Product Description
Anthony Burgess was the author of over 50 books, including his best known novel, "A Clockwork Orange." But Burgess always emphasized music as the ruling passion in his creative life. Largely self-taught in music, Burgess composed his first symphony before he was twenty, many years before his first novel, and he was the composer of over 65 musical works.

In these deeply insightful meditations, the renowned writer explores the meaning of music, the intention of the composer and the process of composition, and the seemingly elusive relationships between literature and music. Burgess shows how "the process of literary composition are revealed by the writers themselves" and then gathers evidence to understand the "inexplicable magic" of the details of the operation of music - what is musicÕs "intelligibility"? From Shakespeare to the lyric verse of Gerard Manley Hopkins, from the modernists T.S. Eliot and James Joyce to the modern lyricists Lorenz Hart and Stephen Sondheim, Burgess reveals how prose writers have struggled to tap the inherent musicality of their material.

This treasured classic, at last back in print, provides a fascinating perspective on the mutually enriching relationship of these two creative arts by a man who mastered them both. ... Read more

Product Description
Hemingway's great achievement was to free the novel from all the languid decoration and cozy indirectness that was its early twentieth-century inheritance. His terse prose taught the writer to engage life to the fullest in order to write about it, and his own life was the perfect demonstration of that principle. Reissued to coincide with the centenary of Hemingway's birth, Anthony Burgess's insightful biography traces the rapidly changing scene from a happy, complacent childhood to the grim reality of the First World War and the vulgar unreality of the Second; from the Paris of the 1920s to the Spain of Civil War and the excitements of African safari to the somber last years in Cuba. Hemingway was rich and successful from an early age, yet public acclaim and even the Nobel Prize could not disguise the fact that he was a moody, suffering, and sometimes vicious figure--a man who was finally unable to live with his own image. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

The importance of knowing the author as a person....
Ernest Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" allows the reader to experience life on the other side of the page, so to speak, the life of the authors. Recognizing the author as a person, as having gone through thehuman experience, is an important aspect of the reading experience. Itremoves the barrier between the reader and the author thus allowing abetter communication between the text and the reader. The author no longerseems distant and extraordinary, so the reader is able to absorb the bookon his own terms, as one discusses life with a respected friend.Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast" is particularly well-written, forHemingway (as usual) does not talk down to the reader but rather includesthe reader in his life as a matter of course. A truly remarkable bit ofliterature...

A thorough analysis in quick step
The book provides excellent insight into Hemingway's life without wasting a word. Every Hemingway fan should read it. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Got to read it to believe it!
If you can get through this confusing leviathan of a slim book, I guarantee you will know more abut the meaning of music. But not only is this full of the familiar verbal pyrotechnics of Anthony Burgess, but anamazingly diverse conflation of genres - all those announced in the baroquetitle, and yes, even word music to Symphony 40! Intellectually involvingand challenging, rather than an emotional or historical novel. The more youknow of classical music the more you'll enjoy this sly book. It repaysrequired rereading. ... Read more

Product Description

Although he did not start publishing until middle age, Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) had over sixty published books to his credit by the time of his death. One of them, the short novel A Clockwork Orange (1962), was to bring him fame and notoriety outside England following the 1971 release of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation. The prominence of that single novel would impel its author to confront a public continually asking directly or by implication: What else have you written, Mr. Burgess?

Burgess produced scores of novels, biographies, books of literary criticism, film scripts, and news articles. A linguist and polyglot who was fluent in eight languages, he invented the language used in the 1981 film Quest for Fire. He translated and adapted Bizet's Carmen, Weber's Oberon, and other operas for the English stage. His ReJoyce: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader remains a standard in Joycean criticism.

Conversations with Anthony Burgess captures, through in-depth interviews, a writer of tremendous energy, inventiveness, and self-discipline. The collection brings together interviews from 1971 to 1989, including two pieces published for the first time.

Earl G. Ingersoll is distinguished professor emeritus of English at SUNY College at Brockport. He has written, edited, and coedited many books, including Conversations with May Sarton and Conversations with Rita Dove, both from University Press of Mississippi. Mary C. Ingersoll is a retired elementary school teacher who specialized in teaching humanities to gifted students. ... Read more

Product Description
Included in this collection are eight short stories and a 110-page novella, "Hun", about the life and loves of Attila and his fight against the patricians of Rome. The author has written over 50 books including "Any Old Iron", "Earthly Powers" and "A Clockwork Orange". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of Burgess' best
As with most people, I only knew Anthony Burgess through A Clockwork Orange and I knew that he didn't particularly like Clockework Orange. When I read Earthly Powers I understood why. Burgess is one of the deepest most profound writers of the 20th century. Read his books and you feel like you're getting the education that your history and humanities teachers couldn't possibly give you.

This collection of short stories will rip your mind to shreds and put it back together in a fresher, newer format. His story of Debussy will make you buy all of Debussy's records. His story about Attila will send you scrambling for all works on the late Roman Empire (of course, start with The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Modern Library Classics)) as Attila plays one paper tiger against the other and carves out his own niche, only to fall to his ambitions, alcoholism and relatives. The Cavalier of the Rose somehow manages to convey the joy of watching comic operattas in text format. I don't know how he does it. If I did, I'd be much further along in my writing career than I am.

Either way, buy this book. Find a used copy. Seek it in used bookstores - brick and online. It's well worth the trouble. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Short, pithy volume of idiosyncratic views on the English language novel since 1939
Burgess' book is valuable not because it is anything like an authoratative or comprehensive study of the English-language novel over the 2nd half of the 20th century -- but because it is a very personal glimpse at some of the ideas and stories that helped to shape one of the better novelists of the century, and because it is well-written and fun.He starts off with a nice introduction where he explains fairly clearly what a "novel" is to him, some of his aesthetic prejudices which lead him towards certain examples and away from others, and just enough of his personal history - years of being a book critic - to give you a sense as to why he undertook this project.

The author may limit himself to his own language, and mostly to the UK and USA, but he finds a wide number of genres and themes, picks lengthy series and very short works, books that are quite famous and others that are obscure and now hard to find. This is one of my favorite such books and I return to it often, though I confess I haven't yet read many of the books he covers.Some personal favorites of mine that are often ignored in such surveys are Mervyn Peake's "Titus Groan" and T.H. White's "The Once And Future King"; Burgess has more tolerance for fantasy, whimsy and fabulation than many of his contemporaries in the Ivory Tower and also includes such oddities as Alasdair Gray's "Lanark" and Keith Roberts' "Pavane."

Short and pithy paragraphs on each book - a bit more on longer and more difficult works like "Finnegans Wake" or the various novel-series like Anthony Powell's "Dance to the Music of Time".Enough, in other words, to incite interest but not too much to make the book lengthy or unwieldy in any way.In short, if you like Burgess at all - or even if you don't but want just some brief snippets on the English-language novel from WWII through the early 1980s, you could do worse.This also seems to be a significant influence on a couple of excellent genre surveys (fantasy, science fiction) by David Pringle.

Worth looking for.

To be skimmed and not digested
This is Burgess doing busywork. He is fast and quick and he covers the ninety- nine novels he selects with his usual, intelligence and verve. But the work as another Amazon reviewer pointed out lacks depth and conviction. This is the kind of work read for a brilliant remark here or a laugh there, but not for any kind of great understanding of the works involved. It is something like reading an almanac only with the almanac writer not being anonymous and grey, but rather interesting and original.

written in 83, so it may be outdated
I'm not sure how to feel about this short book of burgess. i admire the man and his work, but you have to wonder about some of his choices. there are so many great books and authors that aren't included in his choices, though i could see the difficulty in picking one book a year. it is interesting to see how burgess' mind works, and the choices he makes, but it is only of interest of a burgess scholar.

99 Novels
I found this book in the early eighties, while living in New York. I loved Anthony Burgess for his erudition, his musical background, his love of Joyce, his brilliant, playful writing (Clockwork Orange) his knowledge of history and his ability to go on talk shows in the seventies and be smarter then anybody else but also completely down to earth. In the pages of 99 Novels are just those qualities.

This book -- a kind of "minute history" of literature since 1939 -- sent me scurrying into used book stores like a field mouse.His brief, paragraph long summaries of the "most influential" books since WW2 (starting with Finnegan's Wake) are provocative,funny, opinionated with a look to the long view as well. How broad was his taste? The Joyce scholar makes an argument for Raymond Chandler's Long Goodbye as the best American Novel of the nineteen fifties.He also covers Norman Mailer, Brian Aldiss, Mary McCarthy, Brian Moore, Ian Flemming, Orwell, Ballard, Huxley, Murdoch, Roth, Greene...etc.

In short, you can take this as a brilliant and unpretentious field guide from a writer who loved and knew literature and the English language quite unlike anybody else around.Burgess never lost sight of the fact that the novel is one of mankind's greatest inventions,and he proves it with this book.

interesting but shallow
Burgess is always worth a look, but this slim volume is not among his better works.He names 99 novels, from Joyce to Mailer, that he claims exemplify the best in the English language since 1939.Some of theselections are predictable (Finnegans Wake, Gravity's Rainbow), others mayraise eyebrows (Goldfinger, Giles Goat Boy).

Like all lists, Burgess'makes you wonder why one book is included while another is not.This isgenerally not a fruitful way of judging these works.Rather, the fault inBurgess' list is that his reviews of each book (usually less than a pageeach) are too brief to be of much value.In this volume we get to hearonly the faintest murmur of what I'm sure was a great din of opinions onthis outspoken writer's mind. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Gladius In Extremis
This book is about Welsh (excuse me, Cymric) nationalism, and King Arthur's legendary sword Excalibur, sort of, well, maybe, superficially that is, since, as explained in the first chapter, steel corrodes too fast for the sword to have remained in existence all these centuries if it ever did, exist that is, though the theoretical possibility of its wooden scabbard still existing, if it ever did, and was, in fact, wooden, and could thus be carbon-dated, should not be dismissed out of hand.

Ahem, perhaps this makes plain why I would not recommend this book to readers first exposing themselves to the work of Anthony Burgess.Readers familiar with Burgess will find all the familiar themes: Joycean word play (run rather amok here), ribald allusions, digressions on musicology (drolly focusing on the percussive here) and scads of witty badinage, against the backdrop of the absurdities of war and love and life and sex and other generalities that don't immediately come to mind.The general purport of which is summed up by "Reg", who gets all the best lines, thusly:

"We can't be blamed for dreaming what we dream.It's another self that does the dreaming.We have too many selves.No wonder we're scared of sleep sometimes.Another self taking over.History is all about the other selves.Not the selves that eat and make love and play music.O God, kindly deliver us from our other selves."

Not that the book, narrated by a self-confessed terrorist, gives the faintest impression, that God, if and in whatever form he may or may not exist, is about to do this any time in the near future. Summing up, a very fun read indeed - but probably not for Burgessian non-initiates - written by a mad Englishman, narrated by a Zionist terrorist with an MA in Philosophy, and chock full of weird etymologies and such related to Arthurian legend and the aforesaid Cymric Nationalist revolutionary or devolutionary movement. Only word-drunk readers with dirty minds need apply.

Burgess does what he does best - sly legends in prose!
In "Any Old Iron" Burgess gives us an entertaining tale of a Russo-Welsh family across the decades since the late 1800s. The story is ostensibly about families, war, love, birth and death - the usual fare, in other words. He also, being Burgess, gives us a liberal dose of foreign language, word play and (as a subtext that had me re-reading this book a number of times) a carefully camouflaged and delightfully off-kilter retelling of the Arthurian legend. This book is worth reading if only to see if you can tell which character was the "Fisher King" and which others correspond to legend - a marvellous romp through the legendary and the prosaic. Add in Burgess' sly wit and taste for word play and you have a story to settle down with for any number of evenings. I'm sorry Burgess is gone - we shan't see his like again for a long, long time! ... Read more

Product Description
Interviewer: "On what occasions do you lie?"Anthony Burgess: "When I write, when I speak, when I sleep."

He was the last great modernist. Novelist, composer, librettist, essayist, semanticist, translator, critic, Anthony Burgess's versatility and erudition found expression in more than fifty books and dozens of musical compositions, from operas, choral works and song cycles to symphonies and concertos.

Here now is a kaleidoscope of a book--the culmination of twenty years of writing and research--about a man who remains best known for A Clockwork Orange, the source of Stanley Kubrick's ground breaking, mind bending and prescient film.

Tracking Burgess from Manchester to Malaya to Malta to Monte Carlo, the author assesses Burgess's struggles and uncovers the web of truth and illusion about the writer's famous antic disposition. Burgess, the author argues, was just as much a literary confidence man and prankster as a consummate wordsmith.

Outrageously funny, honest and touching, Anthony Burgess explores the divisions that characterize its irascible subject and his darkly comic, bleakly beautiful world of fiction.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A Tale of Two Writers
Some reviewers concluded that this book was a "hatchet" job.Others enjoyed it. Both camps are right.Roger Lewis maintains that Burgess was a great writer who managed never to write a great book.One of Lewis' tutors, Richard Ellman, expressed concern about the book.Ellman cautioned Lewis against writing a biography contemptuous of its subject.Yet, Lewis wrote just that.Biographers do not have to love, respect or admire their subjects, but, as many reviewers noted, it's not clear why Lewis bothered to write a reasonably long biography that finds so little positive to say about Burgess.Part of the reason is that Lewis, if we are to take him at face value, admired Burgess, though he was also jealous of the adulation his peers accorded him.What comes through these pages is an expression of disappointment, disappointment with Burgess, and Lewis' disappointment with himself.In fact, Lewis, almost certainly intentionally, in writing about Burgess does exactly what he criticizes Burgess of doing:he has written mechanically and managed to conceal any depth of feeling.
Having stumbled upon this book by chance, I was really surprised that I completed it.Yet once begun, this book is hard to resist.Lewis did a considerable amount of basic detective work in writing this biography, though he never visited the archives at UT, and his claim of having read the totality of Burgess' work is likely exaggerated.At any rate,the result is a book that spews contempt and anger on every page.The indictment is extensive; Burgess neglected his first wive, was invariably cheap with friends and associates, was likely impotent while trying to appear uber virile, may have been a spy, mysteriously lived above his means, held grudges, published at a maniacal pace and managed to say nothing of lasting import.

In a comedy, a straight man might well ask:"But, Roger, how do you really feel?"Here, despite it all, that's a legitimate question because one knows or senses, at some level, that Lewis is disengaging himself from his true feelings in Anthony Burgess -- as though writing the biography infected the writer.Biographies can be remarkably predictable and prosaicworks.Not the case here.

Nasty garbage
I can only echo the other reviewers. How on earth can one be driven to write almost five hundred pages on a subject you despise. AB was no angel, but nothing he did was ever deserving of this vile calumny.

A terrific, and terrifically entertaining biography.
I am sad to see so many negative reviews about this biography. Mr Lewis book follows his treatment of Laurence Olivier and Peter Sellers -- digging beneath the skin in a nonlinear way, writing in a tone that I find very appealing. He has influenced my writing much. I now approach subjects with a wider frame of criticism. Reading this book enlargened my mind.

Yes, the book is highly critical of Burgess, but Lewis provides ample evidence and support. He also shows himself as a great thinker, exhibiting an ability to interpret with a prowess that rivals any critic I've ever encountered.

Since encountering A Clockwork Orange I have devoted many hours to studying Burgess - reading as many of his novels as I could find. His supposed greatness constantly eluded me. I thought myself deficient. Unable to understand a genius as grand as ABBA's. Lewis articulates what I could not fathom -- Burgess is a great writer who never wrote a great book (even though I find his commentary on Joyce absolutely delicious. As a purveyor of fiction, pass).

This bio is brilliant and I would honestly be distrustful of the opinion of anyone who disagress.

Bitchy Bio
It is completely baffling to me why anyone should spend time writing a biography about someone who's work and personality they detest.I stuck at it till the end. My problem now is should I bin it or burn it, lest some poor innocent reader wastes his time as I've just done.

A Violation
After enduring Roger Lewis's caustic and doggedly bottom-feeding biography of Peter Sellers, a magnum opus of hate speech, I approached his latest screed with notions of dislike preconceived. Nothing, however, prepared me for this inept and frankly embarrassing catalogue of factual, textual, historical, interpretive, and analytical errors masquerading as an investigation of a major literary figure that, I assume, Mr. Lewis considers a proper piece of work.
The only piece of work on display is Mr. Lewis, who fails to approach even the remotest semblance of objectivity and responsibility. That which is on display here is purely subjective grudge-flogging, and of so little considered skill as to qualify for pulping. Or even better, remainder this trash, so that every time Lewis visits a quality used bookstore in his neighborhood, he can view piles of fresh copies of his work (a product of 20 years of sniffing his rotten ego), spines unbroken, pages crisp and unread. Then he can move a few rows down and observe dogeared copies of Burgess's, or anybody's works for that matter, all better than Lewis's own, all evidently thumbed-through. Even that great monolith, Finnegan's Wake, which has defeated too many adventurous readers to count (and is nicely disassembled and respectfully put back together by Burgess in his numerous studies of Joyce), would create greater reader-satisfaction than Mr. Lewis's cry to an unloving world. He channels his self-hatred through a supposed-reading of Burgess's ouvre, one which is composed of great works overpraised (A Clockwork Orange), underpraised (Earthly Powers), or obscured (Enderby), lesser works and more than a fair number of failures. But that ouvre covers some 50 books, two of which are volumes of autobiography of a frank and revealing nature that do a good job of revealing their subject's failings and inadequacies. Burgess's autobios (Little Wilson and Big God and You've Had Your Time) reflect a depth of self-knowledge and character, traits that Mr. Lewis allows to wither on the vine by substituting Burgess's life for his own. As biography, Lewis's book is a joke. As autobiography, we get a fair understanding of everything Roger Lewis hates and not much else. I guess he's just a hateful person.
It's fitting that Anthony Burgess is dead. Otherwise Roger Lewis would not have the opportunity to slather invective over him and those who enjoy both the highs and lows of his work. Take a look at Lewis's other bios. He picks cultural touchstones who are known to have had colourful lives and troubling antecedents, talented individuals who, like Olivier, Sellers and, yes, Burgess, sold their talents short more than a few times. That they are dead gives Lewis wings upon which to fly to crapulous heights.
In short: Roger Lewis would kick a cancer patient, but only after they expire, lest they retain enough strength to knock him senseless, so weak is his character and so cowardly and cheap his angle of attack. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

the end of the world news
Used, but in excellent condition. No marks at all.The End of the World News: An Entertainment

fantastic
I read this book over 10 years ago and to this day, it's still one of my all-time favourite reads...it's 3 stories in one that converge into a new creation story...absolutely ingenius...read it!

Another Stunning Work By Mr. Burgess
I was lucky enough to stumble upon this book in a used book store during aclass field trip.Familiar or not with Anthony Burgess, this book followsin the string of greatness.The three individual stories complement eachother in many interesting ways, with a biography, a musical, and life inthe future.The development of the book is absolutely amazing. ... Read more

Product Description
The most complete guide to the history and pleasures of one of the world's most popular beverages.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Big Little Picture Book
This is a jumbo-sized version of the little Flammarion books on tea.It has all the colorful photos, just in larger size, and the story goes into more detail.

It's still a light read but goes in-depth enough to give more than just the bite you get from the comparable pocket-sized books on tea.

I like to judge a tea book by what it says about Puerh, and disappointingly, this one doesn't seem to say anything.It's not in the index or in the glossary.

But it's still a good read, just not the exhaustive resource some other tea books are meant to be.

A most phenominal resource, and beautifully presented!
Saw this book on the counter of a wonderful new tea shop in Boston, and stayed for two hours reading. The comprehensive coverage of tea, history, ritual, and legacy is just terrific.The text is only surpassed by thewell chosen photos, paintings and images.Flammarion needs to bring backthis extraordinary tribute to tea!

wonderful book, wonderful images
This isn't a review in the strict sense of the word, I would just like to say that if there is any way to nag Flammarion until they reprint it, I'm in it. I would LOVE to own it, now I have to check it out from thelibrary...

one of the only serious books about GREEN tea
a pity that this book runned out of stock. a must for every publisher tokeep freshly onPress ... Read more

Product Description
This book, taking an interdisciplinary approach, proposes a new insight into the relationship between literature and music through the prism of Anthony Burgess' works and those of his spiritual fathers, be they writers or composers. Exploring this relationship not only helps us to appreciate the complex mechanisms of certain artistic creations, but also demonstrates the parallels between these two major modes of artistic expression as well as showing the limits of trying to superimpose them. A selected panel of brilliant international scholars tackles the challenge of examining this relationship by providing original explanatory comments on the musicality of literature and the literary aspects of music. The book includes many pertinent references to a variety of artists ranging from musicians such as Mozart, Beethoven and Debussy to authors such as Joyce, Eliot and Huxley. Finally, it offers, through a wide spectrum of analyses, enrichment to scholars, students and general readers of the works of Burgess and of others in which literary and musical domains meet. ... Read more

Product Description
In 1665, the Great Plague swept through London, claiming nearly 100,000 lives. In A Journal of the Plague Year, Defoe vividly chronicles the progress of the epidemic. We follow his fictional narrator through a city transformed-the streets and alleyways deserted, the houses of death with crosses daubed on their doors, the dead-carts on their way to the pits-and encounter the horrified citizens of the city, as fear, isolation, and hysteria take hold. The shocking immediacy of Defoe's description of plague-racked London makes this one of the most convincing accounts of the Great Plague ever written. ... Read more

Product Description
Four works including Inside Mr. Enderby, Enderby Outside, The Clockwork Testament, and Enderby's Dark Lady follow the comic poet's encounters with a professional widow, a plagiarizing pop star, and an African-American nightclub singer. Original. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

My IMPRESSION AFTER READING THE SERIES.
Love Burgess, and Inside Mr. Enderby I already read two times, but I found the sequels rather irregular. Enderby Outside is a sequel always intended - Burgess couldn't finish the novel and published it as Inside..- I found it similar to Inside and boring in the final. A Clockwork Testament was though short very enjoyable. Enderby's Dark Lady promise a interesting plot but after a while don't progress...I got so bored I quitted a few pages from the end of the book.

Enderburgess
The first thing to say about these books is that they're very funny. - They're very funny! - I spent several nights during the reading of them chuckling myself to sleep over the Enderbian maladventures I had ingested during my day's reading.They're also an uproarious satire of (and I'm sure to be leaving several things/groups/people out):

Postwar England
Poetry Awards
Women's Magazines
Magazines of any sort
Rome
Papism
Avaricious-Papist-Magazine editing women
Poets who sell out
Modern avant-garde film
Psychiatry (Big one here)
Psychiatrists (Even Bigger)
Pop Music
Pop Music Stars
Selenologists
Randy women Selenologists
Beat poets
The film industry in general
America
The American Bicentennial
Creative writing students
Women Creative Writing students
Black (Or, er, Afro-American) Creative Writing students
Talk shows
Subways
New York City
American women -"These American women were very straightforward people, quick to disclose their madness." P.534
American men - "The men were a bit slower." P.534
Spiritualist sessions
Hiberno-American Anti-Anglo sentiments
Theatre people
The American spelling of "Theater"
Anyone who dares to mess with Shakespeare

Well, that will do for starters.What makes all this satire, um, digestible, so to speak, is there is really no vitriol in it (or, well, not very much) and, further, what makes it actually palatable is that one is so busy pitying poor Enderby, in the first two books at least, that the verbal cuts, often hidden among Enderbian musings, hit us so often at unawares. Also, the old-fashioned poet trying to heed his Muse and not sully himself with the modern world catches it the most.

There is, though, a problem that another reviewer has pointed out - The problem of identifying with either Enderby or Burgess - or perhaps Enderburgess.The first two books, Inside Mr. Enderby and Enderby Outside, are much superior, in my mind, to the last two books. Here, Enderby is a character separate from Burgess. Yes, it's still partly autobiographical, but not SO autobiographical that one feels one is reading about Burgess himself, which is the sense that overwhelmed at least this reader while poring over (still chuckling, mind you) The Clockwork Testament and Enderby's Dark Lady.

Finally, there is something more to all this than just laughs (though these certainly help things along).Enderburgess truly believes in the sacredness of poetry and the poet's mission.He heartily defends them against the slings and arrows of the modern world, much to his sadness and discomfiture, it must be said.

The girl who comes to Enderby at the end of Enderby Outside, and serves, more or less, as his Muse incarnate, intones:

"When Shelley said what he said about poets being the unacknowledged legislators of the world, he wasn't really using fancy language.It's only by the exact use of words that people can begin to understand themselves." P.358 This is the Enderburgessian motto, the recurrent theme throughout the book.I can think of no better one with which to laugh and learn or relearn the poet's mission.

One of my favorite characters
out of 3000+ books I have read. Much better reading thanClockwork Orange. Be with Mr. Enderby as he cooks, makes love and disses the Beatles. I would recommend the first book in the series to anyone. The subsequent books are not quite as good but better than most fiction.

And if you disagree with me, for cough

Excellently written, really funny.
Agreed with the above reviews; Burgess seems to have been typecast as the guy that wrote Clockwork Orange and wasn't that a violent movie?...

Before reading the Complete Enderby, A Clockwork Orange was the only Burgess book I'd read and I remembered it as written in a dense, sort of russian/english patois that it was sometimes hard to follow. I didn't think that Anthony Burgess would/could be 'a fun read'

I was very pleasantly surprised to find the Enderby novels very accessible, very entertaining, very funny.

Linguistic pyrotechnics, complete plot control but with a willingness to go completely off topic if he feels like it, a love for the quirkiness of character, respect for poetry and poets but not blind respect; so he'll look at some of the aspects of poets and poetry-writing with an eye to making fun.

There's also some biting societal commentary that, considering 1965 as copyright for the first one, doesn't feel too dated.

I'd maybe describe this as Cormac McCarthy writing A Confederacy of Dunces.This would probably annoy Mr. Burgess, but I think that fans of either would enjoy these books.

Having all four novels in one omnibus edition is a luxury I would strongly recommend.You're not forced to read them straight through but you have the option.

Enderby, Burgess at his best
"Inside Mr. Enderby," is wonderful and off beat. "Enderby Outside," follows the off kilter story of Enderby and the absurdity that is his life. "The Clockwork Testament," as the title would suggest, has shadings of Burgess' very well known book, "Clockwork Orange."The "Testament," is surreal and twisted while funny at the same time. The final story, "Enderby's Dark Lady," is wonderful and surprising to the reader with value not only for fans of the dyspeptic poet but lovers of Shakespeare as well.

While slightly dated, these stories have a bite to them that speaks volumes of truth for anyone who has been an academic, a professional writer or just a little bit out of touch with the world around them.Enderby is often misunderstood and though he makes his living in a "communication" field, he has a lot of trouble getting his point across to others.

Not only are these books funny, but as is often the case with Burgess, the satire is thinly veiled and pointing at both society and himself. ... Read more

Product Description
This acclaimed adaptation for the stage by Anthony Burgess has garnered such reviews as: "Emotional depth Rostand himself would surely have envied...Burgess' extravagant verse keeps its contours, yet trips off the tongue almost as though it were contemporary speech." - London Times. Paperback. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Innovative, In Vogue, Inferior
Cyrano de Bergerac: by Edmond Rostand translated by Anthony Burgess

I agree with Ramon Katigbak (2/25/08), that this translation of Cyrano de Bergerac is substantially inferior to Brian Hooker's superb translation, first published in 1923.Burgess' initial translation (1971) was written for a production of Cyrano by the Tyrone Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis.His later version (1985) was prepared for the Royal Shakespeare Company production, starring Derek Jacobi as Cyrano.Both versions were influenced by the dramatic needs and preferences of his employers.Some of the original play was eliminated, and much was changed, resulting in a translation/adaptation, rather than a faithful translation.

The original French, written by Edmond Rostand in the late 1890s, is perhaps the most famous French play of the last two centuries.Its language is noble, clear, comical and powerful.Hooker's work seems to me nobler, clearer, and more powerful than Burgess'.Quite often, Hooker hits the center of the target, having imagined a translation as solid, striking and appropriate as the original.When archers shoot at a target, the second archer's bull's eye counts as much as the first.But when translators aim for a bull's eye, the first one to hit has a great advantage.His successor must choose between copying the previous translation, thus making his own work superfluous, or creating a different translation equally solid, striking and appropriate, which may be difficult in the extreme.

In one respect, Burgess is closer to the French.He often translates in rhymed couplets.These can add to a sense of poetry, creating a slight emphasis on the last word of a line, which rhymes with the next or previous line.On the other hand, Hooker's blank verse, like Shakespeare's, allows midline emphases by author and actor, which heighten dramatic freedom and effect, and prevent tendencies to singsong monotony, or racing to the line's end.

In addition to the Jacobi Cyrano, the Burgess translation was used for the recent Broadway production, starring Kevin Kline, and televised early this year by PBS' Great Performances.The latter production will surely be available on DVD, and the former certainly ought to be.The Hooker translation was the basis for the 1950 film starring Jose Ferrer, and the 1972 American Conservatory Theatre production starring Peter Donat.Both these productions are on DVD.

For the reader who would like to compare Hooker and Burgess with Rostand, here are three famous passages:

[ROSTAND]Moi, c'est moralement que j'ai mes élégances.
Je ne m'attife pas ainsi qu'un freluquet,
Mais je suis plus soigné si je suis moins coquet;

[HOOKER]I carry my adornments on my soul.
I do not dress up like a popinjay;
But inwardly I keep my daintiness.

[BURGESS] I'm one of those who wear their elegance
Within.To strut around and dance and prance
Got up like a dog's dinner - that's not me.

[ROSTAND]N'écrire jamais rien qui de soi ne sortit,
Et modeste d'ailleurs, se dire: mon petit,
Soit satisfait des fleurs, des fruits, même des feuilles,
Si c'est dans ton jardin à toi que tu les cueilles!

[HOOKER]Never to make a line I have not heard
In my own heart; yet, with all modesty
To say: "My soul, be satisfied with flowers,
With fruit, with weeds even; but gather them
In the one garden you may call your own"

[BURGESS] Writing only the words down that I hear
Here -- and saying, with a sort of modesty,
"My heart, be satisfied with what you see
And smell and taste in your own garden --
Weeds, as much as fruit and flowers."

[ROSTAND] Un baiser, mais à tout prendre, qu'est-ce ?
Un serment fait d'un peu plus près, une promesse
Plus précise, un aveu qui veut se confirmer,
Un point rose qu'on met sur l'i du verbe aimer;
C'est un secret qui prend la bouche pour oreille,
Un instant d'infini qui fait un bruit d'abeille,
Une communion ayant un goût de fleur,
Une façon d'un peu se respirer le coeur,
Et d'un peu se goûter, au bord des lèvres, l'âme !

[HOOKER] And what is a kiss, when all is done?
A promise given under seal - a vow
Taken before the shrine of memory -
A signature acknowledged - a rosy dot
Over the i of loving - a secret whispered
To listening lips apart - a moment made
Immortal, with a rush of wings unseen -
A sacrament of blossoms, a new song
Sung by two hearts to an old simple tune -
The ring of one horizon around two souls
Together, all alone!

[BURGESS]How
Shall we define a kiss?The sacrament of a vow,
The lightly stamped seal of a promise, the endorsement of
A promissory note on the bank of love,
The very O of love in the expectant lips,
Eternity in the instant the bee sips,
The music of the spheres in the bee's wing,
A flower-tasting eucharist, a rose-red ring
Richening already with the coming gold.

No Improvement
Although I am an Anthony Burgess fan, I find this translationto be nowhere near as good as the classic Brian Hooker translation.

An exquisite tragi-comedy
If there's one thing that has me miffed, it's those ridiculous academic critiques of this play. Yes, it's unrealistic, yes, it's energetic to the point of insanity, yes, the character of Cyrano is particularly vulnerable to the ridiculous Freudian analyses that Lit. professors are obsessed with. But the essence of this work, what makes it breathe, are the very qualities so mocked by elitists: its color, its flamboyance, and above all its wonderfully unashamed idealism.

First of all, this is entertaining reading at its best: a combination of witty repartee and laugh-out-loud humor, balanced with emotional depth that is subtle yet wrenching in its intensity. With just a few lines the scenes come alive, with characters whose brash gallantry is reminiscent of Dumas' Musketeers.

All this virtuoso treatment finds a focal point in the character of Cyrano, who is at once comic and tragic: his biting wit provides a facade for a soul in torment, for his sensitivity to beauty makes his own ugliness that much more painful. Yet there is so much fire and pride in Cyrano that never once does he beg for our pity, and endures the pain of thwarted love with the same charisma and bravery with which he does battle.

The contradiction between Cyrano as he is inside--a veritable furnace of eloquent passion--and his markedly ugly exterior, is his tragedy. Through the vehicle of this contradiction, Edmond Rostand explores the nature of love, particularly regarding how much of it is dependant upon exteriors. Yet this theme does not smother the tale, which is such a heady mixture of beauty, hilarity and subtle insight that it fairly intoxicates. My only complaint, upon finishing it, was that it had to end.

You'll just love the characters
Cyrano -loosely based on the actual Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, an early predecessor of science fiction- is a swordsman for the French King Louis XIII. He is also a man with an extraordinary gift for poetry and versification, as well as the owner of an extremely large nose. He is deeply in love with his cousin Roxanne, but she happens to love Cyrano's friend and colleague, Christian. So, being a good fellow and having a quixotic nature, Cyrano accepts to speak of love to Roxanne, impersonating Christian. Under her window, in the dark, Cyrano recites love poems so well crafted, that Roxanne falls even more in love with Christian, who is the supposed lover. After that, both men leave to fight at war. Roxanne shows up at the siege of Arras, to bring food to the soldiers. There, for reasons I won't spoil here, their love affair comes to an abrupt end, leaving their relationship unfulfilled. What comes next shows the true heroic nature of Cyrano, his strength of character, and his loyalty to his friend, but also to his eternal love for Roxanne. This play, which has originated at least a couple of good movies and several tv interpretations, is a homage to the Romantic spirit so rare in our greedy and selfish times. It is full of beautiful images and scenes, and Rostand's writing is perfect for the task. Read it first, and if you haven't seen the movies, watch them. Cyrano is a grand character that will remain as an epytome of chivalry, loyalty, and emotional strength. Not to forget.

one of the most thrilling dramas of all time
When I was a kid, back in the days before even those excruciatingly edifying Afterschool Specials began to plague daytime TV and the talk shows were Mike Douglas and Dinah Shore rather than Jerry Springer and Oprah, there was a terrific series of Animated Classics that were broadcast in the afternoons.They were, as far as I can recall, pretty faithful to the original stories, though obviously abridged and edited.I remember two in particular, The Count of Monte Cristo and Cyrano de Bergerac.The appeal of these two, despite their French provenance, is obvious--what more can a kid ask for than a great swashbuckler?Then, as if this cartoon version wasn't enough, I saw the 1950 Jose Ferrer film version of Cyrano and was hooked on the story for life.

Rostand's is just one of several fictions to be based on the life of the historical Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac (1619-55).Set in the reign of Louis XIII, the play, of course. tells the story of the fiercely independent swordsmen, poet, playwright and political pamphleteer with the prodigious proboscis, of his unspoken love for his cousin Roxanne and of his intercession on behalf of his beautiful fellow guardsman Christian de Neuvillette, on whose behalf he surreptitiously woos her.

Now when you're a kid, you can hardly see past the dueling and brawling.I mean, obviously the point is that the guy is lovable despite his beak, but c'mon, the love parts are yucky anyway.But returning to the story as an adult, Rostand's other themes emerge, particularly Cyrano's insistence on meeting life on his own terms.If his failure to realize Roxanne's love remains tragic, his Quixotic nature, his enduring political independence and personal integrity, serve to make him one of the great heroes in all of literature.

Blending swordplay, comedy, tragedy and romance in equal measure, this is truly one of the most thrilling dramas of all time.If you can find the cartoon version, by all means watch it.In the meantime, instead of renting Lethal Weapon # 8, next time you're at the video store look for Jose Ferrer as Cyrano or buy a copy from Amazon for 7 bucks.It's well worth the price of two rentals; I guarantee you watch it more than once.

GRADE: A+ ... Read more

Product Description
This fascinating early work by Anthony Burgess is a delightful fantasy, blending classical myth and farce. Displaying a high degree of verbal ingenuity and intelligence, Burgess effortlessly plays with ideas to create a riotous comedy that is ultimately a celebration of love and marriage. Presented along with the earlier and similarly themed The Venus of Ille, by Prosper Mérimée.

Ambrose and Diana are to be married. Diana, however, is having last-minute doubts fuelled by her feminist friend and bridesmaid, Julia, while Ambrose inadvertently becomes engaged to the goddess Venus, who has taken possession of the wedding ring. These obstacles present the first in a farcical series of challenges—not only to the impending wedding, but also to the most dearly held preconceptions of Ambrose, Diana, and their wedding guests.

In addition to writing novels like A Clockwork Orange and The Earthly Powers, Anthony Burgess (1917–94) was also a composer and critic. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Moving and thoughtful
Burgess is best known for fiction--Clockwork Orange--but his memoirs and his nonfiction wereextraordinary. Read these, as well as his tribute to James Joyce, Re Joyce, and your life will be enhanced. Honest.

A writer's life
Burgess first great ambition was to be a composer of classical music. Hissuccess, fame and reputation however came largely through the writing career he began only when diagnosed with a condition which told him he only had a year to live. In that year in order to provide his first wife with some kind of financial security he wrote five novels. He also was cured of the tumor and went on to become one of the most prolific, energetic, and linguistically inventive novelists and critics of the latter half of the twentieth century. In this second part of his biography he tells the story of his writing life and career, of his second marriage, of the birth of his son , of the innumerable travels, meetings and connections which he makes in the course of his extremely productive life. The book is written with his usual verve and linguistic inventiveness. It is an interesting and even breathtaking at first but it eventually wore me down with its multiplication of meetings and deals and new characters and events. In truth I was looking for something deeper and more reflective, something which would too give a more insightful look into Burgess' sense of his own art. With all this I would say it provides a great deal of information and incident about one of the most inventive writers linguistically of the latter half of the century.
It is certainly worth a read.

Finding Lost Time
I stumbled across Burgess's autobiography in a mail-order catalogue of remaindered books._You've Had Your Time_ cost half as much as the shipping and handling, and was read with the kind of joy and guilt one feels when finding a stray twenty-dollar bill in an empty parking lot.

What struck me about Burgess on Burgess is his delight in words---utilitarian words, pretty words, obscene words, latinates, any combination thereof (among his favorites:micturate).He called his art a craft, and loved to show the clockwork behind prose-tricks, how even the most magical books depend heavily on sleight-of-hand.Perhaps the most peculiar aspect of his autobiography is how sketchy it is on the author's life and how detailed it is on words.For him, at least, the two are inseparable.

Anthony Burgess, aspiring composer, is told at 35 that he has an inoperable brain tumor---he will die within a year.He cranks a sheet of paper into a typewriter.Jump a few decades ahead.In 1989 we find him reflecting on Joyce's anniversary, on conversations in Saxon with Borges, on Kubrick's version of _A Clockwork Orange_, and on a bitter scene from a childhood he can't quite call his own.

He wrote over thirty novels, and also adapted, translated, and commented on a dizzying array of subjects.He was very, very funny.He was at his funniest when writing on his life.And yet there is this terrible, self-inflicted sense of failure when he looks back:The last line in his book is both defiant and defeated---time is creeping up on him, he says, and his attitude is not that of a complacent man of letters, but rather that of someone with an awful lot of unfinished business.

Here's the punchline:In-between the completion of the memoir and his death he wrote an additional six books.The last one, a novel in verse, has just come out.Burgess cheated death at the beginning of his literary career and has done so again.

... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Maddeningly fascinating
This is one of those total recall autobiographies that, in the wrong hands, can make for horrific reading. That is doesn't is testament to Burgess's richly intelligent prose and the remarkable course of his early life. Born into a poor Manchester family to a drunk father and a mother who died when he was an infant, Burgess scrapped his way up through poverty stricken Manchester aided by his genius like brain (when he admits to reading Don Quixote aged ten we begin to get the measure of things). At thirteen he decided to be a great composer in the modern style of Stravinsky or Schoenberg, several years and many autodidactical projects later he finds himself at Manchester University where he is the bane of lecturers with his own take on his English course. After that, he is drafted into action in World War II, a period of his life low on military action but high on farce. Back in Civvy Street, flatlining as a schoolteacher, he embarks on a new career as an educator in 'the Eton of the East' in Malaysia. And all the while he seems to be an effortless puller of women - domestic staff in Manchester in his teens, generous females in wartime, a first wife who practised free love (and was unfaithful with Dylan Thomas - apparently impotent) and some frisky Malays. All this before he has published his first novel: Burgess's prolific writing career is documented in the second part of his memoirs, 'You've Had Your Time'. Remarkable.

Great use of language
It's rare that I encounter a book in English that I need to read with a dictionary handy. Anthony Burgess' autobiography is the first book which has forced this in quite a while. The life itself was rather fascinating, covering primarily that portion of Burgess' life before he became a writer. This is the point in a writer's life which is interesting. After they settle into the task of actually writing, their lives tend to become dull as dirt.

Best Burgess Work
Anthony Burgess, the great linguistic writer of the 20th century, has succeeded in publishing something quite out of the ordinary-- he has written an autobiography actually worth reading. With most autobiographies, the authors tend to center on themselves, writing with the condescendingbathos that only exists when one is talking of oneself.Burgess, on theother, hand, establishes his literary hubris early on, yet it never becomescondescending nor immitigably self-centered. He writes as one who realisesboth his genius as well as his shortcomings. The former he shows in hiserodite vocabulary, his obscure puns, and his awe-inspiring knowledge ofetymology; the latter is shown in his failure in school, his impersonal andinadequate personality, his extreme shortcomings as a husband, and hisextessentialist-like apathy regarding death.

What ultimately sets himapart from other autobiographers, as mentioned earlier, is that he seems tocenter on others moreso than himself; in "Little Wilson and Big God,the tumultuous 20th century is viewed through a myriad of reference frames,all of which are given equal importance (even those, strangely enough, thatwould be seen to disagree with his opines).

Being a Burgess novel, onecan expect to see highly established vocabulary; he frequently makesreferences to and puns in foreign languages, from Anglo-Saxon to ancientGaelic. In one case, he tells of translating popular song into Latin.However, as opposed to his Clockwork Orange, he does not speak in someimagined colloquial dialect, and his excellent points are therefore notlost to the audience.

If someone is looking for an autobiography that canactually offer insight into the mind of a genius, look no further than thisgem of a work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The Master speaks!Essential for every Burgessophile!
What could be better than Burgess on literally everything?Pun mostdefinitely intended! Almost 200 selected essays on the famous and thearcane, Burgess opines on books sent for his review by The Times LiterarySupplement, the New York Times, and the Observer between 1978 and 1985,and, to the reader's delight, he invariably relates tales about the writersthemselves, taking aim at sacred cows, shattering myths and pulverizingclay idols but not without deifying the immortal and creating legends alongthe way.Delving into dictionaries, linguistic tomes, music compendiums,biographies, Oxford Books of you name of it, scholastic works, popularnovels, acclaimed works, collections, anthologies - he profiles it all withhuge chunks of personal glimpses into his own life and times. He chroniclesworks by and about Joyce, Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson, Dickens, Orwell, Waugh,Wells, Stendahl, Austin, Boswell, Fielding, Fiedler, Plath, Lawrence,Golding, Goldman, Conrad, Capote, de Beauvoir, Greene, Greer, O'Hara,Richardson, Janeway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Friedan, "thegreat Virginia herself," Stein, Wagner, Beethoven, Weill, Sullivan,Elgar - getting too specialized for you? Try "Garping", on JohnIrving, "Dorogoi Bunny, Dear Volodya..." on the Nabokov-WilsonLetters, "Anal Magic" on Mailer, "The Magus ofMallorca" on Graves, "Thurbing" on Thurber, "Hem NotWriting Good" on Hemingway, "Celtic Sacrifice" on Wilde.Large doses of his wry, dry, erudite, phenomenal self on fiction, prose,poetry, language, religion, art, fashion, film, food, politics, travel,theater, astrology - reviews of books on vices and dirty jokes even!Thereis a wealth of references throughout to other writings, critiques, essays,events and locations. For light fare on weighty subjects, try"Grunts from a Sexist Pig" wherein he was sent a pink marzipanpig, the dubious reward for being voted (along with Mailer, Fiedler,Lowell, Malamud and Beckett) a Sexist Pig of the Year, a result of his feudwith Virago Press over their choice of name: "Now all mydictionaries tell me that a virago is a noisy, violent, ill-tempered woman,a scold or a shrew.There is, true, an archaic meaning which makes avirago a kind of amazon... .But the etymology insists on a derivation fromLatin...and no amount of semantic twisting can force the word into ameaning which denotes intrinsic female virtues... .I think it was a sillypiece of naming, and it damages what is a brave and valuable venture." Or my personal favorite, "Telejesus (or Mediachrist)", the storyof how he came to write the screenplay for "Man of Nazareth.": "The ball was slammed into my court, and there was a long silencewhile I got down to work.This meant loading my typewriter and the NewTestament into my motor caravan and setting off for the Alps. ...Wherever Iwent with my caravan, typewriter and Greek Testament, I was hounded by thereligious experts of Radiotelevisione Italiana...with requests, orders,ultimata.They pursued me from Rome to Ansedonia to Siena to Bracciano toRome, telling me what to write. "Write it yourselves, for Christ'ssake,' I said reverently.`No, no, you're the writer.Now write this.' One remarkable suggestion was that Jesus, in formulating the Lord's Prayer,should stumble over the word padre, stuttering papa papa in involuntaryhomage to His Holiness.I pointed out that in English this would have beenfafa fafa, which is a homage to nobody.Theological advisers were ten apenny,...I said I would trade them all for an adviser in carpentry." Open this book to any page, you will never fail to be entertained,enlightened, uplifted.Keep it by your bedside, in your bookbag, briefcaseor backpack, take it to work and take it on holiday, but don't let it outof your sight! Unbelievably, this book is out of print!Too, too many ofBurgess' books are out of print. How could the publishing world let thishappen?Search the shelves, exhaust the Net, move mountains, whatever youhave to do, but get yourself a copy of this treasure - it is not to bemissed!The only thing that could surpass Homage to Qwert Yuiop (have youfigured it out yet?) would be a companion volume spanning 1986 to 1993. What, one wonders, was left out of this edition?What is still out thereunpublished? ... Read more