About this title: In this 1962 classic, a novelistic exploration of modern crime and punishment, Alex is the 15-year-old leader of his gang of "droogs" thriving in the ultraviolent future as prophetically imagined by Burgess. Speaking a bizarre Russian-derived slang, Alex and his friends freely pillage and slash their way across a nightmarish urban landscape until Alex is captured by the judicial arm of the state. He then becomes their prized guinea pig in a scientific program to completely "redeem" him for society. If we had the power of absolute criminal reform, what, the novel asks, would this mean for our ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780345273215ISBN:0345273214
Description: Good. THIS IS A TYPICAL USED PAPERBACK WITH GENERAL WEAR. SOME TANNING OF PAGES FROM AGE. COVER WILL HAVE SOME DINGS AND SCRATCHES AND CORNER BUMPS. SPINE WILL SHOW WEAR. Good: Copy has been read, but remains in good condition. Normal shelf wear on edges and corners. Binding is tight. Not real pretty but very usable. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Ltd
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780393305531ISBN:0393305538
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: later printing
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: W. W. Norton, New York
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Highlighting/underlining. Covers sl discolored, spine reading creases & fading. Some ink underlining, binding firm. Good reading copy. 184 p. 22 cm. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1994
ISBN-13:9780140032192ISBN:0140032193
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Book has tanning or browning due to normal aging process. -, Trade PaperBack, Very Good / read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1965
ISBN-13:9780345256324ISBN:0345256328
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover shows wear with crease, name on front, remainder mark on bottom edge; light price stamp on printed flyleaf, text pages appear unmarked, tanned; flyleaf in back (after end of text) has been torn out. read more
Description: Fine. 0393312836 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black ink mark on outside edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Edition: Later Printing (20th and over)
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780345284112ISBN:0345284119
Description: Good. No Dust Jacket as Issued. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Book shows moderate wear/ spine tight, pages clean/ covers slightly creased; moderate edge wear/ corners and spine hinge creased/ slight readers slant. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1977
ISBN-13:9780345273215ISBN:0345273214
Description: Good. This book is in to good used condition. The binding is tight and pages are very clean. There is a name written on the inside of the front cover near the top edge. The cover has considerable wear with bumps, scuffs and light staining not affecting the interior. It has been corner bumped. There is creasing on the spine. Reading copy only. read more
"A friend recommended this book to me, and I very much enjoyed it. At first, it was difficult to follow, due to the author's way of telling the story in Nadsat (slang used by teenagers in the novel), but, after I found a glossary of the words, it was a lot easier to read. The story is powerful, perhaps even more so because of the language in which it is told; it is very provocative, and raises many moralistic questions that are prevalent in today's society. A timeless book, and one that would probably be better the second time around."
"A Clockwork Orange is a frightening and disturbing look at a world that does not yet exist, told by a narrator who speaks in a slang-filled voice. The book grabs hold of you on page one and does not let go. It is a magnificent book.
I suppose it falls under the genre heading of dystopian literature, and certainly comparisons can be drawn between A Clockwork Orange and works like 1984 or Brave New World, but Burgess's story is on a smaller scale. The dystopian society depicted in A Clockwork Orange is really the backdrop for the age old tale of growing up.
It's interesting to think that Burgess might never have written this story, which has become a literary classic, if he hadn't been wrongly diagnosed with a brain tumor. It's a strange world that we live in, perhaps just as strange as the world depicted in A Clockwork Orange."
"Wow - a great book. I'm probably pretty lucky that I've never seen the film adaptation, nor even glimpsed pieces of it, but had only 'heard' that the movie was tremendously violent and of course there's the posters and all that. I wanted to read the book before seeing the movie, and I'm super glad I made that decision because a lot of this book came as a surprise to me. The middle part where Alex is conditioned, especially (the psychology classes from college kicked in and made my brain burn with interest).
I loved the language of this book - the argot that the teenagers in this novel use reflects their violent and cold-blooded dispositions. It took about 15 pages for the language to sink in (kind of like reading Trainspotting, except easier) but after that it was easy to pick up. I even started thinking of objects - hands/rookers, smeck/laugh - using the slang I was reading. It's very catchy.
I also loved Alex as a narrator. He's a psychopath but he's also intelligent and highly entertaining. I can't say that I ever got to love him, as I felt horrible about him and sad for him in almost equal measures. But this reaction made me consider my own thoughts on eye-for-an-eye punishment, and the nature of good and evil."
I'm glad I read this but I don't think I have anything particularly significant to say about it. Except that it seems like people have been declaring an inexorable slide in the morals of young people for a hundred years and yet there are still many decent young people. So I just don't know, whether it's true or whether it's fear of the generation rising beneath you. Nobody of any age or class exhibits particularly moral behaviour in this dystopia, so I guess it can't be called fear of the young. It's true that Alex is an evil character, of the type that have existed in every age and are relatively rare.
The brainwashing... was interesting. It was interesting that he was only unable to exact physical pain and was still able to lie and deceive and guilt-trip people without any concern as to their mental pain. You don't need to be physically violent to be a bad person.
The argot was like reading Irish comprehension exercises in school, where you didn't know many individual words but could follow the drift of things just by carrying on. The vocabulary has been going around in my head since I've finished it and it feels a little like a waste of space now."
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