As my dear reader will know, Anthony Burgess is a constant presence in my life, so it was a pleasure to provide this little guide to some of my favourites among his works for the latest Shiny New Books. As ever, Shiny has lots to offer the discerning reader. The photo is of me spouting nonsense (surely ‘delivering a magisterial exegesis’? Ed.) at the recent Burgess 100 conference in Manchester.
Reading Burgess by Dr Rob Spence is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Hello Rob, just want to thank you for an enthusiastic introduction to Anthony Burgess. I had an unfortunate experience with Clockwork Orange in my youth, perhaps I was too young/inexperienced! I have been absolutely absorbed by Nothing Like the Sun and the Enderby trilogy. Amazing! I’m about to begin the Malayan Trilogy. I have a feeling this relationship will last for some time.
Hi Annette! Very glad that you are enjoying Burgess. A Clockwork Orange is atypical of Burgess’s work, as you are finding out. And there are plenty more to go for. If you enjoyed Nothing Like The Sun, then A Dead Man in Deptford is the perfect complementary read. And getting the notification about your comment has also reminded me that I really must add some content here: it’s been dormant too long. Best wishes, Rob
Hello Rob, many thanks for the recommendation. It took me a while, due to recent events, and I took my time to savour A Deadman in Deptford. What an incredible gift Burgess had for drawing us in and emersing us in his scrupulously researched worlds! Best wishes and many thanks, Annette
Great to know you enjoyed it, Annette. There’s lots more to go at, of course!
Yes, I should have started earlier in life, I’m a slow reader. Look what you’ve started!
Never too late! I hope all is well with you, and you’ve lots more Burgess to discover.