- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; 50th Anniversary Edition edition edition (25 Jun 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007320906
- ISBN-13: 978-0007320905
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 453,860 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Naked Lunch: The Restored Text
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Product Description
Review
‘A true genius and first mythographer of the mid-twentieth century, William Burroughs is the lineal successor to James Joyce. “Naked Lunch” is a banquet you will never forget.’ JG Ballard
‘Prophesied with unerring accuracy the hideous modes that human behaviour would assume in the post-apocalyptic second half of the twentieth century. “Naked Lunch” is essential reading for anyone who maintains any illusions about anything.’ Will Self
‘William Burroughs broadened people’s conception of what makes humanity. In that way, he really was an American hero, a hero writer, and also just a great man.’ Lou Reed
‘A delirious exploration of sexual violence through the art of collage.’ Time Out
Product Description
A special 50th anniversary edition of the anarchic, phenomenally strong-selling classic from the godfather of the Beats, featuring the restored text, all the accompanying essays, and newly discovered material from the original manuscript.
Welcome to Interzone…
Say hello to Bradley the Buyer, the best narcotics agent in the business. Check yourself into the hospital where Dr Benway works – but don't expect adrenalin if you need it (the night porter shot it up for kicks). Meet Dr 'Fingers' Schafer, the Lobotomy Kid, and his greatest creation, 'The Complete American De-anxietized Man', a marvel of invasive psychiatry who has been reduced to nothing but a spinal cord.
Told by an Ivy League-educated narcotics addict, ‘Naked Lunch’ juxtaposes two journeys: the narrator's physical progress from America to North Africa, via Mexico, and a terrifying descent into his own altered consciousness. In this ‘Interzone’, loosely based on Burroughs' temporary home of Tangier, sex, drugs and murder are the most basic of commodities, and the basest desires have become completely banal.
Provocative, influential, morbidly fascinating and mordantly funny, ‘Naked Lunch’ takes us on an exhilarating ride through the darkest recesses of the human psyche – a ride which stunned the literary world when first published in the repressed 1950s, and is still guaranteed to épater more than a few bourgeois.
Over forty years since first publication, Burroughs scholar Barry Miles and Burroughs' longtime editor James Grauerholz have compiled this definitive restored text, correcting numerous errors that have accumulated over the years, and incorporating all of Burroughs' notes and accompanying essays. Most exciting of all, this edition includes an appendix of newly discovered, never before seen material – including alternate drafts from the original manuscript and letters from Burroughs’ private correspondence.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons, crooning over my spoon and dropper I throw away at Washington Square Station, vault a turnstile and two flights down the iron stairs, catch an uptown A train ... Young, good looking, crew cut, Ivy League, advertising exec type fruit holds the door back for me. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons, crooning over my spoon and dropper I throw away at Washington Square Station, vault a turnstile and two flights down the iron stairs, catch an uptown A train ... Young, good looking, crew cut, Ivy League, advertising exec type fruit holds the door back for me. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Just some thoughts on this particular edition of Naked Lunch.
In a nutshell - it's wonderful.
Hardback is housed in a handsome slipcase. (the photo Amazon has used is of the slipcase. The art on the book itself closely mirrors that of the usa 1st edition i.e. PERFECT!)
Page ends are black - Nice touch.
Contents wise we get -
The restored text.
And 100 + pages of extras inc assorted outtakes - Original introductions etc by Bill.
For a new edition - Grove press have done us proud - Any Bill fan should be very pleased to add this very fine volume to their collection and I should not at all be surprised if this version becomes a collectable in the future.
The novel itself?
A work of art and a unique novel that is worth every ounce of it's reputation as being one of the most important/ landmark novels of the 20th century.
Edition 5/5
Novel 5/5
In a nutshell - it's wonderful.
Hardback is housed in a handsome slipcase. (the photo Amazon has used is of the slipcase. The art on the book itself closely mirrors that of the usa 1st edition i.e. PERFECT!)
Page ends are black - Nice touch.
Contents wise we get -
The restored text.
And 100 + pages of extras inc assorted outtakes - Original introductions etc by Bill.
For a new edition - Grove press have done us proud - Any Bill fan should be very pleased to add this very fine volume to their collection and I should not at all be surprised if this version becomes a collectable in the future.
The novel itself?
A work of art and a unique novel that is worth every ounce of it's reputation as being one of the most important/ landmark novels of the 20th century.
Edition 5/5
Novel 5/5
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this 20 years ago and was frustrated by its inability to fit into my conception of a comprehensible novel.Now what was once its greatest flaw seems to be its greatest asset.It is a collage of sometimes grim scenarios peppered with the odd titbit of medical/anthropological/sociological insight and probably literature's first attempt at abstract impressionism.
Obviously not for people with conservative tastes or delicate sensibilities.
Obviously not for people with conservative tastes or delicate sensibilities.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Coruscating satire, impish humour allied with the darkest mulches of despair, unrelentingly intense poetic imagery, descriptions of truly back-of-brain sexual acts, and, of course, the mugwumps. What more could one possibly want? Excellent notes and appendices too, showing not only the miracle of how years of grinding work conspired to bring about a book of extraordinary spontaneity, but also the ripples of Naked Lunch through the literary and artistic history of the last fifty years. Don't bother perusing the menu - this is the best lunch there is.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Naked Lunch (1959)
The Restored Text with 100 + extra pages including original Introductions by the author:
This 1959 novel is William Burroughs's finest work, I think. Read more
This 1959 novel is William Burroughs's finest work, I think. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Ghost
Naked Lunch, the blur of a book I still recommend
This is the kind of book that nobody reads for the plot, because, frankly, there is no plot to speak of, aside from Bill Lee's journey into his own sick and twisted subconscious. Read more
Published 2 months ago by steelo
Not enough nudity and not enough lunch
I was shocked after reading this book that it could be titled "Naked Lunch". I purchased the book expecting an erotic novel peppered with food fetish related sex tales and was... Read more
Published 5 months ago by n o i r
A pitch-black satire of deadly serious intent in the guise of...
I have never read another book that has so shaped my worldview and opened my eyes so wide. I was a teenager when I first read it (now I'm 50), and have yet to find another novel to... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Ned the Mumbler
What is it with this so-called "CUT-UP" business?
What is it with this so-called "CUT-UP" business? That is not allowed. That is not good writing. Ask any ENGLISH teacher (as opposed to any gobbeldy-gook teacher) and he will tell... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Edward Y
Rubbish
I can't get on with this book at all. It may have been worth reading when it was first printed, just for the novelty of seeing deep profanity in print. Read more
Published 21 months ago by ize
Most important novel since Ulysses, and only gets more important
I read Burroughs first when I was in my teens. The homosexuality was just like reading about the sex-life of Martians or something; his whole world was so bizarre that it just... Read more
Published on 13 July 2008 by Jm Leven
Rubbish
This is a book for sad people who like to think they're cool and clever - like most of the `beat' texts. Read more
Published on 14 Jan 2008 by Andrew
... and funny
OK, it's black, bleak, about control and the "algebra of need" ... and startlingly funny!
Published on 18 Dec 2007 by Nicholas Lake
Knowing the score
You don't need me to tell you this is a great book. Writing has never been this good.
But are you ready for it?
The images are out there. Read more
But are you ready for it?
The images are out there. Read more
Published on 25 Oct 2007 by calmly
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