Anthony Burgess A Clockwork's Controversial Last Chapter

The Clockwork’s Controversial Last Chapter A Clockwork Orange, the controversial dystopian novel written by Anthony Burgess, originally contained 21 chapters, divided in three parts, when it was published in 1962 throughout England. However, the novel was published in the United States without this last slightly ominous chapter; it was left out of publishing for more than twenty years in the US. Furthermore the famous film adaptation by Stanley Kubrick, “the man whose film had bestowed on Burgess the vexed gift of worldwide fame, or notoriety.”, of the novel A Clockwork Orange, additionally was based on the twenty-chapter edition of Anthony Burgess’ brilliant novel (Jackson 1). The question that remains is whether chapter 21 adds something significant to the table or if it is ‘too sentimental’

Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange is just one novel out of his impressing writing record, “[A] phenomenally large oeuvre of thirty-three novels, sixteen non-fiction books and innumerable shorter pieces in every major literary – and sub- or paraliterary – genre.”, nevertheless this novel greatly enhanced Burgess’ literary celebrity status (Farkas 314-315). The novel explores the relationship between ethics and morality, as well as free will; more specifically, it shows that a person without choices isn’t actually a person, but an apparatus. The temptations we face as human beings and the choices we make is exactly what makes us human. In fact, according to the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss A Clockwork Orange deals with one of the greatest themes there is; Nature versus Civilization. Hence, the title; a clockwork is a man-made device, like human society, and an orange simply a natural object. The last