2024 at the Anthony Burgess Foundation
Find out how we're celebrating some of Anthony Burgess's key anniversaries this year.
The Burgess Foundation will be marking several important anniversaries in the world of Anthony Burgess throughout 2024, with a series of publications, podcasts and other activities. Here is a list of some of the key anniversaries we will be celebrating.
Sixty Years Ago: 1964
Nothing Like the Sun
Burgess’s novel about William Shakespeare’s complicated love life was originally published in April 1964 to celebrate the quatercentenary of Shakespeare’s birth, and is regarded by literary critic Harold Bloom as Burgess’s finest novel. The novel traces Shakespeare’s life from his early years in Stratford to the height of his career in the London theatre scene, but in a typical Burgessian twist, the story is told in a pastiche of Elizabethan English (by way of Joyce) and narrated by an increasingly drunken teacher in a school in Colonial East Asia.
To mark the anniversary of the novel, we will be working with Galileo Books on a new edition. More details of this publication will follow soon.
The Eve of St Venus
Burgess’s novella celebrates its sixtieth anniversary this year. It tells the story of Ambrose and Diana, who are to be married, but Ambrose accidentally becomes engaged to the goddess Venus, whose statue has taken possession of the wedding ring intended for Diana. We will be exploring The Eve of St Venus on our website with blog posts inspired by research in the Burgess Archive.
Fifty Years Ago: 1974
Napoleon Symphony
This novel began life as a discussion with the film director Stanley Kubrick, who had been struggling to write a screenplay for a biographical film about Napoleon. Burgess suggested that he should structure the screenplay after Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 (the Eroica, originally dedicated to Napoleon before his invasion of Switzerland). Kubrick requested that Burgess write the beginnings of a novel that a potential screenplay could be based on, but it all came to nothing and Kubrick never realised his Napoleon project. Burgess went on to develop his text into one of his most important and experimental works, which plays with the chronology of events and is written in a high modernist style.
We will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Napoleon Symphony by exploring Burgess’s unique approach to writing historical fiction in a series of blog posts, podcasts, an exhibition and other activities. We aim to reignite interest in an overlooked facet of Burgess’s career. Look out for more details in the coming months.
The Clockwork Testament
In July 2023, we published the Irwell Edition of The Clockwork Testament, subtitled Enderby’s End, the third in the Enderby series of novels. It follows Enderby to New York, where he has to defend the film based on his adaptation of The Wreck of the Deutschland by Gerard Manley Hopkins against accusations of obscenity and violence. Based on Burgess’s experiences on the press tour for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, this novel is satire of Hollywood and of American culture more generally.
You can celebrate this anniversary by buying The Clockwork Testament from Manchester University Press’s online store, and listening to our podcast episode about Burgess in America.
Forty Years Ago: 1984
Enderby’s Dark Lady
In the final novel in the Enderby quartet, the poet is writing the libretto to a musical about Shakespeare. As ever, Enderby is at odds with his collaborators, who have no time for his intricate verses in Elizabethan English, and would prefer to put on a blockbuster piece of entertainment. Enderby relents when he falls for the female lead of the play, the mysterious Dark Lady of the sonnets, played by pop diva April Elgar.
This humorous novel relies on Burgess’s encyclopaedic knowledge of William Shakespeare and his work, and will be part of our celebrations of Burgess’s Elizabethan writings. Look out for forthcoming content on our website.
Other Activities in 2024
Friday 12 January: We’re starting the year with a special free screening of A Clockwork Orange: The Prophecy, a brand new documentary about the 60 year legacy of Burgess’s most famous novel commissioned by ARTE. The directors of the film, Elisa Mantin and Benoit Felici, will introduce the film and respond to audience questions afterwards. Tickets are free but limited, and we urge you to book at this link.
Monday 26 January: Our friends at Carcanet will publish The Devil Prefers Mozart, a new collection of Burgess’s essays on music. Next week’s newsletter will include an extra special pre-order discount code, so make sure you subscribe now to avoid missing out.
Thursday 29 February: This is the deadline for entries to the 2024 Observer/Anthony Burgess Prize for Arts Journalism. Find out how to enter at this link.
Throughout the year: You can expect new publications that will bring Burgess’s novels and non-fiction back into print; more podcasts, including fourth series of Ninety-Nine Novels; weekly newsletters on our Substack channel; frequent blog posts; exhibitions; and live events at the Burgess Foundation in Manchester and beyond.