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A Clockwork Orange (Penguin Modern Classics) |  | Author: Anthony Burgess
Creator: Blake Morrison
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: £8.99 (9.32EUR)
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Seller: nothingbutblueskies
Rating:  231 reviews
Sales Rank: 663
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0141182601
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780141182605
ASIN: 0141182601
Publication Date: February 24, 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this nightmare vision of a not-too-distant future, fifteen-year-old Alex and his three friends rob, rape, torture and murder - for fun. Alex is jailed for his vicious crimes and the State undertakes to reform him - but how and at what cost?
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 231
 A controversial book on youth anarchy. August 22, 2010
Whyareyouonyourowntonight
Clockwork Orange! Debately made more famous by Kubrick's film, is a joy to read. Burgess was never one to shy away from experimenting with language, and Clockwork Orange is a fine example. Alex and his gang go around attacking, stealing and raping, with ironic tendencies and a unique slang. How far can society protect itself from these menaces? Can it turn them into Clockwork Oranges? Well- this remains to be seen, but the book is marvellous.
 Read it first, then decide August 13, 2010
Hotblack (The end of the universe)
I hesitated for a long time before reading this, and wished I hadn't. The book and more specifically the film became demonized with the British media stoking the fires in the way only they know how. The film was never officially banned in the UK - the story goes that Director Stanley Kubrick was so shocked (and surprised) by the backlash over its release that it was he that withdrew it from distribution. Just like Lady Chatterley's Lover many decades earlier, (a comparison Burgess made himself in a biography he wrote of D.H. Lawrence) the reaction was an example of a small outbreak of hysteria getting in the way of any reasoned artistic judgement.
The ultra-violence of A Clockwork Orange is in fact mild in comparison to something like American Psycho, and entirely justified artistically. Previous to reading the book, I had the impression it was an uninterrupted account of the litany of violence carried out by Alex and his 'droogs' In fact, Alex's attempted rehabilitation from his wicked ways dominates the book, which results in a much more philosophical work on the nature of violence and its treatment than you might imagine. Added to which, the introduction to this edition points out that the inspiration (if you can call it that) for the notorious tramp-beating scene was a real-life assault by some drunken sailors on Burgess's pregnant partner, which resulted in her losing the baby. Perhaps unlike me you should read the book BEFORE making up your mind.
unforgettable May 18, 2010
Tasha (UK)
A Clockwork Orange set in a near-future dystopian society and it is narrated by Alex in 'nadsat', a slang used by the teens of the day. Nadsat incorporates elements of Russian and Cockney English. It provides a demanding read but makes the story so much more intense. It's disorientating at times, particularly when Alex is excited by something. This adds to the effect when reading the somewhat disturbing descriptions of the violent crimes the gang commit. I did find that once I'd gotten into the book, it was much easier to read and generally the slang terms could be worked out by the context. A few chapters in, I wasn't even really having to think about the previously unfamiliar words. Throughout the book I couldn't help relate Burgess' projected future (which I believe he had as the early 1970s) with current times. Although obviously not the same slang, it did remind me somewhat of listening to certain teens of today - being able to understand the general point but not necessarily the individual words
I actually listened to the audio of this book as well as reading the text version. This really helped with getting used to the language. The version I have is read by Phil Daniels who I felt was perfect for it in terms of voice and accent - factors I believe can make or break an audio book. The pace of the book was read at an immensely fast pace, as I'd expect a character such as Alex to speak if he were retelling the story aloud.
Alex's character was intriguing. We experience the story through Alex, his thoughts and feelings are all there on the page. While in no way a likeable character in terms of the acts he commits and his views on the world, Alex still draws in the reader. Throughout the book I couldn't help but hope that things would turn out right for him in the end, that he would turn things around.
A Clockwork Orange is an unforgetable.
A chilling dystopia May 14, 2010
Sofia Romualdo (Porto, Portugal)
Humanity is doomed. At least that's what goes through my head every time I finish reading a dystopian novel. Obviously, that's an overstatement, and generally I don't believe the world is as bleak as this sort of novels portray it, since what they do is follow the ideas of what is considered "right" to an extreme and show that everything can be perverted. But still.
This book deals with violence as a moral choice. The protagonist, Alex, knows that what he does (rape, burglary, murder, violence in general) is wrong, but chooses to do it anyway. The book's central question is with regards to free will. Alex gets arrested and submits to a reforming program that involves conditioning him to be repulsed by violence. This is generally regarded as a terrible thing. And this, for me, is where the book looses its strength. I could appreciate the problem of submitting people to a conditioning process that is entirely in the hands of the government, and the potential problems that could arise from that. And I certainly appreciate humanity's free will. Of course the therapy doesn't change Alex. Of course the "good" person he becomes is nothing but an artificial machine (a "clockwork orange"), and not a person. But, in all honesty, I couldn't care less what happened to Alex. All the characters (and Alex himself) who were worried about his free will, about how the government was taking away his freedom of choice, who went on and on about how cruel what he was being subjected to was, sounded to me almost ridiculous. What about the freedom of choice of the girls he raped? Should his choice to rape them be more important than their choice not to be raped? He never seemed to think about their suffering. Why is everyone caring about his?
Of course, this is merely my opinion, and maybe that's just the cynic in me talking. I still enjoyed the book, since I was interested in its exploration of the way street violence was manipulated by politicians, and how the different people reacted to violence. I also liked the language used. The slang is difficult to understand at first, but as the book progresses you get used to it, and I actually almost ceased to notice it.
All in all, very much worth the read.
Very horrorshow in a bezoomy kind of way. February 15, 2010
Mr. M. Richardson
This book sat on my shelf for rather to long, due mainly to the fear that I would not be able to understand it. How wrong could a little malchick be!
I did find the language hard going at the beginning, it gave my gulliver a real pounding but I am glad that I persevered. After you get through the first few chapters your mozg just works out the strange lingo and the malenky veshch just fall into place. I did have to use the internet towards the end to fully understand what Anthony Burgess was trying to portray, but felt that by using the Nadsat the author added more than it detracted.
I have not seen the film, so had no influence before reading the book and although it was interesting and thought provoking, it gets 4 stars from me, I don't think; based on its subject matter, you can call it entertaining. This is not to say that you shouldn't read it; you should, it's just a warning, don't expect it to make you feel good or all warm inside, this is a hard book to read about a hard to read subject but go with it and you'll be thankful for the experience.
Michael R
Showing reviews 1-5 of 231
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