Agree that the book is timeless on its own. But every time I re-read it, Malcom McDowell provides Alex's voice.

One of my Russian speaking colleagues was highly amused when I spoke to him in Nadsat.

Because Nadsat is uses standard English grammar, it's even more accessible than Newspeak, my other favorite dystopian language.

clockwork orange, the book, has 21 chapters. for whatever dumb reason, burgess' american publisher decided to omit the last chapter on publication. burgess believes this entire subverts the book's message, making it say the opposite of what he meant it to say. alas, it appears kubrick's treatment in the film also omits the last chapter.

burgess wrote at length about this in "rolling stone" back in the day. i kept that particular issue all these years because i think it's an important story. i can't find a copy of it online, though. the story is somewhat covered in the wikipedia article:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(film)#Nove...

... which also mentions that american versions of the book after 1986 restore the final chapter.

Here you go: https://ia800108.us.archive.org/3/items/AnthonyBurgessAClock...

"That’s what it’s going to be then, brothers, as I come to the like end of this tale. You have been everywhere with your little droog Alex, suffering with him, and you have viddied some of the most grahzny bratchnies old Bog ever made, all on to your old droog Alex. And all it was was that I was young. But now as I end this story, brothers, I am not young, not no longer, oh no.

"Alex like groweth up, oh yes.

"But where I itty now, O my brothers, is all on my oddy knocky, where you cannot go. Tomorrow is all like sweet flowers and the turning vonny earth and the stars and the old Luna up there and your old droog Alex all on his oddy knocky seeking like a mate.

"And all that cal. A terrible grahzny vonny world, really, O my brothers. And so farewell from your little droog. And to all others in this story profound shooms of lip music brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal."

-- The End.

good find! it's been decades since i read this, but the one thing i remember pretty clearly is burgess' high level of indignation, which, yep, is thoroughly on display.

Kubrick didn't know there was a last chapter until later.

wikipedia disagrees with you:

"In Kubrick's opinion — as in the opinion of other readers, including the original American editor — the final chapter was unconvincing and inconsistent with the book."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Clockwork_Orange_(novel)

> "claimed that he had not read the original version until he had virtually finished the screenplay, and that he had never given serious consideration to using it"

So he knew there was a final chapter; he just didn't care.

dude. you have apparently been here long enough to know that that kind of response is unacceptable here.

you are choosing to interpret that series of events differently than i did. i see it like this:

1) kubrick reads the american version of the book.

2) he writes most of the screenplay.

3) somebody tells him about chapter 21. he reads it.

4) kubrick decides that, even if he had originally read the 21-chapter book, he would ignore the final chapter as being unrealistic.

in that version of events, it doesn’t matter if he didn’t know about it beforehand or not, it would not have affected his final screenplay.

>you have apparently been here long enough to know that that kind of response is unacceptable here.

Clearly; sometimes people are insufferable though, and I'd rather let them know then carry anything into my actual life.

>you are choosing to interpret that series of events differently than i did. i see it like this: ...

And how does that disagree with my statement that he didn't know there was a last chapter until later? He may have never started the screenplay if he'd read the original since it completely changes the story. It's like Raymond Carver edited by Gordon Lish vs. not.