Editing A Clockwork Orange (novel) (section)

==Omission of the final chapter in the US==<!--linked from 'A Clockwork Orange (film)'-->
The book has three parts, each with seven chapters. Burgess has stated that the total of 21 chapters was an intentional nod to the age of 21 being recognised as a milestone in [[maturity (psychological)|human maturation]].<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Burgess' Myopic Morality: Why Anthony Burgess' Infamous ''A Clockwork Orange'' is Stronger Without its Original Last Chapter |last=Podgorski |first=Daniel |website=The Gemsbok |date=1 March 2016 |url=https://thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/tuesday-tome-clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess/ |access-date=14 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414201532/http://thegemsbok.com/art-reviews-and-articles/tuesday-tome-clockwork-orange-anthony-burgess |archive-date=14 April 2016}}</ref> The 21st chapter was omitted from the editions published in the United States prior to 1986.<ref>{{cite book |title=A Clockwork Orange |last=Burgess |first=Anthony |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |year=1995 |location=New York |pages=ix-xv |chapter=Introduction: A Clockwork Orange Resucked}}</ref> In the introduction to the updated American text (these newer editions include the missing 21st chapter), Burgess explains that when he first brought the book to an American publisher, he was told that US audiences would never go for the final chapter, in which Alex sees the error of his ways, decides he has lost his taste for violence and resolves to turn his life around.

At the American publisher's insistence, Burgess allowed its editors to cut the redeeming final chapter from the US version, so that the tale would end on a darker note, with Alex becoming his old, ultraviolent self again – an ending which the publisher insisted would be "more realistic" and appealing to a US audience. The film adaptation, directed by [[Stanley Kubrick]], is based on the American edition of the book, and is considered to be "badly flawed" by Burgess.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023|reason=The article on the film adaptation of the novel claims, with citations, that Burgess praised the film, yet this article fashions Burgess' opinions in a negative way--that he believed the film was flawed.}} Kubrick called Chapter 21 "an extra chapter" and claimed that he had not read the original version until he had virtually finished the screenplay and that he had never given serious consideration to using it.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.aco.html |title=Kubrick on ''A Clockwork Orange'' |last=Ciment |first=Michel |year=1981 |website=The Kubrick Site |access-date=14 April 2016 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224095523/http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/interview.aco.html |archive-date=24 December 2012}}</ref> In Kubrick's opinion – as in the opinion of other readers, including the original American editor – the final chapter was unconvincing and inconsistent with the book.<ref name=":0"/> Kubrick's stance was unusual when compared to the standard Hollywood practice of producing films with the familiar tropes of resolving moral messages and good triumphing over evil before the film's end.