Pitching an extraordinary battle between cruel authority and a rebellious free spirit, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel that epitomises the spirit of the sixties. This Penguin Classics edition includes a preface, never-before published illustrations by the author, and an introduction by Robert Faggen. Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electroshock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy - the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates. His struggle is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden, a seemingly mute half-Indian patient who understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the powers that keep them imprisoned. The subject of an Oscar-winning film starring Jack Nicholson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness. If you enjoyed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, you might like Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. 'A glittering parable of good and evil' The New York Times Book Review 'A roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the Rulers who enforce them' Time 'If you haven't already read this book, do so. If you have, read it again' Scotsman


"Ken Kesey (1935 - 2001) was een Amerikaanse schrijver. Zijn bekendste werk is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). Later zeer succesvol verfilmd met in de hoofdrol Jack Nicholson. De inspratie voor One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest kreeg Kesey in de tijd dat hij werkte voor een psychiatrisch ziekenhuis voor vetertanen. Daar praatte hij veel met patiënten. Vaak onder invloed van onbekende medicijnen die hij vrijwillig tot zich nam om de werking ervan te testen. Kesey geloofde niet dat de patiënten in het ziekenhuis gek waren. Hij vond eerder dat de maatschappij deze mensen buitensloot omdat ze niet pasten binnen de algemeen geaccepteerde normen en waarden


Ken Kesey was born in 1935 and grew up in Oregon. He graduated from the University of Oregon and later studied at Stanford with Wallace Stegner, Malcolm Cowley, Richard Scowcroft, and Frank O' Connor. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, his first novel, was published in 1962. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, followed in 1964. His other books include Kesey's Garage Sale, Demon Box, Caverns (with O. U. Levon), The Further Inquiry, Sailor Song, and Last Go Round (with Ken Babbs). His two children's books are Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear and The Sea Lion. Ken Kesey died on November 10, 2001.