"Autobiography: Story of one's life,
written by oneself."(Halsey 64).
Everyone knows
what an
autobiography is, but not so many people realize that although not all authors
write a
book that can be
called a factual autobiography, many authors frequently allow personal, real
life experiences
to influence their fictional writings.
An excellent example of such an author is
Anthony
Burgess. Anthony Burgess is recognized
today as an English novelist, critic,
essayist, and
composer (editor CLC 80). Burgess is
such a literary genius, it was once said of
him that
"... his agent, publisher, and his entry in "Who's Who" could
not provide the exact
number of books
he wrote." (Baldwin A8). Some of
Burgess's works include The Long Day
Wanes, The Doctor
is Sick, and, perhaps Burgess's most famous book, Clockwork Orange.
A
Clockwork Orange
is an interesting novel that paints a picture of a gruesome violence in the
not-so-distant
future. The story is based on, and told
by the narrator, the fifteen-year old
Alex, but it
shows many references to the life and experience of its author. In a series of five
books, Burgess
also focused on his life experiences.
Enderby's Dark Lady was the fifth in the
series, and that
will be the second book focused on in this paper. Anthony Burgess's work in
A Clockwork
Orange and Enderby's Dark Lady strongly reflects significant events or
influences in his
own life.
Anthony Burgess was born John Burgess
Wilson in Manchester, England in early 1917.
(Stinson 1). Both of Burgess's parents were members of the
theatric arts: His father was a
pianist, his
mother was a musical actress. Burgess
went to a Catholic elementary school, and
was one of the
many victims of the "iron discipline and largely rote memorization"
(Stinson 2)
typical in such
schools of the time. Burgess attended
Xaverian College, and later moved on
to the
inexpensive University of Manchester, where he hoped to pursue an education in
music. He was rejected form the music department
because he had failed physics. Instead,
Burgess entered
the English department (Stinson 6). In
1940, Burgess graduated with his
B.A., with
honors, in literature and English language (Stinson 7). Shortly after, Burgess
enlisted in the
Royal Army Medical Corps, and spent most of his six years in the service in
the entertainment
section, playing the piano and writing songs, or in the Army Educational
Corps (Stinson
7). In 1946, Burgess was discharged with
the rank of sergeant-major. Burgess
found himself
employed in several different jobs, and living in several different countries
in
the years that
followed. In 1948 he became English
Master at a grammar school in Banbury,
near Oxford. During his time in Banbury, Burgess wrote
occasionally, but saw writing as a
time consuming
process that took away from his composing.
It was around this time of
transition that
Burgess received a letter form his publisher, Heinemann stating that his first
novel, A Vision
of Battlements was to be published, and they were requesting another. So
began Burgess's
career of as a novelist (Stinson 9).
In 1956, Burgess was diagnosed with a
brain tumor. His doctors gave him one
year to
live. In a mad panic to leave some form of income
behind for his wife, Lynne Jones, Burgess
set out to write
ten novels in one year. Buy the end of
Burgess's first year as a full-time writer,
he had completed
about five and one half novels. A few
weeks after the end of the first year,
the doctors told
Burgess that they found no sign of the tumor, and he was going to live after
all (Baldwin
A8). This was just the beginning of
Burgess's career as a writer. Although
some
of Burgess's
works were not treated kindly by the critics, the majority of his novels were
generally well
received by the public. In 1962, Burgess
wrote A Clockwork Orange, the novel
that many readers
discovered Burgess's genius through. To
date, this is still his most famous
book (Baldwin
A8). In 1976, Burgess published
Enderby's Dark Lady under the name of
Joseph Kell. A satire in which Enderby, a director from
the four previous novels in this five
novel series,
searched for in England, and found in America, a place to perform (Stinson 98).
A Clockwork Orange is a novel that deals
with the violence of youth in the future.
The Narrator is a
fifteen-year-old child of the streets that enjoys beating the helpless, raping
the defenseless,
and robbing the penniless. About
half-way through the novel, Alex is caught
by the authorities. They attempt to reform him from his life of
crime by using a controversial
new technique
that forces Alex to become physically ill at even the thought of violence. In
the last chapter
of the book, Alex is able to break free of the mental chains that the reform
had captured his
soul in, and reinstate his existence as a creature capable of moral choice by
reentering his
life of crime (Burgess A Clockwork
Orange).
Throughout the rough biographical sketch
given, certain points in may be selected in
which events in
Burgess's life can be shown to have heavy influence on A Clockwork Orange.
Burgess published
A Clockwork Orange in 1962, a time in England that was marked with a
great amount of
crime and very violent youths. Burgess
himself had once cited this setting as
the source of, or
at least the inspiration of the stories of horror and violence told in this
novel
(Baldwin
A8). The narrator of this book is the
main source of these horror stories.
Alex is
cheerful in his
life of crime, and is high-spirited about beating the elderly and raping the
defenseless
(Bergonzi 85). This trend can be seen in
other books as well. One critic summed
it up rather well
by saying "His fiction is peopled with lapsed Catholics, failed poets and
musicians,
ineffective teachers, linguists who cannot adjust to the world as easily as
they do to
the word, and
other intellectual misfits." (Friedman 1).
And so, in this manor, Burgess used
the setting in
which he lived to create the characters of many of his fiction novels.
One of the themes in A Clockwork Orange
even seems to have a strong connection to
Burgess's early
life. The "conservative and
pessimistic view of human nature" portrayed in A
Clockwork Orange
can be attributed to his mother's death (Bergonzi 85). In 1919, Burgess's
father came home
on furlough to find that the Spanish Influenza had killed both Burgess's
mother and older
sister. Although Burgess was only two,
"This event and its consequences
may have played
some part in fashioning Burgess into what he considers a "creature of
gloom"
is reasonable
speculation" (Stinson 1). This
pessimism is evident in the final chapter of A
Clockwork Orange,
where the narrator exercises his right to moral choice by choosing a life of
crime even after
extensive attempts at reforming him.
A much more direct parallel can be drawn
to the beating of Mrs. F. Alexander in A
Clockwork
Orange. In April, 1944, Burgess's
pregnant wife Lynne was beaten and robbed in
London, and
miscarried. The doctor ordered her never
to have children, and this caused
Lynne to sink
into a pit of alcoholism. She died of
cirrhosis of the liver in March 1968.
Burgess felt that
the attack was "an important cause of her death. [Burgess] transmutes this
wrenching
real-life experience into the fatal attack on Mrs. F. Alexander by Alex and his
three droogs in A
Clockwork Orange." (Stinson 9).
Out of all these influences of Burgess's
life on A Clockwork Orange, Burgess's love of
music, and its
effect on his writing are perhaps the most evident. As mentioned earlier,
Burgess
originally wanted to go to school for music, but he was not accepted due to the
fact
that he had
failed physics (Stinson 6). This minor
set back did not, however, keep Burgess
from learning how
to play the piano and teaching himself how to compose music (Stinson 5).
Even some critics
have noticed how Burgess allows his love for music to creep into his love for
literature:
"[Burgess's] continuing fondness for music often found its way into his
novels,
however, and he
did produce a number of musical compositions." (Friedman 1). Burgess
himself wasn't
too humble about his knowledge in the field of music. He once wrote "Most
Musicians know
about literature, but few literaturists know about music." (Baldwin
1).
Burgess's love for music can very easily
be seen in the narrator of A Clockwork
Orange,
Alex. Alex love music too. He often finds himself enveloped and
surrounded by
such classical
works as Beethoven, to whom he refers to as 'Ludwig Van' in this passage:
"Waving the
great shiny white sleeve of the Ninth, which had on it, brothers, the frowning
beetled like
thunderbolttled listo of Ludwig Van himself....and I set the needle hissing on
the
last movement,
which was all bliss. There it was then,
the bass strings gavoretting away from
under the bed at
the rest of the orchestra, and then the male human goloss coming in and
telling them all
to be joyful." (Burgess 43,46).
This passage shows how much Alex enjoys and
lives for music,
much as Burgess did at times.
The reflection of Burgess's life can also
clearly be seen in the second book to be
analyzed in this
paper, Enderby's Dark Lady. This book is
about the travels of Enderby, a
out-of-work
theatrical director, searching for work in England and abroad. Enderby finally
does find work in
the USA, in Manhattan. "Dark
Lady", a play directed by Enderby, that
took place in
Shakespearean times, was the play Enderby directed in the USA. Enderby falls
in love with the
actress that plays the part of 'the Dark Lady', April Egar. When his love is
not returned,
Enderby deal with the pain by drinking excessively. In the end, Enderby's play
was a huge
success, but Enderby never wins the heart of April (Burgess Enderby's Dark
Lady).
For example, the previously mentioned
beating of Burgess's wife Lynne influenced
Enderby's Dark
Lady, as well as A Clockwork Orange. In
the book, Enderby's Dark Lady,
Enderby's wife
was savagely beaten, and raped in the violent streets of England, much like
Lynne was beaten
(Encyclopedia Americana 80). This also
displays a parallel to the turbulent
times in England
in which Burgess wrote many of his novels (Baldwin 8).
Throughout the book, Enderby's Dark Lady,
Enderby constantly tries to find a place
to express his
creative talent in the field of theatrical directing. He is unsuccessful in England,
and is forced to
go across an ocean to find a place to display his work. This is much like the
difficulty
Burgess had finding someone to publish his work (Roger 55).
As mentioned before, Burgess always had a
great interest in music. Burgess even
taught himself
how to compose music and play the piano.
Much like Burgess,
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