A Clockwork Orange
Burgess's best-known novel and the clearest entry point to his linguistic invention, satire, and moral concerns.
Author guide
Anthony Burgess Books in Order
Anthony Burgess was the pen name of John Anthony Burgess Wilson, an English writer and composer whose career ranged from comic and dystopian novels to literary criticism, linguistics, biography, memoir, poetry, drama, and musical theatre. He published thirty-three novels, including the Malayan and Enderby series, as well as major works such as A Clockwork Orange, Earthly Powers, Nothing Like the Sun, and Byrne. He also wrote influential studies of Joyce, Shakespeare, language, music, and other authors, and composed extensively for the stage and concert hall.
literary fictionsatiredystopian fictionhistorical fictionscience fictionliterary criticismlinguisticsmemoirpoetrydrama
Catalog record updated .
Not sure where to begin?
Start with one of these
Earthly Powers
A major, expansive historical novel that showcases Burgess's narrative range and engagement with religion, sexuality, art, and European history.
Read in order
Books by series
novel-series · complete
Malayan Trilogy
A three-novel sequence about British colonial life and the end of British rule in Malaya.
- 1 Time for a Tiger
Book 1 · novel · 1956
Burgess’s debut novel, this is also the first book in his acclaimed Malayan Trilogy. Drawing on his experiences in Malaya as a teacher in the British Colonial Service the author gives a sense of real authenticity to his comic story of…
- 2 The Enemy in the Blanket
Book 2 · novel · 1958
- 3 Beds in the East
Book 3 · novel · 1959
- 1 Inside Mr. Enderby
Book 1 · novel · 1963
- 2 Enderby Outside
Book 2 · novel · 1968
- 3 The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End
Book 3 · novel · 1974
- 4 Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End of Enderby
Book 4 · novel · 1984
Outside the series
Bibliography by category
Novels (37)
- English Literature: A Survey for Students
nonfiction · 1958
- The Doctor is Sick
novel · 1960
- The Right to an Answer
novel · 1960
An English businessman returns from the Orient to find his country infested with greed, boredom, and corruption
- One Hand Clapping
novel · 1961
Shirley and Howard are a handsome couple, Howard also has a photographic memory which leads him to success on the "Over and Over" TV quiz show. He increases his prize money by betting on the horses and then sets out with Shirley to sample…
- The Worm and the Ring
novel · 1961
- A Clockwork Orange
novel · 1962
Fifteen-year-old Alex and his three friends start an evening's mayhem by hitting an old man, tearing up his books and stripping him of money and clothes. Or rather Alex and his three droogs tolchock an old veck, razrez his books, pull off…
- The Wanting Seed
novel · 1962
Set in the near future, The Wanting Seed is a Malthusian comedy about the strange world overpopulation will produce.
- The Novel To-day
nonfiction · 1963
- Honey for the Bears
novel · 1963
- The Eve of Saint Venus
novella · 1964
This fascinating early work by Anthony Burgess is a delightful fantasy, blending classical myth and farce. Displaying a high degree of verbal ingenuity and intelligence, Burgess effortlessly plays with ideas to create a riotous comedy…
- Language Made Plain
nonfiction · 1964
- Nothing Like the Sun
novel · 1964
"Wildly inventive" —Stephen Greenblatt, author of The Swerve A magnificent, bawdy telling of Shakespeare’s love life, following young Will’s maturation into sex and writing. A playful romp, it is at the same time a serious look at the…
- A Vision of Battlements
novel · 1965
- The Coaching Days of England
nonfiction · 1966
- The Age of the Grand Tour
nonfiction · 1966
- A Tremor of Intent
novel · 1966
- The Novel Now: A Student's Guide to Contemporary Fiction
nonfiction · 1967
- MF
novel · 1971
- Joysprick: An Introduction to the Language of James Joyce
nonfiction · 1973
- Napoleon Symphony: A Novel in Four Movements
novel · 1974
Anthony Burgess draws on his love of music and history in this novel he called “elephantine fun” to write. A grand and affectionate tragicomic symphony to Napoleon Bonaparte that teases and reweaves Napoleon’s life into a pattern…
- Beard's Roman Women: A Novel
novel · 1976
- ABBA ABBA
novel · 1977
Abba Abba is about two poets who may or may not have met in Rome in 1820-1821. One was John Keats, who was dying in a house on the Spanish Steps. The other was Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli a great poet, though little known outside Rome. The…
- 1985
novel · 1978
Ingenious, chilling and darkly comic, 1985 combines a devastating critique of Orwell's 1984 with a terrifying vision of the future. As memorable as A Clockwork Orange, it is as powerful and unsettling as anything Burgess has written.…
- Man of Nazareth
novel · 1979
Zemnaja zhizn` Iisusa Hrista, uvidennaja glazami cheloveka dvadcatogo veka. Avtoru udalos` sozdat` svoi, sovershenno nepovtorimye obrazy Hrista, Iosifa, Marii, Ioanna Krestitelja. V romane dejjstvujut mnogochislennye istoricheskie…
- They Wrote in English
nonfiction · 1979
- Earthly Powers
novel · 1980
Anthony Burgess has long been regarded as one of the most original and daring writers of our time. In Earthly Powers, Burgess has writtena book rich with astonishing powers and surprising events.
- On Going To Bed
illustrated-nonfiction · 1982
- This Man and Music
nonfiction · 1982
- The End of the World News: An Entertainment
novel · 1982
Presented without chapter breaks, the plot weaves together three storylines. One follows Leon Trotsky on a journey to New York City shortly before the Russian Revolution of 1917. This story is written as the libretto of an Off-Broadway…
- The Kingdom of the Wicked
novel · 1985
A Roman saga, taking in the excesses of Tiberius, Caligula and Nero and an irreverent account of the early days of Christianity. Sadoc, a dying shipping clerk, sets down for future generations a tale of epic proportions: he is charged…
- The Pianoplayers
novel · 1986
Following the death of her father, an irregularly employed pianist, Ellen Henshaw becomes a high-class prostitute in Paris during the 1930s and then founds a chain of schools to instruct men in the arts of love and music.
- Any Old Iron
novel · 1989
Any Old Iron is prodigious entertainment, a grand and boisterous novel that sweeps us up and hurls us pell-mell through the major events of this century. Once in the land of Attila; then in that of Arthur; looted by the Nazis at Monte…
- Mozart and the Wolf Gang
novel · 1991
I himlen diskuterer verdens store komponister bl. a. Mozarts symfoni nr. 40
- A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English
nonfiction · 1992
- A Dead Man in Deptford
novel · 1993
A novel of the life and mysterious death of Christopher Marlowe.
Nonfiction (7)
- Shakespeare
biography · 1970
Shakespeare has been the lodestar of English literature, not only to our finest biographers & critics but to our greatest imaginative writers as well. Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain & James Joyce have all written of the man— as enigma, ancestor…
- New York
travel-writing · 1976
A fascinating look at life in New York City as told through stories and photographs from the editors of Time-Life Books.
- Ernest Hemingway and His World
biography · 1978
Hemingway's great achievement was to free the novel from all the languid decoration and cozy indirectness that was its early twentieth-century inheritance. His terse prose taught the writer to engage life to the fullest in order to write…
- Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939, A Personal Choice
literary-criticism · 1984
- Flame into Being: The Life and Work of D. H. Lawrence
biography · 1985
Traces the life of the English author, D.H. Lawrence, and examines the development of his fiction and poetry
- Little Wilson and Big God: Being the First Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess
memoir · 1987
Bound in the publisher's original quarter cloth and paper covered boards with the spine stamped in gilt.
- You've Had Your Time: Being the Second Part of the Confessions of Anthony Burgess
memoir · 1990
The second volume of the two-volume autobiography. The narrative begins in 1959, with the author’s return from Brunei and the start of a professional writing career and ends in 1982 with the centenary celebrations of James Joyce’s birth,…
Short fiction (2)
- The Devil's Mode: Stories
short-story-collection · 1989
- Return Trip Tango and Other Stories from Abroad
short-story-collection · 2003
Essays and speeches (5)
- Urgent Copy: Literary Studies
essay-collection · 1968
- Obscenity and the Arts
pamphlet · 1973
- Homage to Qwert Yuiop: Essays
essay-collection · 1986
- One Man's Chorus: The Uncollected Writings
essay-collection · 1998
A genuine master of the mot and the anecdote, Burgess rarely fails to amuse in this generous selection of essays on topics as various as oranges (not only of the clockwork variety), Marilyn Monroe, God, and Yiddish humor (his favorite…
- The Ink Trade: Selected Journalism 1961–1993
essay-collection · 2018
'The title of journalist is probably very noble, but I lay no real claim to it. I am, I think, a novelist and a musical composer manqué: I make no other pretensions ...' Anthony Burgess Despite his modest claims, Anthony Burgess was an…
Children's books (2)
- A Long Trip to Teatime
children's-book · 1976
- The Land Where The Ice Cream Grows
children's-book · 1979
Poetry (4)
- Byrne: A Novel
novel-in-verse · 1995
When Anthony Burgess died in 1993 he left the complete "Byrne," a novel in epic verse. This is the first American publication. Byrne tells the astonishing story of an Irish artist who, in the early years of this century, goes rapidly to…
- Revolutionary Sonnets and Other Poems
poetry-collection · 2002
- Collected Poems
poetry-collection · 2020
Plays (6)
- Oedipus the King
play · 1972
- Oberon Old and New
play · 1985
- A Clockwork Orange 2004
play · 1990
- Chatsky, or The Importance of Being Stupid
play · 1993
Other (3)
- A Christmas Recipe
chapbook · 1977
- Will and Testament: A Fragment of Biography
graphic-work · 1977
- Rencontre au Sommet
dialogue · 1998
Frequently asked questions about Anthony Burgess
What was Anthony Burgess’s real name, and where was he born?
He was born John Burgess Wilson in Harpurhey, Manchester, on 25 February 1917. He adopted the pen name Anthony Burgess in 1956 when his first novel was published.
Sources: anthonyburgess.org (opens in a new tab)anthonyburgess.org (opens in a new tab)
What is Anthony Burgess best known for?
He is best known for A Clockwork Orange, first published in 1962. Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film adaptation brought the story to a global audience, and the work remains notable for its linguistic innovation and moral themes.
Was Anthony Burgess also a composer?
Yes. He wrote more than 250 musical works, including symphonies, choral and chamber pieces, concertos, piano music, and a stage musical adaptation of A Clockwork Orange.
What influenced Anthony Burgess’s writing?
His creative development was shaped by his musical upbringing, his Manchester childhood, and his studies of English literature, including James Joyce, Marlowe, and Shakespeare. His teaching in colonial Malaya also provided the setting for his first published novel.
Sources: manchester.ac.uk (opens in a new tab)anthonyburgess.org (opens in a new tab)anthonyburgess.org (opens in a new tab)
What notable honors did Anthony Burgess receive?
He was named Critic of the Year at the 1979 British Press Awards. He was also made a Commander of France’s Order of Arts and Letters and Monaco’s Order of Cultural Merit.
Sources: anthonyburgess.org (opens in a new tab)anthonyburgess.org (opens in a new tab)