A Horrorshow Find: 'Clockwork Orange' Follow-up Surfaces After Decades Unseen
Not long after the release of the film adaptation, Anthony Burgess embarked on an ambitious companion to his seminal novel. But it was never published, and the manuscript went unread — until now.
Gather round, my droogs. It's time for a story.
Not long after the 1971 release of the film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, the novel's author, Anthony Burgess, received an offer from a publisher: Write a short follow-up to the novel, one that uses the word "Clockwork" in the title and brims with artwork, and we will make you a rich man.
So, according to Burgess scholar Andrew Biswell, the novelist got to work on a brief piece, which soon became a big piece, which eventually ballooned to 200 pages., the work was to be a philosophical meditation on the very nature of modern life — but alas, it never was. The manuscript was never published, and despite rumors of the project, it was never found either.
