#ROBERTS_Michelle

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BURGESS, Anthony

British novelist and non-fiction writer (1917-1993)

Originally a composer, Burgess began writing books in his mid-30s, and poured out literary works of every kind, from introductions to Joyce (Here Comes Everybody/Re Joyce) to filmscripts, from opera libretti to book reviews. Above all he wrote several dozen novels, of a diversity few other 20th-century writers have ever equalled. They range from fictionalised biographies of Shakespeare (Nothing Like the Sun) and the early Christian missionaries (The Kingdom of the Wicked) to farce (the four Enderby stories, of which Inside Mr Enderby is the first and Enderby's Dark Lady is the funniest), from experimental novels (The Napoleon Symphony, about Napoleon, borrows its form from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony) to semi-autobiographical stories about expatriate Britons in the Far East (The Malaysian Trilogy). The literary demands of Burgess's books vary as widely as their contents: the way he finds a form and style to suit each new inspiration is one of the most brilliant features of his work.

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE  (1962) In a grim future Britain, society is divided into the haves, who live in security-screened mansions in leafy countryside, and the have nots, who swagger in gangs through the decaying cities, gorging themselves on violence. The book is narrated by the leader of one such gang, and is written in a private language, a mixture of standard English, cockney slang and Russian. (Burgess provides a glossary, but after a few pages the language is easy enough to follow, and its strangeness adds to the feeling of alienation which pervades the book.) The young man has committed a horrific crime, breaking into a house, beating up its owner and raping his wife, and the police are `rehabilitating' him. His true `crime', however, was not action but thought -- he aspired to a way of life, of culture, from which his class and lack of money should have barred him -- and Burgess leaves us wondering whether his `cure' will work, since he is not a brute beast (as the authorities claim) but rather the individuality in human beings which society has chosen to repress.

Burgess' other novels include a reflection on what he sees as the death-throes of modern Western civilisation, 1985, a gentler, Priestley-ish book about provincial English life earlier this century, The Pianoplayers, and A Dead Man in Deptford (an atmospheric novel about Christopher Marlowe - and Elizabethan theatre and espionage). Little Wilson and Big God and You've Had Your Time are autobiography, Mozart and the Wolf Gang is a 'celebration' for Mozart's bicentenary year, Urgent Copy and Homage to Qwert Yuiop are collections of reviews and literary articles and The Devil's Mode is a collection of short stories.

READ ON

Earthly Powers (a blockbuster embracing every kind of twentieth-century ‘evil’, from homosexual betrayal to genocide, and the Church’s reluctance or inability to stand aside from it)

To A Clockwork Orange : Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

To Burgess' historical novels : John Hersey, The Wall x Michelle Roberts, The Wild Girl Patricia Finney , Firedrake’s Eye

To The Malaysian Trilogy : Paul Theroux, Jungle Lovers

To the Enderby comedies : David Lodge, Small World Peter De Vries, Reuben, Reuben

 more :Tags  Pathways  Themes & Places

#AUTHORS #BURGESS_Anthony #ATWOOD_Margaret #DE_VRIES_Peter #FINNEY_Patricia #HERSEY_John #HOBAN_Russell #HUXLEY_Aldous #LODGE_David #ROBERTS_Michelle #THEROUX_Paul

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Ben Hur

Lew Wallace, Ben Hur

(Christian and pagan antagonism in ancient Rome)

Bible Old Testament

Jeanette Winterson, Boating for Beginners  (Noah"s flood)

Joseph Heller, God Knows  ("memoirs" of King David)

Thomas Mann, Joseph and His Brothers  (seen as allegory of 1930s fascist Europe)

Joseph, Mary and Jesus

Severia Hure, I, Mary, Daughter of Israel  (Mary)

Michelle Roberts, The Wild Girl  (Gospel according to Mary Magdalene)

Robert Graves, King Jesus  (fulfilment of all Old Testament prophecy)

Pasquale Festa Campanile, For Love, Only for Love  (Joseph)

The First Christians

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis?  (first Christian converts, first martyrs)

Lloyd C. Douglas, The Robe  (effects on Roman centurion and others whi inherit Christ"s robe as crucifixion)

Par Lagerkvist, Barabbas  (before, during and after Christ"s crucifixion)

Frank Slaughter, The Shoes of the Fisherman  (Peter)

Anthony Burgess, The Kingdom of the Wicked  (missionary journeys of Paul, Luke and Barnabas)

George Moore, The Brook Kerith  (Joseph of Arimathea)

#PATHWAYS #WALLACE_Lew #BEN HUR #BURGESS_Anthony #DOUGLAS_Lloyd #FESTA_CAMPANILE_Pasquale #GRAVES_Robert #HELLER_Joseph #HURE_Severia #LAGERKVIST_Par #MANN_Thomas #MOORE_George #ROBERTS_Michelle #SIENKIEWICZ_Henryk #SLAUGHTER_Frank #WINTERSON_Jeanette