A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, it is 65th among Modern Library’s Best 100 Novels, it is also ranked 153rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, a chef d’oeuvre

 

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, it is 65th among Modern Library’s Best 100 Novels, it is also ranked 153rd on The Greatest Books of All Time site, a chef d’oeuvre

 

10 out of 10

 

I have read, listened to, or watched the marvelous adaptation of A Clockwork Orange a few times https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/11/a-clockwork-orange-by-anthony-burgess.html and it was a glorious experience this, last time, when I have listened to the play, which has excellent music, Beethoven and original compositions

 

In one of my notes, I have referred to Orange Alex, it was just before the elections, won by this loathsome idiot, who loves Putin and other such like monsters, while attacking Canada, Ukraine, The European Union, allies, and I saw parallels between the main character of the novel and the Convicted Felon, who rules over the free world

The wonderful Belles Lettres Papers https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/09/belles-lettres-papers-by-charles.html by Charles Simmons has Anthony Burgess as a personage, and I wonder to what extent this was artistic license, and how much of the real auteur is there in the pages, he is depicted as very kind and generous

 

Alas, to the point where they choose him for reviews that are lenient, and that made me have a different perspective on Alex and his fate, but now I must list a few words that make A Clockwork Orange such a ‘real horror show’, I think most of them are taken from Russian: bolshy as in great, think Bolshoi Theater, as , britva aka razor

I just realized that I may have to be more reserved in my admiration for this magnum opus, now that I remembered the words in there are Russian, many of them, and Russia is the enemy, Putin and his followers, just like with America, I am very fond of what is not MAGA, indeed, against that awful cult of ‘right wing lunatics’

 

Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-kings-english-guide-to-modern-usage.html was very critical of Anthony Burgess, but then he was not in awe with many others ‘ My own experience in reading Dickens, and I doubt whether it us an uncommon one, is to be bounced between violent admiration and violent distaste almost every couple of paragraphs…’ on Jane Austen: her judgment and her moral sense were corrupted. Mansfield Park is the witness of that corruption’ and there is more

Alex and his droogs (friends) are on a rampage, they attack, hurt people and deserves punishment, the anti-hero is singled out, and that is unfair, the treatment used in his case amounts to torture, just like Pavlov’s dogs, he is conditioned to reject violence, he is shown a beheading and other acts of terror, he is nauseated

I will place my invitation at the end, it used to be part of the first few lines, and I may get back to that, but then we have the Lasagna Effect, as named by Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar, this is the link to my blog, maybe you have suggestions https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2026/08/do-you-have-any-suggestions-how-to-make.html  

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