A Clockwork Orange

by Anthony Burgess Narrated by Tom Hollander

Overview

A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess's nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends' social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to "redeem" him, the novel asks, "At what cost?"

This edition includes the controversial last chapter not published in the first edition and Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

After his youthful adventures of raping and pillaging, Alex finds himself in prison. When he volunteers for an experiment, his sentence is commuted to two weeks. The experiment leaves him physically incapable of doing wrong and releases him back into the world. However, when he repeatedly runs into people he has wronged in the past, his real suffering begins. This audiobook gives new life to Burgess's tale of recklessly violent youth, free will and true redemption. While Malcolm McDowell forever infused viewers with the look of Alex in the film, Tom Hollander performs an even more amazing feat. With a smooth, almost lyrical, crisp voice, Hollander delivers Burgess's "nadsat" dialect to readers with such rhythmic cadence that listeners will easily understand the extensive slang used throughout the book. This unabridged production also includes the 21st chapter, which was not dramatized in the film or in the book's original U.S. publication. The audiobook opens with a brief note by Burgess on living with the book's legacy. The final CD features selected readings by Burgess from a previous recorded abridged version. While it's interesting to hear the older and gruffer voice, it does not compare to Hollander's performance. A Penguin paperback. (July)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

The New York Times

Anthony Burgess reads chapters of his novel A Clockwork Orange with hair-raising drive and energy. Although it is a fantasy set in an Orwellian future, this is anything but a bedtime story.

Malcolm Bradbury

"All Mr. Burgess’s powers as a comic writer, which are considerable, have gone into the rich language of his inverted Utopia."

Esquire

"Told in high-flying, pyrotechnic patois that’s since bled into the cultural lexicon, A Clockwork Orange is a postmodern triumph."

Kingsley Amis

"A fine farrago of outrageousness.… If you don’t take to it all, then I can’t resist calling you a starry ptitsa who can’t viddy a horrorshow veshch when it’s in front of your glazzies. And yarbles to you."

New Statesman

"Extraordinary technical feat."

Times Literary Supplement

"A nasty little shocker."

Irvine Welsh

"One of the most groundbreaking and influential novels of all time8#212and one of the best."

Martin Amis

"A Clockwork Orange… is a book that can still be read with steady pleasure, continuous amusement and—at times—incredulous admiration."

New York Times

"A brilliant novel . . . a tour-de-force in nastiness, an inventive primer in total violence, a savage satire on the distortions of the single and collective minds."

Roald Dahl

"A terrifying and marvelous book."

William S. Burroughs

"I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language as Mr. Burgess has done here—the fact that this is also a very funny book may pass unnoticed."

Time

"Looks like a nasty little shocker, but is really that rare thing in English letters: a philosophical novel."

Time

"Looks like a nasty little shocker, but is really that rare thing in English letters: a philosophical novel."

JUN/JUL 08 - AudioFile

Anthony Burgess’s 1963 novel was published with a glossary of the dystopian language used by Alex, the brutal teenage narrator. The quality of Tom Hollander’s performance, however, renders such help unnecessary. Hollander’s vocal suggestiveness, grasp of tone, and overall emotional resonance with the novel give listeners amazing clarity (especially if, like this reviewer, they’ve previously read the book relying on the glossary). You listen to Alex’s adventures, amazed at the clarity Hollander gives to such a verbally ambitious work. This recording also includes the last chapter of the novel (not published in the first American edition), Burgess’s later introduction to the book, and, from the Caedmon archives, Burgess himself reading excerpts. A rich, exceptional package. G.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2008 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170151271
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	06/12/2007
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	1,587,085

Videos