Penguin Modern Classics

''I do not know of any other writer who has done as much with language ... a very funny book'' William S. Burroughs Fifteen-year-old Alex doesn''t just like ultra-violence - he also enjoys rape, drugs and Beethoven''s ninth. He and his gang of droogs rampage through a dystopian future, hunting for terrible thrills. But when Alex finds himself at the mercy of the state and subject to the ministrations of Dr Brodsky, and the mind-altering treatment of the Ludovico Technique, he discovers that fun is no longer the order of the day. The basis for Stanley Kubrick''s notorious 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange is both a virtuoso performance from an electrifying prose stylist and a serious exploration of the morality of free will. In his introduction, Blake Morrison situates A Clockwork Orange within the context of Anthony Burgess''s many other works, explores the author''s unhappiness with the Stanley Kubrick film version, analyses the composition