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A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
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A Clockwork Orange (original 1962; edition 1972)

by Anthony Burgess

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
25,760386121 (3.99)1 / 722
Told through a central character, Alex, the disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism. A modern classic of youthful violence and social redemption set in a dismal dystopia whereby a juvenile deliquent undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior.… (more)
Member:brunolatini
Title:A Clockwork Orange
Authors:Anthony Burgess
Info:Penguin Books Ltd (1972), Paperback, 160 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:***
Tags:English Literature

Work Information

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

  1. 342
    1984 by George Orwell (wosret)
  2. 262
    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (MinaKelly)
  3. 151
    One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey (lucyknows, Gregorio_Roth, Gregorio_Roth)
    lucyknows: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey may be paired with A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess or The Outsider by Albert Camus. All three novels explore the them of society versus the individual.
  4. 122
    The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (wosret)
  5. 62
    The Stranger by Albert Camus (SanctiSpiritus)
  6. 63
    Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban (fugitive)
  7. 30
    Hoppla! 1 2 3 (French Literature) by Gérard Gavarry (bluepiano)
    bluepiano: Central character is another criminally violent leader of a gang of youths. Here too the gang use slang terms of the author's devising. Less violence, a less straightforward narration, & to me a more interesting book.
  8. 41
    A Boy and His Dog [short fiction] by Harlan Ellison (artturnerjr)
    artturnerjr: Futuristic ultraviolent teenage blues
  9. 20
    Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (John_Vaughan)
  10. 20
    The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham (SnootyBaronet)
    SnootyBaronet: Teddy boys
  11. 10
    In the Penal Colony [short story] by Franz Kafka (aprille)
  12. 32
    Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (sturlington)
  13. 87
    The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger (SqueakyChu)
  14. 10
    Rubicon Harvest by C. W. Kesting (Aeryion)
    Aeryion: The sub-culture of designer drug use and it's effect on the gritty society within Rubicon call back to A Clockwork Orange like an anesthetized echo. The prevalent use and abuse of the potent designer neurocotic Synth and the language (Illuminese) that the addicts speak amongst themselves is a brilliant homage to Burgess's original genius! This story gave me shivers as I read through the vivid hallucinatory narrative. A must read for every fan of the genre!… (more)
  15. 00
    Native Son by Richard Wright (Sammelsurium)
    Sammelsurium: Both of these classic novels sympathetically portray main characters who commit horrific crimes and thereafter suffer under flawed criminal justice systems. They are written from quite different perspectives, but focus on similar themes of criminal responsibility and reform.… (more)
  16. 00
    Escape from Spiderhead {story} by George Saunders (aprille)
  17. 00
    The Butcher Boy by Patrick McCabe (kjuliff)
  18. 01
    Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh (SqueakyChu)
  19. 01
    A Dead Man in Deptford by Anthony Burgess (Anonymous user)
  20. 13
    The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner by Alan Sillitoe (thatguyzero)

(see all 20 recommendations)

1960s (6)
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English (359)  Spanish (7)  French (4)  German (3)  Italian (2)  Portuguese (Brazil) (2)  Swedish (2)  Danish (1)  Portuguese (1)  Finnish (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (383)
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| ʟɪᴠʀᴏ 45 • ᴀ ʟᴀʀᴀɴᴊᴀ ᴍᴇᴄÂɴɪᴄᴀ - ᴀɴᴛʜᴏɴʏ ʙᴜʀɢᴇꜱꜱ |
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Ao longo do livro, irmãos, o narrador e seus ᴅʀᴜɢᴏꜱ expressam-se numa linguagem inventada (nadsat), repleta de vocábulos de origem russa, com influências bíblicas para além de gíria popular. Isto resulta num, inicial alternar de páginas entre o que se está a ler e o dicionário de idioma "nadsat". Contudo, Burgess tem o cuidado de incorporar as suas novas palavras de uma forma compreensível e com o avançar de páginas, elas introduzem-se de tal maneira simples no nosso vocabulário, tornando a história mais fluída.
Nadsat tem o poder de conferir ao texto um aspeto cativante e amistoso, que contrasta fortemente com a reação de raiva que algumas das façanhas que Alex e seus ᴅʀᴜɢᴏꜱ fazem.
Esta criação de Burgess, eleva o livro e converte-o numa ᴢᴀᴍᴇᴄʜᴀᴛᴏ proeza no plano artístico e linguístico.

Há ᴜʀʀᴀꜱɴᴏꜱᴀꜱ situações neste livro irmãos, porém, os seus propósitos justificam os meios da sua execução, ainda que o mesmo não aconteça com o que se sucede ao longo da história.

“ᴛᴏ ᴅᴇᴠᴀꜱᴛᴀᴛᴇ ɪꜱ ᴇᴀꜱɪᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ꜱᴘᴇᴄᴛᴀᴄᴜʟᴀʀ ᴛʜᴀɴ ᴛᴏ ᴄʀᴇᴀᴛᴇ.”

É um curto livro, dirigido pelo "vosso humilde narrador", Alex. Composto em três partes principais.
Na primeira parte, Alex e o seu gangue de três ᴅʀᴜɢᴏꜱ adolescentes, isto é, o Pete, o George e o Lerdo, entregam-se à "ultraviolência" a ᴄʜᴇʟᴏᴠᴇᴄᴏꜱ (ᴘᴇᴛɪÇᴀꜱ; ᴍᴀʟᴄʜɪᴄᴏꜱ; ʙᴀʙᴜꜱᴄᴀꜱ e ᴇꜱᴛÁʀɪᴏꜱ, sem distinção). Na parte intermédia, Alex é submetido a um novo e horrível tratamento (uma espécie de lavagem cerebral). A parte final segue o resultado do mesmo.

“ᴛʜᴇ ɪᴍᴘᴏʀᴛᴀɴᴛ ᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪꜱ ᴍᴏʀᴀʟ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ. ᴇᴠɪʟ ʜᴀꜱ ᴛᴏ ᴇxɪꜱᴛ ᴀʟᴏɴɢ ᴡɪᴛʜ ɢᴏᴏᴅ, ɪɴ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ᴍᴏʀᴀʟ ᴄʜᴏɪᴄᴇ ᴍᴀʏ ᴏᴘᴇʀᴀᴛᴇ. ʟɪꜰᴇ ɪꜱ ꜱᴜꜱᴛᴀɪɴᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ɢʀɪɴᴅɪɴɢ ᴏᴘᴘᴏꜱɪᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏꜰ ᴍᴏʀᴀʟ ᴇɴᴛɪᴛɪᴇꜱ.”

Tudo se passa num futuro próximo, levemente distópico, onde são abordadas questões sobre o pecado primitivo, a punição e vingança, o livre arbítrio e a natureza do mal, apresentando uma cultura de extrema violência da juventude.

A ᴘʀɪꜱᴛᴀ, a brutalidade dos ᴍɪʟɪᴄᴇɴᴛᴏꜱ, as armas não resultam.
Entra em cena a Técnica de Ludovico, através da qual Alex é condicionado a não poder cometer tais actos violentos, nem mesmo vê-los ou pensar neles.
O resultado e as implicações de tal experiência é uma das forças do livro.

“ɪᴛ ɪꜱ ᴀꜱ ɪɴʜᴜᴍᴀɴ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛᴏᴛᴀʟʟʏ ɢᴏᴏᴅ ᴀꜱ ɪᴛ ɪꜱ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴛᴏᴛᴀʟʟʏ ᴇᴠɪʟ.”

Alex tem uma ligação que completa o seu ᴛɪQᴜᴇᴛᴀᴄᴏ com a música clássica. Adora particularmente Beethoven. É um vilão que suscita simpatia, apresenta uma sedutora e charmosa elegância e, embora cometa atrocidades, quando lhe são feitas maldades, a empatia desperta.

A escrita em si é imprevisivelmente bela, inclusive quando se trata da violência. Algumas das passagens de maior beleza do livro referem-se à música.
Nadsat é divertida irmãos e certamente usarás nos dias seguintes. Os ᴍᴀʟᴇɴᴄᴏꜱ ᴅʀᴜɢᴏꜱ; ʜᴏʀʀᴏʀᴏᴄʜᴏꜱᴏ ᴇɴᴛʀɪꜱꜱᴀɪ; ᴏꜱ ʟɪᴛꜱᴏꜱ e ɢᴜʟÍᴠᴇʀᴇꜱ, entre outros termos.

Não é, como muitos preconizam, uma forma gratuita de escrever violência. Está daquela forma presente com o objetivo de tornar a história do protagonista e o resultado da sua trajetória mais profunda. Burgess explica em entrevistas que a representação de violência pretendia ser tanto um acto de catarse como um acto de caridade, uma vez que a sua mulher foi alvo de uma violência cruel e gratuita (no livro algo está representado inspirado nessa situação).

É uma exploração da ética do livre arbítrio.

Sobre o filme, Burgess escreveu: "...é um filme muito à Kubrick, tecnicamente brilhante, profundo, relevante, poético, revelador."
Gostei bastante, apesar de, como em muitos casos, não estar ao nível do livro.

ᴅɪᴄᴏɴÁʀɪᴏ ɴᴀᴅꜱᴀᴛ:
ᴅʀᴜɢᴏꜱ - amigos | ᴢᴀᴍᴇᴄʜᴀᴛᴏ - notável | ᴜʀʀᴀꜱɴᴏꜱᴀꜱ - terríveis | ᴄʜᴇʟᴏᴠᴇᴄᴏꜱ - tipos| ᴘᴇᴛɪÇᴀꜱ - raparigas | ᴍᴀʟᴄʜɪᴄᴏꜱ - rapazes | ʙᴀʙᴜꜱᴄᴀꜱ - velhotas | ᴇꜱᴛÁʀɪᴏ - velho | ᴘʀɪꜱᴛᴀ - prisão | ᴍɪʟɪᴄᴇɴᴛᴏꜱ - polícias | ᴛɪQᴜᴇᴛᴀᴄᴏ - coração | ᴍᴀʟᴇɴᴄᴏꜱ - pequenos | ʜᴏʀʀᴏʀᴏᴄʜᴏꜱᴏ - bom, bem | ᴇɴᴛʀɪꜱꜱᴀɪ - sexo | ʟɪᴛꜱᴏ - rosto | ɢᴜʟÍᴠᴇʀ - cabeça

(O uso da palavra 'irmãos' ao longo deste texto é entendido por aqueles que o leram e uma tentativa de o tornar mais próximo do livro.) ( )
  craly | Jan 24, 2024 |
Brilliantly written. Pure genius and devastating horror. Grotesquely prescient. ( )
  BethOwl | Jan 24, 2024 |
Dark, dark, dark. Hard to read because of the subject, but also because of the vernacular Burgess invents for Alex and his gang. Most of the first third of the book was deciphering the conversation based on context. This edition has an added chapter at the end which hints at redemption, and I'm glad I read this copy. One of the toughest books I've ever read, but also one of the books I've enjoyed the most. ( )
  ohheybrian | Dec 29, 2023 |
I was glad I studied Russian before reading this book, since it made understanding the slang easier. "horrorshow", for instance, is derived from the Russian word for "good", and this word shows up as often as bad edgy modern fiction over-uses 'fuck'. The sci-fi aspect of this book, that of using conditioning to make criminals permanently 'good', was an interesting one, and I've seen several shows that somewhat recreate the conditioning scene from this book, a reference I had not known was literary. So, while not my favorite classic, this was one worth reading. ( )
  JBarringer | Dec 15, 2023 |
I wasn't planning on reading this in less than a day but I couldn't put it down until the last word! ( )
  jskeltz | Nov 23, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 359 (next | show all)
Mr. Burgess, whenever we remeet him in a literary setting, seems to be standing kneedeep in the shavings of new methods, grimed with the metallic filings of bright ideas. A Clockwork Orange, for example, was a book which no one could take seriously for what was supposed to happen in it-its plot and "meaning" were the merest pretenses-but which contained a number of lively notions, as when his delinquents use Russian slang and become murderous on Mozart and Beethoven. In a work by Burgess nothing is connected necessarily or organically with anything else but is strung together with wires and pulleys as we go.
added by SnootyBaronet | editThe New York Times, John Bayley
 
Burgess’s 1962 novel is set in a vaguely Socialist future (roughly, the late seventies or early eighties)—a dreary, routinized England that roving gangs of teenage thugs terrorize at night. In perceiving the amoral destructive potential of youth gangs, Burgess’s ironic fable differs from Orwell’s 1984 in a way that already seems prophetically accurate. The novel is narrated by the leader of one of these gangs-—Alex, a conscienceless schoolboy sadist—and, in a witty, extraordinarily sustained literary conceit, narrated in his own slang (Nadsat, the teenagers’ special dialect). The book is a fast read; Burgess, a composer turned novelist, has an ebullient, musical sense of language, and you pick up the meanings of the strange words as the prose rhythms speed you along.
added by SnootyBaronet | editThe New Yorker, Pauline Kael
 
A Clockwork Orange, the book for which Burgess — to his understandable dismay — is best known. A handy transitional primer for anyone learning Russian, in other respects it is a bit thin. Burgess makes a good ethical point when he says that the state has no right to extirpate the impulse towards violence. But it is hard to see why he is so determined to link the impulse towards violence with the aesthetic impulse, unless he suffers, as so many other writers do, from the delusion that the arts are really rather a dangerous occupation. Presumably the connection in the hero’s head between mayhem and music was what led Stanley Kubrick to find the text such an inspiration. Hence the world was regaled with profound images of Malcolm McDowell jumping up and down on people’s chests to the accompaniment of an invisible orchestra.

It is a moot point whether Burgess is saying much about human psychology when he so connects the destructive element with the creative impulse. What is certain is that he is not saying much about politics. Nothing in A Clockwork Orange is very fully worked out. There is only half a paragraph of blurred hints to tell you why the young marauders speak a mixture of English and Russian. Has Britain been invaded recently? Apparently not. Something called ‘propaganda’, presumably of the left-wing variety, is vaguely gestured towards as being responsible for this hybrid speech. But even when we leave the possible causes aside, and just examine the language itself, how could so basic a word as ‘thing’ have been replaced by the Russian word without other, equally basic, words being replaced as well?
added by SnootyBaronet | editNew York Review of Books, Clive James
 
But all in all, “A Clockwork Orange” is a tour-de-force in nastiness, an inventive primer in total violence, a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds.
 
In A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess has written what looks like a nasty little shocker but is really that rare thing in English letters—a philosophical novel. The point may be overlooked because the hero, a teen-age monster, tells all about everything in nadsat, a weird argot that seems to be all his own. Nadsat is neither gibberish nor a Joycean exercise. It serves to put Alex where he belongs—half in and half out of the human race.
added by Shortride | editTime (Feb 15, 1963)
 

» Add other authors (5 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Burgess, Anthonyprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Amis, MartinPrefacesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Arbonès, JordiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Šenkyřík, LadislavTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
信一郎, 乾翻訳secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Üstel, AzizTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Belmont, GeorgesTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Biswell, AndrewEditor and Introductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Blumenbach, UlrichTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bossi, FlorianaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brumm, WalterTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Buddingh, C.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Buddingh, W.F.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Buenaventura, RamónPrefacesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Chabrier, HortenseTraductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Csejdy, AndrásAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dagys, SauliusTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Damsma, HarmTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fančović, MarkoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Fernandes, FábioTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Gunn, JamesPrefacesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hollander, TomNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Horváth, László, Gy.Translatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hyman, Stanley EdgarAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jones, BenIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kořínek, OtakarTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Körpe, DostTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Konttinen, Moog(käänt.)secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Krege, WolfgangTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Leal Fernández, AníbalTraductorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lundgren, CajTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Melchior, ClausEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Miedema, NiekTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Mikkin, DanKujundaja.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Miller, RonIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Monzó, QuimIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Morrison, BlakeIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pelham, DavidCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pelham, DavidIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Quijada, AnaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rawlinson, MarkEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rogde, IsakOvers.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Self, WillIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Steinz, PieterAfterwordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Stiller, RobertTł.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Trengrove, BarryJacket Designsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Uibo, UdoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Vieira, José LuandinoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Walsh, JohnIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Welsh, IrvinePrefacesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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'What's it going to be then, eh?'
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Goodness comes from within [...] Goodness is something chosen. When a man cannot choose he ceases to be a man.
Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness? Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?
There is, in fact, not much point in writing a novel unless you can show the possibility of moral transformation, or an increase in wisdom, operating in your chief character or characters.
It's funny how the colors of the real world only seem really real when you watch them on a screen.
Then I noticed, in all my pain and sickness, what music it was that like crackled and boomed on the sound-track, and it was Ludwig van, the last movement of the Fifth Symphony, and I creeched like bezoomny at that. ‘Stop!’ I creeched. ‘Stop, you grahzny disgusting sods. It’s a sin, that’s what it is, a filthy unforgivable sin, you bratchnies!’
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Told through a central character, Alex, the disturbing novel creates an alarming futuristic vision of violence, high technology, and authoritarianism. A modern classic of youthful violence and social redemption set in a dismal dystopia whereby a juvenile deliquent undergoes state-sponsored psychological rehabilitation for his aberrant behavior.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
A Clockwork Orange (1962) is a dystopian novel by Anthony Burgess.
The title is taken from an old Cockney expression, "as queer as a clockwork orange", and alludes to the prevention of the main character's exercise of his free will through the use of a classical conditioning technique. With this technique, the subject’s emotional responses to violence are systematically paired with a negative stimulation in the form of nausea caused by an emetic medicine administered just before the presentation of films depicting "ultra-violent" situations. Written from the perspective of a seemingly biased and unapologetic protagonist, the novel also contains an experiment in language: Burgess creates a new speech that is the teenage slang of the not-too-distant future.
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W.W. Norton

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Penguin Australia

4 editions of this book were published by Penguin Australia.

Editions: 0141182601, 0141037229, 0141192364, 0241951445

 

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