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A Clockwork Orange
by Burgess, Anthony
- Used
- very good
- hardcover
- First
- Condition
- Very Good/Very Good+
- Seller
-
Chelmsford, Essex
Item Price:
£1,500.00
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Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
First edition, first impression (Heinemann, 1962) with first state black boards and wider dust jacket flaps.
Publisher's original black cloth with lettering to spine in gilt. Very good with a minor knock to foot of lower board and an area of abrasion to the surface of the front and rear endpapers resulting from the removal of a bookplate; brown spot to gutter foot of opening pages with some staining to opening page of chapter 1 and small hole to page fore-edge; a couple of impressions to the bottom of page 97 also showing, with increasingly less prominence, on following 10 pages. The original dust jacket is price-clipped and has a couple of small marks in biro to upper flap and spine panel verso; minimal wear to extremities and a couple of small nicks to top edge with associated tape repair to verso, better than very good otherwise. A modern dystopian highlight.
Publisher's original black cloth with lettering to spine in gilt. Very good with a minor knock to foot of lower board and an area of abrasion to the surface of the front and rear endpapers resulting from the removal of a bookplate; brown spot to gutter foot of opening pages with some staining to opening page of chapter 1 and small hole to page fore-edge; a couple of impressions to the bottom of page 97 also showing, with increasingly less prominence, on following 10 pages. The original dust jacket is price-clipped and has a couple of small marks in biro to upper flap and spine panel verso; minimal wear to extremities and a couple of small nicks to top edge with associated tape repair to verso, better than very good otherwise. A modern dystopian highlight.
Synopsis
Anthony Burgess wrote more than 40 novels, but A Clockwork Orange is certainly his most famous. The novel is set in a not-too-distant future English society, namely characterized by a subculture of extreme youth violence. Alex, the unapologetic teenaged protagonist, narrates his exploits and experiences with state authorities intent on reforming him. This narration — in a fictional slang called nadsat — is an experiment in language, combining elements of Russian and Cockney English. In fact, the title of the novel itself is taken from an old Cockney expression: “As queer as a clockwork orange.” The US edition of the novel was published without the final chapter, in which Alex grows up to renounce violence. Burgess strongly disapproved of the decision, arguing that it distorted the novel into a tale of unredeemable evil — far from the author’s original intention. Ironically, the US edition of A Clockwork Orange became a cult classic and was used by Stanley Kubrick for his 1971 film adaptation. A Clockwork Orange is ranked 65th on Modern Library’s “100 Best” English-language novels of the 20th century. It is also listed in TIME’s “100 Best Novels” (since 1923).
Reviews
On Dec 18 2015, a reader said:
One of the worst books ever! this is sick.
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Details
- book dealer
- Fine Book Cellar Limited ABA ILAB PBFA
(GB)
- Bookseller’s Inventory #
- 1476183138929
- Title
- A Clockwork Orange
- Author
- Burgess, Anthony
- Book condition
- second hand - Very Good
- Jacket condition
- Very Good+
- Quantity available
- 1
- Edition
- First
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Publisher
- Heinemann
- Date Published
- 1962
- Keywords
- Burgess, Clockwork Orange, First
- Bookseller catalogs
- Modern First Editions; Books to Film; Dystopian Fiction; Anthony Burgess;
Terms of Sale
Fine Book Cellar Limited ABA ILAB PBFA
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Fine Book Cellar Limited ABA ILAB PBFA
Biblio.co.uk member since 2015
Chelmsford, Essex
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About Fine Book Cellar Limited ABA ILAB PBFA
We are an online book store specialising in modern first editions and are a full member of the ABA, ILAB and PBFA. Visit our website at www.finebookcellar.com.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps... [more]
- gutter
- The inside margin of a book, connecting the pages to the joints near the binding.
- gilt
- The decorative application of gold or gold coloring to a portion of a book on the spine, edges of the text block, or an inlay in... [more]
- spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf.... [more]
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched... [more]
- verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- first state
- used in book collecting to refer to a book from the earliest run of a first edition, generally distinguished by a change in some... [more]
- flap(s)
- The portion of a book cover or cover jacket that folds into the book from front to back. The flap can contain biographical... [more]
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