04 October 2021 | James Porteous | Clipper Media
Fans of the work of Anthony Burgess have grown weary of pointing out that he wrote quite a few books much better than Clockwork Orange (among them The Long Day Wanes Trilogy and his hilarious Enderby quartet.)
Or that he wrote dozens of other novels and nonfiction works.
Or that he created a complete language for the film Quest for Fire (it was never used, as the actors could not memorize it on short notice) or that he was also a world-class classical composer.
So, it is great fun to once again witness the cantankerous, opinionated, world-weary character in the flesh, as it were.
James Porteous / Clipper Media
John Anthony Burgess Wilson, FRSL (25 February 1917 – 22 November 1993), who published under the name Anthony Burgess, was an English writer and composer.
Although Burgess was primarily a comic writer, his dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange remains his best-known novel. In 1971, it was adapted into a controversial film by Stanley Kubrick, which Burgess said was chiefly responsible for the popularity of the book.
Burgess produced numerous other novels, including the Enderby quartet, and Earthly Powers.
He worked as a literary critic for several publications, including The Observer and The Guardian, and wrote studies of classic writers, notably James Joyce. A versatile linguist, Burgess lectured in phonetics, and translated Cyrano de Bergerac, Oedipus Rex, and the opera Carmen, among others.
