The End of the World News [Hardcover]

Anthony Burgess (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 388 pages
• Publisher: Hutchinson; 1ST edition (October 1982)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0091505402
• ISBN-13: 978-0091505400
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,463,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anthony Burgess (25th February 1917-22nd November 1993) was one of the UK's leading academics and most respected literary figures. A prolific author, during his writing career Burgess found success as a novelist, critic, composer, playwright, screenwriter, travel writer, essayist, poet and librettist, as well as working as a translator, broadcaster, linguist and educationalist. His fiction also includes NOTHING LIKE THE SUN, a recreation of Shakespeare's love-life, but he is perhaps most famous for the complex and controversial novel A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, exploring the nature of evil. Born in Manchester, he spent time living in Southeast Asia, the USA and Mediterranean Europe as well as in England, until his death in 1993.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More magic from the author of Clockwork Orange, September 22, 1998

By 

[e-mail] or James M. Foley (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of the World News (Hardcover)

Sigmund Freud discovers the psyche in Vienna, Leon Trotsky discovers the worker's paradise in New York City and America waits for a comet to snuff out all life. Three very different tales spin around and through each other in another masterpiece by one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century.

Like most Burgess, this is a vastly entertaining book, but you can't just stand back and admire the architecture of this tale. Human characters dealing with super-human problems draw you in to this discussion of the uses of power and the purpose of life.

At first, the interwoven stories jar. You hurry to get back to the interrupted story. What happened next? To whom? But each story blooms, each story comments nimbly on the others and takes its own place in a masterwork by a masterwriter.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why is this out of print?, August 7, 2003

By 

Matt Cameron (Newark, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The End of the World News: An Entertainment (Hardcover)

Anthony Burgess seems to be dangerously close to being passed over by history. The only book that he is now remembered for is now more likely to be cited as "a Stanley Kubrick film" than "an Anthony Burgess novel," and his many other works have been left to rot in used bookstores. While he's not certainly not the most visionary speculative fiction author of the 20th century, he deserves far more respect than he's received--I fully expect him to be "rediscovered" sometime soon.

I first read "The End of the World News" back in middle school (about ten years ago) and still remember it clearly. His parallel narratives--a future Earth waiting for The End, the waning years of cranky old Freud, and the libretto for a musical about Trotsky's visit to New York--work together beautifully, like a more coherent "Slaughterhouse-Five." Still one of my all-time favorites.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an overlooked classic by a master, July 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The End of the World News: An Entertainment (Hardcover)

Anthony Burgess has written so many great novels. He is of course most famous for A Clockwork Orange, and that one sotry has overshadowed much of his other terrific work.

This book has three different storylines, including Trotsky and space travel, and its never clear as you read through the chapters how they are related, but the plotlines are captivating. And at the end, he does a masterful job of tying it all together. Simply fascinating.

It will be hard to find this book, but if you do, definitely buy it.