horrowshow" is a replacement for 'wicked' or 'sick'.
The use of music is an interesting device, as everyone loves to listen to music to get ready to go out, get up in the morning or whatever other leisure activities they enjoy doing. Readers can relate to Alex's love of listening to music before his nightly and daily activities in a rather abstract manner, where Alex is not getting ready for a normal night out but for a night of massacre, pillage and rape. In addition, the choice of music that Burgess chooses is classic, which is unusual for most teenage hooligans to listen to. It makes Alex almost 'cool', as he is distinctively different from most of the hooligans in his generation, and shows an ironically intellectual mind, despite his thug-like activities. Alex's favourite composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, composed a lot of music associated with the Christian religion, another irony to Alex's seemingly immoral character.
I loved this book, in a rather strange way. Burgess's devices of detachment made some of it funny, particularly Alex's childlike monologues and the novel was descriptive enough to create very vivid and frightening images, but at the same time, it did not fail to make some very serious points questioning the readers on reality, morality, ethics, religion, the idea of individualism and themselves.
 Highly individual and very Horrorshow, O My Brothers. November 4, 2008
Anthony Burgess was a literary giant. Despite his wishes, this remains the work for which he is best remembered. Most will know it through the film, with which he had scant involvement but which he defended after Stanley Kubrick became fainthearted. Yet few will have read the novel.
The prose is first person, confessional, in a consistent voice, our narrator the chief protagonist, Alex. The vocabulary is a mixture of English and a language called nadsat, an invented language based primarily on Russian but also German, French, and schoolboy terminology. The idea is you work it out for yourself but around a third of it is not intuitive. (The lazy can use the nadsat dictionary.)
The story is set in a not too distant future, with a terrifyingly bleak and broken down society in the grip of a classic liberal-reactionary struggle. It could well be today if you are a pessimist. The violence and sex is handled adroitly, even imperceptibly, and not at all crudely despite its evident brutality. It translates to screen with rather less subtlety. The scene with two ten year olds would be unfilmable or inflammatory.
The first person narration brings you closer to Alex and somehow you can be both horrified and sympathetic. The treatment he is given is arguably worse than the affliction. It both saves and dooms him, looking after his mind but not his soul. An ironic twist: he can't even read the Bible without feeling sick, and is deprived equally of the means both to offend and to defend. Burgess delivers a very modern parable, shot through with arsenic.
Viddy it carefully, O My Brothers; it's real horrorshow.
Creative and Disturbing May 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is a fantastic and clever book. It follows in the same vein as Orwell's 1984, but takes things that one step further. The book is narrated by the compelling anti-hero Alex. It is written in the language of the gangs of the streets of this dystopian future place, which now is not so very unlike our own society. Alex hates school and rails against authority, hanging out with his gang of thugs in the Corova Milk Bar, taking drugs, raping girls and enjoying nights of bloody mayhem.
An ill-judged robbery goes hideously wrong and Alex is incarcerated in prison, where he becomes the subject of a new social experiment which claims to reprogramme the brain so that violence is no longer an option. Alex takes us through these events and their aftermath in his peculiarly charming and yet repellent words.
Burgess takes on the big themes of social control, anarchy and free will in this fascinating and brilliant book. If you have read the book you will want to see Kubrick's film, which is also brilliant in a completely different way. If you have seen the film prepare to be wowed by the book. Stick with the language, after a while it becomes easy to read as you become immersed into Alex's world and it's well worth the effort.
Couldn't put it down and surprisingly understood it! May 19, 2008
This book orginally sat in my boyfriends bathroom for a year because I felt this was going to be a hard book to read. When you look at a page without reading it, what stands out is the large amount of words not in standard english, slang and foreign words. Just glancing in it maybe you'd think this was a foreign language book. However when I had nothing else to read and was 'forced' to read this book, I found it surprisingly easy to read and was delighted by the fact that I didn't have to look in the glossary once.
I loved the way the story panned out, was shocked in a way, that the book was more graphic, more controversial than the film. I also think that one feels more sympathetic to the narrators plight than in the film, I suppose this is uncomfortable for some people.
Uncomfortable or not this is a good book.
Better Than The Film April 8, 2008
Like most people I saw the film before I read the book and I am glad that I have viewed both.
The film is a wonderful `work of art` and the book is a modern day masterpiece.
Anthony Burgess painted a picture of modern society 30 years before `youth culture` was invented.
This book compares with Orwells 1984, Bowies `Diamond Dogs` and `Till Death Us Do Part by Garry Jackson.
My biggest wish is a remake of the film.
|
|
|
Learn how to have your own
Amazon Shop
Travel Maps and Guides
zeugma
| | Holiday Travel |
alpharooms.com for cheap holiday deals in spain and worldwide
Disneyland Paris for a great family holiday or short break.
Holday Cottages throughout Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland and France with Cottages4you
Hilton - need we say more, you will find Hilton Hotels in most areas throughout Britain, in cities and in the countryside.
Don't forget Travel Insurance
Airport Parking
|
|
|
|
