# Anthony Burgess’ Classic Sci-Fi Book Had Its Original Ending Cut for Decades

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/anthony-burgess-classic-sci-fi-book-had-its-original-ending-cut-for-decades/
- Published: 2026-11-04T18:34:12+00:00
- Updated: 2026-11-05T05:10:15+00:00
- Original publisher: Collider
- Original article: https://collider.com/anthony-burgess-a-clockwork-orange-book/
- Topics: Americas, World

## Key points

- US readers received a darker ending than British readers.
- The original final chapter shows Alex choosing to settle down.
- W.W. Norton removed it, with Burgess’s approval at the time.

## Summary

Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel *A Clockwork Orange* was published with different endings in Britain and the United States. The US edition omitted the original final chapter, leaving Alex apparently poised to return to violence; that darker ending was also used in Stanley Kubrick’s film.

In the British edition’s Chapter 21, Alex is eighteen and has grown tired of violence, imagining a settled life with work and a family. US publisher W.W. Norton chose to cut the chapter because it considered the darker ending more convincing, with Burgess’s approval at the time, though he later said he had agreed under pressure. The article says Burgess’s view of the US ending was more nuanced than is often believed.

---
Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.