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From relatively modest beginnings in Manchester, England he became one of the best-known English literary figures of the latter half of the twentieth century.

He wrote librettos and screenplays, including for the 1977 TV mini-series Jesus of Nazareth. He worked as a literary critic, including for 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 the King and the opera Carmen, among others.

Burgess also composed over 250 musical works; he sometimes claimed to consider himself as much a composer as an author, although he enjoyed considerably more success in writing.


The epitaph on Burgess's marble memorial stone, reads "Abba Abba." The phrase has several connotations. It means "Father, father" in Aramaic, Arabic, Hebrew and other Semitic languages. It is Burgess's initials forwards and backwards; part of the rhyme scheme for the Petrarchan sonnet; and the title of Burgess's 22nd novel, concerning the death of Keats.

An accomplished musician, Burgess composed regularly throughout his life, and once said, "I wish people would think of me as a musician who writes novels, instead of a novelist who writes music on the side.

Did You Know: A Clockwork Orange was one of several novels Burgess churned out quickly – because he thought he was dying.


In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.

The film's central moral question (as in many of Burgess' books) is the definition of "goodness" and whether it makes sense to use aversion therapy to stop immoral behavior. Stanley Kubrick, writing in Saturday Review, described the film as:
 "...A social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioral psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots."

Similarly, on the film production's call sheet Kubrick wrote:
"It is a story of the dubious redemption of a teenage delinquent by condition-reflex therapy. It is, at the same time, a running lecture on free-will."

In total, he produced 33 novels, 25 non-fiction pieces and more than 250 musical works.

Did You Know: A Clockwork Orange was one of several novels Burgess churned out quickly – because he thought he was dying.

Burgess also along with 33 novels, 25 non-fiction pieces composed over 250 musical works; he sometimes claimed to consider himself as much a composer as an author, although he enjoyed considerably more success in writing.

    "...A social satire dealing with the question of whether behavioral psychology and psychological conditioning are dangerous new weapons for a totalitarian government to use to impose vast controls on its citizens and turn them into little more than robots."

Similarly, on the film production's call sheet Kubrick wrote:

    "It is a story of the dubious redemption of a teenage delinquent by condition-reflex therapy. It is, at the same time, a running lecture on free-will."

Did You Know:

[adapted from wiki]

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