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Burgess, Anthony

Burgess, Anthony
John Anthony Burgess Wilson was an English writer and composer. He regarded himself as much if not more of a composer than an author. But it is for his novels, particularly 'A Clockwork Orange' which he published under the name Anthony Burgess that he is best known. Burgess had a lifelong antipathy to authority which informed a lot of his writing. 'A Clockwork Orange' itself was written in three weeks and along with '1984' by George Orwell, is probably the best known and most influential of the dystopian novels. The inspiration for the shocking violence in the book he said was based on his wife's assault and rape by four American GI deserters in London during the Second World War. 'Clockwork Orange' was very famously made into a film by the incomparable Stanley Kubrick. Burgess did not like the adaptation, principally because of Kubrick's omission of the final chapter which Burgess felt changed the whole tenor of the book and glorified the violence. (Kubrick similarly fell out with Stephen King over 'The Shining because of changes he made). In the final chapter, the protagonist Alex recants violence but this was considered by the American publisher to be unrealistic and in a reversal of more recent trends decided that the American audience would prefer a darker ending without the redemption that Burgess, who was Catholic, had given Alex. Kubrick had read only the American version when he wrote the screenplay and stuck with the shorter version. 'A Clockwork Orange' remains one of the most important dystopian novels written.
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