Anthony Burgess Essay, Research Paper

John Anthony Burgess Wilson was an

English novelist and critic. He was born in a small house in

Harpurhey and was the son of a bookkeeper and part-time

pianist. He was found lying in his cot when he was a baby

with his mother and sister dead beside him. They were said

to have been victims of the Spanish Flu. Anthony attended

the Bishop Bilsborrow- Primary School, Moss Side,

Xavier College and lastly Manchester University. He then

spent six years as a wartime soldier and after he went into

education, he became an education officer in Malaya and

Brunei. In 1959 he was diagnosed with a terminal illness,

so he became a professional writer, hoping to provide for

his wife. The diagnoses turned out to be wrong; however,

he decided to stick with it and he wrote over thirty novels.

Anthony Burgess was a very well-rounded artist. He drew,

wrote novels, was a musician and produced a lot of works.

At the age of twelve, his drawings were being accepted by

national newspapers and at fourteen, he taught himself to

play the piano and compose music. He wrote two

symphonies, concertos, songs, sonatas and incidental music

for plays. In his very first year he wrote five novels, a

couple of plays and several radio scripts and stories. He

had all sorts of different topics, themes and styles. Of all his

writings, the most well-known was and still is A

Clockwork Orange. It is also his most controversial work.

A Clockwork Orange was his eighth novel and was

published in 1962. Although this was among his best

works, he had his own thoughts on it. In an interview done

in 1981 in "Modern Fiction Studies" Burgess was quoted,

"I’m not particularly proud of A Clockwork Orange

because it has all the thoughts I rail against in fiction. It’s

didactic. It tends to pornography." John Anthony Burgess

Wilson died in 1993 and will always be remembered by the

remains of some of his classic works.