Which Anthony Burgess novel had its final chapter removed from the US edition due to controversy?

The Anthony Burgess novel whose final chapter was removed from the U.S. edition is A Clockwork Orange.

Published in 1962, the novel is divided into three parts of seven chapters each, making 21 chapters in total. Burgess said that structure was deliberate: 21 traditionally represented the threshold of adulthood and moral maturity. The omitted chapter shows Alex, the violent narrator, beginning to outgrow his appetite for brutality and imagining a different future.

The American publisher insisted that this redemptive ending would not appeal to U.S. readers. As a result, American editions published before 1986 ended after Chapter 20, leaving Alex apparently unchanged and making the story considerably darker. British editions retained Chapter 21, and later American editions restored it.

This difference also shaped the famous film directed by Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick’s adaptation followed the American edition’s harsher ending rather than Burgess’s complete British text. The novel is additionally known for Nadsat, Alex’s slang-filled narration, which blends modified Russian, Cockney rhyming slang, and invented vocabulary.