How did this guy not win the Nobel Prize? He is one of the finest authors of our age, who should be known for more than just Clockwork Orange.
One of my favorite authors
Anthony Burgess published over 50 books.
His best-known work is A Clockwork Orange. It was not his best work, but it is a strong novel: an Orwellian vision
that follows a teen-age gang leader on his rampages of juvenile violence across the bleak urban landscape of the future. The protagonist is organic; the state treats him as if he is mechanic, and the results are humorous and horrible. The teens in the novel speak nadsat, a Russian-based slang that exhibits Burgess's linguistic expertise.
The brutality written into A Clockwork Orange originated, at least partly, in an assault on Burgess's first wife, Lynne, in 1943 by
American GI's in London. The attack
resulted in the loss of their expected child.
The movie version of the novel, directed by Stanley Kubrick
in 1971, was incredibly popular, but Burgess considered it one of his least successful
novels, he called it pedantic, and he regretted that it was the one for which he’d be remembered.
In fact, the best book he ever wrote, and one of the finest works of the
twentieth century was Earthly Powers,
an epic which features among the best opening lines in literature:
"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed
with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."
Anthony Burgess died November 26, 1993, in London
Hospital, and is buried in Monte
Carlo.
Clockwork Orange
Here's a way to purchase the movie version --PLEASE NOTE: Graphic violence and adult situations!
 | A Clockwork Orange (Video)
Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a masterpiece. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the...more
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A nice link here
Burgess loved Rome, and wrote much about it -- here's a way to plan a vacation to the boot.