Author:Anthony Burgess,Tom Hollander

Brought to you by Penguin.
In this 1962 classic, a novelistic exploration of modern crime and punishment, Alex is the 15-year-old leader of his gang of "droogs" thriving in the ultraviolent future as prophetically imagined by Burgess. Speaking a bizarre Russian-derived slang, Alex and his friends freely pillage and slash their way across a nightmarish urban landscape until Alex is captured by the judicial arm of the state. He then becomes their prized guinea pig in a scientific program to completely "redeem" him for society. If we had the power of absolute criminal reform, what, the novel asks, would this mean for our ideals of freedom and society?
This edition reinstates the final chapter missing from Kubrick's film, in which Alex is on the verge of starting a family as he reflects on--and completely rejects--his adolescent nastiness. It also includes Burgess's introduction "A Clockwork Orange Resucked."
© Anthony Burgess 1962 (P) Penguin Audio 2010
With a smooth, almost lyrical, crisp voice, Hollander delivers Burgess's nadsat dialect to readers with such rhythmic cadence that listeners will easily understand the extensive slang used throughout the book
—— Publishers WeeklyAfter all these years, it’s the emotions we most respond to in Jane Eyre… This is also a novel about intellectual growth, written by a fiercely intelligent writer… She has a formidable brain as well as a strongly beating heart, and so it will still seem another 100 years from now.
—— Sam Jordison , GuardianWonderful, teasing… That her great novel of wish-fulfilment is still widely devoured is the supreme happy ending.
—— Ysenda Maxtone Graham , SpectatorMarred only by the fact that Charlotte clearly liked Mr Rochester too much; but we can forgive her that. Often given to schoolchildren to read, but you have to be a grown-up to really get it. One of the most perfectly structured novels of all time
—— Sarah WatersAt the end we are steeped through and through with the genius, the vehemence, the indignation of Charlotte Brontë
—— Virginia WoolfJane Eyre's suspense-laden, melodramatic plot - featuring child cruelty and attempted bigamy, as well as the celebrated madwoman - explains much of its appeal... Jane Eyre is a book into which generations of readers have escaped. And yet it seems to provide something far more sustaining than the escapist fantasy... Her technical skill at writing the self in a first-person narrative is supreme, her words carefully chosen
—— Lucasta Miller , GuardianCharlotte Bronte was surely a marvellous woman. If it could be right to judge the work of a novelist from one small portion of one novel [JE], and to say of an author that he is to be accounted as strong as he shows himself to be in his strongest morsel of work, I should be inclined to put Miss Bronte very high indeed. I know of no interest more thrilling than that which she has been able to throw into the characters of Rochester and the governess, in the second volume of Jane Eyre
—— Anthony TrollopeGreat genius
—— William Makepeace ThackerayPassionately independent orphan falls for the perfect romantic anti-hero. But then she discovers what he keeps in his attic...
—— Maggie O’FarrellThe Death of Lomond Friel is a very fine first novel, full of emotion, laced with wit, and crowded with observations of the surface absurdities and hidden pains of being human. It marks Sue Peebles as an assured and cunning writer
—— James RobertsonShot through with a fizzing mix of philosophy and comedy
—— Piers Plowright , The TabletAn unusual, loveable debut...that explores the complexities of family relationships and the weight of memory
—— Natalie Young , The Times, Christmas round upAn unusual, loveable debut about a father and his daugther on the East Coast of Scotland...superbly written with a small cast of memorable characters
—— Erica Wagner , The Times, Christmas round upThe beautiful debut by Scottish novelist Sue Peebles. This tale of a daughter caring for her father who has suffered a stroke is psychologically true and elegantly portrayed
—— Lesley McDowell , Sunday Herald, Christmas round upThe best debut I read...sharp, tender, wicked, and beautifully poised prose that reads like the work of an accomplished novelist
—— Gavin Wallace , Sunday Herald, Christmas round upIt would be a hard heart indeed that remained unmoved . . . the tender feelings that Noble engenders in her readers are to be cherished
—— Daily ExpressWarner navigates the comic, the philosophical and the socially acute like no other writer we have
—— IndependentPlayed refreshingly uncliched games with the device of the unreliable narrator
—— Jonathan Coe , Daily Telegraph, Christmas round upBlake Morrison's examination of the dark heart of male rivalry makes foe a gripping read
—— Aminatta Forna , Sunday Telegraph, Christmas round upPacy and gripping...wonderfully atmospheric
—— Good Book GuideMorrison's compelling study of male competitiveness offers a discomforting account of the amoral excuses and self-deception of the compulsive gambler: "I don't have a problem. I could stop tomorrow"; "gambling is the basis of our whole economy". You reckon you could put it down at any point - though you'd be kidding yourself
—— Alfred Hickling , GuardianThe Bank Holiday weekend from hell is the subject of Blake Morrison's entertaining new novel - a dark little tale about middle-class rivalry and midsummer meltdown. With an ear attuned to metropolitan pretension - modern parenting skills are sent up with gusto - Morrison succeeds in weaving a murderous melodrama that is grounded in the most recognizable of human impulses and desires
—— Emma Hagestadt , IndependentA tense chamber piece about a twisted friendship...the author's skilful choreography of unsympathetic characters and a menacing tone make for a sharply intelligent novel that is both unnerving and enjoyable
—— Financial TimesThe Last Weekend isn't really a thriller though its well-paced, tight and gripping narrative has you reaching for the same adjectives that you would use to describe one
—— Paul Dunn , The TimesFor those holidaying with old friends…the book tells the chilling story ofa rivalrousfriendship…leaving Alex Clark to conclude that Morrison “keeps the reader constantly intrigued
—— Guardian