While in prison, he is forcibly conditioned (via “ the Ludovico technique“) to become physically ill in violent and sexual situations. A Clockwork Orange, as you may know, is the story of Alex DeLarge and his band of erstwhile “droogs,” who live in an ill-managed dystopian urban center and spend their evenings engaging in criminal activities that range from petty theft to rape and assault.Īfter a vicious outing goes poorly, Alex is betrayed by his former friends and ends up incarcerated. So what is this last chapter that I’m going on about? Well, we’ll get to that very soon, but let’s first have a quick primer on the plot.
But here’s the problem with the story thus far: that American editor who lopped off the last chapter of the book had a keen eye, and chose well. As an aspiring novelist myself, I can well imagine a state of mind wherein the prospect of getting my writing published would have me accepting all kinds of outlandish or bold edits. As such, he allowed the excision of the final chapter of the novella from its American edition because it was more important to him that it be sold than that it be whole.
The nature of this article is such that it requires spoiling basic plot details of A Clockwork Orange, so you should only continue reading after this paragraph if you either do not mind spoilers or have already read the book (or seen its 1971 film adaptation ).Īs he tells it, Burgess was desperate for money at the time in his life when he wrote A Clockwork Orange. He sneered at it and dismissed it whenever it came up, and-most egregiously, from my perspective-he worked hard to ensure that a weaker version of the book (which he successfully marketed as the true version of the book) became the primary version available to the world. Īnd the great book that he decried (his own), which became the great film that he decried (Kubrick’s), was something that he dedicated much time and effort to denigrating in his later years. But I also think that he was too old-fashioned, moralistic, and traditionally intellectual to notice the real virtues of his work in A Clockwork Orange. Far from it, I think he was a clever writer, a subtle reader of classic literature, and a capable composer. And on the strength of luck (as well as a savvy editor, and later a savvy director), his accidental stroke of genius will be remembered in perpetuity.ĭo not mistake this as outright disparagement of Burgess’ abilities as an artist. Anthony Burgess wrote one of the greatest works of philosophical farce of the twentieth century-in many ways as strong in that genre as is Voltaire’s Candide-and then lived out the remaining 30 years of his life without really realizing he had done so. I really think that there is no better demonstration of the valuable insight and truth behind the concept we know as ‘ the death of the author‘ than A Clockwork Orange.
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