Fifty Years Of A Clockwork Orange

A landmark exhibition marking the novel's anniversary opens at the John Rylands Library, Deansgate. 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange, the controversial novel by Manchester-born writer Anthony Burgess. The magnificent surroundings of the Historic Reading Room at the John Rylands Library provide the backdrop to a major new exhibition of rare books, photographs, manuscripts and film props. Including previously unseen material from the International Anthony Burgess Foundation and the Stanley Kubrick Archive at the University of the Arts, London, the show tells the story of A Clockwork Orange over the last fifty years and examines its impact and legacy. An underground hit on publication in 1962, A Clockwork Orange went on to reach a global audience in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film. The violence and sexuality in both the book and the film remains controversial and retains the power to shock. Its powerful themes, such as the relationship of the individual to the state, the terrifying potential of the young, and the possibility or otherwise of redemption, remain entirely contemporary; and its linguistic innovation, totalitarian imagery, fierce ultraviolence and fiercer moral questions still resonate.