A Clockwork Orange

By Anthony Burgess

Alex and his friends move through a violent near-future society in a language entirely their own. When the state attempts to eliminate Alex’s capacity for violence, the novel turns into a disturbing argument about punishment, conditioning, responsibility, and whether goodness means anything without the freedom to choose it.

Why we carry it: Burgess refuses the easy choice between personal brutality and institutional control. This is a book about what happens when authority tries to manufacture morality.

Format: Paperback edition with the restored final chapter and the author’s introduction.