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Loading... A Clockwork Orange [Norton Critical Edition]by Anthony Burgess, Mark Rawlinson (Editor)
  
None No current Talk conversations about this book. I love this book. I read it for the first time in 8th grade after I found it in the back of my sister's boyfriend's car. It was so wonderfully odd and creative I just fell in love with the story. It's so easy to sink into this book and once I started it I had trouble putting it down, I would definitely recommend this book as a must read. (  ) Tokishone | Feb 22, 2012 |  This is one of my top 5 favorite books of all time! I think the first time I read it, I was maybe a freshman in high school. I loved how the invented words added a layer of immersion to the story, and the ways in which one could visualize the scenes. The way in which it is written is just remarkable. Truly a must-read for all, I think. Of course, there is a certain level of violence and sexuality that is not appropriate for all. But the story, the writing, and the social issues the story points to are simply a winning combination. A true masterpiece. And read the book before you see the film! ( ) amschroe | Dec 23, 2011 | It took me a couple chapters to get into the story because of the different vocabulary that the characters use. Once I was into it though, there was no going back. Burgess shocks the reader by his vivid use of details when describing the violent acts Alex and his "droogs," or friends, engage in, but in a way that makes you want to keep reading. The reader wants to know what their cause is for behaving in this way and what's going to happen to balance out their viscous acts. This book brings several moral questions into context. One being about the idea of freedom...freedom from society's predisposed notions of how a person in certain age groups acts, freedom from government laws and actions that are sometimes unjust or inhumane, freedom for an individual himself to determine what's right and wrong (mainly the last one). There's also the idea about how violence or malevolence manifests itself in people necessarily so they are given the opportunity to decide how they shall handle it and what consequences will come of their actions should they choose to indulge this evilness. If you're going to read the book though, you really need to read the edition with 21 chapters instead of the edition with only 20. If I had just stopped reading at the end of the 20th chapter and not reached the conclusion Alex has, I probably would have been disappointed. It makes it into a whole different story that is much more touching. Also, it's how Burgess originally wrote it and wanted it published. All in all though, a real horrorshow dystopian novel! ( ) graceschumann | Oct 6, 2011 | Although using it in a classroom may be controversial, there are many great, teachable things about this book. Alex is the leader of a gang in a future where gangs have society in the grips of fear. The novel takes us on a journey with Alex from degenerate, to a controlled beast, and finally to an upstanding citizen. It is a story of intense violence, betrayal, torture, and reformation, possibly an exaggerated reflection of many teens lives in today’s society. Burgess creates a dialect all his own that brings the reader into the ranks of Alex and his “droogs”. It is a great way to show that irreverence to language can be something beautifully crafted and scholarly. NickConstantine | Sep 26, 2011 | Knock me over with a feather - I liked it. This has never really been on my Must Read list, but I've always felt that it's something that I should get around to doing someday. I was very skeptical of the messed-up teenage world view thing (as I really disliked The Catcher in the Rye), but despite being brutal and sickening, it is fascinating and riveting. Perhaps I'm just old enough to appreciate it now (though I can't make any promises about re-reading Catcher). So glad to have read the 21-chapter version; it leaves a completely different taste in your mouth than stopping a chapter short (as in Kubrick's film) - there's hope. (  ) tulikangaroo | Sep 9, 2011 | no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesContains
A disturbing tale about good and evil and the meaning of human freedom, A Clockwork Orange has become a modern classic since its publication in 1962. Anthony Burgess's hero, the hedonistic and violent Alex, is our guide on a journey into a dystopian future where sociopathic youths rule the night and the authorities emulate their moral indifference in the pursuit of social order.
This Norton Critical Edition of A Clockwork Orange is based on the first British edition and includes the final chapter once omitted from the U.S. edition. It is accompanied by Mark Rawlinson's preface, explanatory annotations, and textual notes. A glossary of the Russian-origin terms that inspired Alex's vocabulary is provided to illustrate the process by which Burgess developed the novel's distinctive style.
"Backgrounds and Contexts" presents a wealth of materials chosen to enrich the reader's understanding of the historical roots of what has become an unforgettable work. Many are by Burgess himself, of including accounts of his motives for writing A Clockwork Orange; his exegesis of the novel's theological, political, and philosophical themes; and his provocative interventions in the debates over the British versus the American edition and over the cultural and social impacts of the film adaptation.
"Criticism" is divided into two sections, one addressing the novel and the other Stanley Kubrick's film version, which created a scandal and new audiences after 1972. Contemporary reviews of the novel are reprinted alongside a wide range of scholarly commentary, including, among others, David Lodge on the American reader; Andrew Biswell on composition and publication; Julie Carson on linguistic invention; Linovv Zinik on Burgess and the Russian language; Geoffrey Sharpless on education, masculinity, and violence; Shirley Chew on fictional form; Patrick Parrinder on dystopias; and Robbie B.H. Goh on language and social control. An analysis of the him adaptation is provided in reviews by Vincent Canby, Pauline Kael, and Christopher Ricks; in Philip Strick and Penelope Houston's interview with Kubrick; and in interpretive essays by Peter Hughes Jachimiak, Steven M. Cahn, Don Daniels, Alexander Walker, Philip French, Thomas Elsaesser, Tom Dewe Mathews, and Julian Petley. --Book Jacket. No library descriptions found. |
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