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Feb 25, 1917 — Nov 22, 1993· 76 yrs

UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · FICTION · GENERAL

Anthony Burgess

Also known as: Burgess, Anthony, anthony-burgess

77
BOOKS
4.0
AVG RATING (193)
8
READERS

John Anthony Burgess Wilson, who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer. Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his best-known novel. In 1971, it was adapted into a controversial film by Stanley Kubrick, which Burgess said was chiefly responsible for the popularity of the book. Burgess produced numerous other novels, including the Enderby quartet, and Earthly Powers. He wrote librettos and screenplays, including the 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. He worked as a literary critic for several publications, including The Observer and The Guardian, and wrote studies of classic writers, notably James Joyce. A versatile linguist, Burgess lectured in phonetics, and translated Cyrano de Bergerac, Oedipus Rex, and the opera Carmen, among others. Burgess also composed over 250 musical works; he considered himself as much a composer as an author, although he achieved considerably more success in writing.

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THIS was the day before the night when the knives of official disappointment struck.

— from The Wanting Seed, 1962

Most acclaimed

#2

Here comes everbody

1982

0.0 (0)

Arguing that "the appearance of difficulty is part of Joyce's big joke," Burgess provides a readable, accessible guide to the writings of James Joyce.

#1

The Wanting Seed

1962

3.0 (2)

"Set in the near future, The Wanting Seed is a Malthusian comedy about the strange world overpopulation will produce. Tristram Foxe and his wife, Beatrice-Joanna, live in their skyscraper world where official family limitation glorifies homosexuality. Eventually, their world is transformed into a chaos of cannibalistic dining-clubs, fantastic fertility rituals, and wars without anger. It is a novel both extravagantly funny and grimly serious. "

#3

A Clockwork Orange

1972

4.0 (68)

A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian satirical black comedy 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. The book is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot called "Nadsat", which takes its name from the Russian suffix that is equivalent to '-teen' in English. According to Burgess, it was a jeu d'esprit written in just three weeks. In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book has been kept at McMaster University's William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since the institution purchased the documents in 1971. It is considered one of the most influential dystopian books.

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