6. A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess' 1962 dystopian novel is a real challenge even for the schooled reader; not only does it defy our expectations of the protagonist - such that we often struggle to place him as "good" or "bad" - but Burgess' focus on antiquated language, based on a mixture of old Slavic, old English and fabricated nonsense, requires the reader to constantly fleet to the glossary to figure out what the protagonist is talking about (and that's presuming your version has a glossary in the first place; early editions didn't). Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film adaptation surpasses the source material simply in as much as it renders the material more accessible, while also creating an unmistakable cinematic vocabulary that would be appropriated later in films such as Battle Royale and Bronson. Kubrick examines the interplay between violence and beauty in far more effective terms than Burgess' novel ever could, juxtaposing scenes of horrendous violence with classical music, and also as a result mining some blacker-than-black gallows humour out of the situation. Add to this a marvellously demented central performance from Malcolm McDowell and Walter Carlos' beguiling score; it creates an unmistakable atmosphere that Burgess' novel simply could not.