A Clockwork Orange

Anthony Burgess wrote more than 40 novels, but A Clockwork Orange is certainly his most famous. The novel is set in a not-too-distant future English society, namely characterized by a subculture of extreme youth violence. Alex, the unapologetic teenaged protagonist, narrates his exploits and experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. This narration — in a fictional slang called nadsat — is an experiment in language, combining elements of Russian and Cockney English. In fact, the title of the novel itself is taken from an old Cockney expression: “As queer as a clockwork orange.”

The US edition of the novel was published without the final chapter, in which Alex grows up to renounce violence. Burgess strongly disapproved of the decision, arguing that it distorted the novel into a tale of unredeemable evil — far from the author’s original intention. Ironically, the US edition of A Clockwork Orange became a cult classic and was used by Stanley Kubrick for his 1971 film adaptation.

A Clockwork Orange is ranked 65th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also listed in TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923).

William Heinemann first published A Clockwork Orange in London in 1962. Barry Trangrove designed the original first edition dust jacket, which has wide flaps and is priced 16s. (The second issue has trimmed flaps and is re-priced 18s). Signed copies of the first edition have sold for upwards of $12,500.

W.W. Norton Company, Inc. published the first US edition of A Clockwork Orange — without the final chapter — in New York in 1963. This 184-page edition’s dust jacket states its original price of $3.95 on front flap of jacket. It wasn’t until 1987 that Norton published the “New American Edition,” complete with the final chapter.

In 2012, Norton published a 50th anniversary edition of the novel featuring the original British cover and six of Burgess’s own illustrations.