Books

London: Heinemann, 1962. First edition of Burgess' landmark novel. Octavo, original black boards, titles to spine in gilt. Near fine in a very good first issue dust jacket with the wide flaps, price-clipped. Jacket design by Barry Trengrove. A very sharp example. A Clockwork Orange is a nightmare vision of the future told in its own fantastically inventive lexicon, it has since become a classic of modern literature. Roald Dahl hailed it “A terrifying and marvelous book.” Inspired in part by an attack on Burgess’ pregnant wife, Burgess’ most famous novel is a “compelling and often comic vision of the way violence comes to dominate the mind” (Clute & Nicholls, 175). “The most discussed aspect of this book is the slang Burgess created for his teenaged characters. Called ‘nadsat,’ it combines Cockney slang with Russian… A Clockwork Orange serves as a forum for the discussion of the nature of language and the conflicts between free will and determinism” (New York…

A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, published in 1962. It is set in a near-future society that has a youth subculture of extreme violence. The teenage protagonist, Alex, narrates his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him.