History

In late 1961, author Anthony Burgess returned home to England from teaching abroad to find that the social culture of the UK had drastically changed. He discovered a new youth culture infatuated with "pop music, milk bars, drugs, and Teddy Boy violence," and thus Alex and his droogs were created (The International Anthony Burgess Foundation). Burgess published A Clockwork Orange in 1962, and although citing his main source of inspiration as the emerging Counterculture, he's also given credit to existentialist dystopian literature (such as George Orwell or Aldous Huxley) and the experience of having witnessed his wife be brutally kidnapped, tied up, and attacked in 1944 London by a group of American soldiers.  It's important to remember the 1960s context that the novel was born out of (and subsequently advanced into the 1970s as well): an exciting, liberal, and hedonistic world that was concurrently disillusioned and violent. Upon initial publication, the novel performed poorly, as most readers were confused by his linguistic creativity and disturbed by the violence. Nonetheless, it did gain popularity underground and eventually garnered a worldwide cult following after the film was released in 1972. ​Additionally, a year later in 1962, the novel was published in America but was missing the final chapter. I will describe this ingenious editorial decision in the Structure section.