Between 1963 and 1984 Burgess published four comic novels about the fictional poet Francis Xavier Enderby, titled as follows: Inside Mr Enderby (1963) - first published under the pseudonym Joseph Kell; Enderby Outside (1968); The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End (1974); and Enderby's Dark Lady, or No End to Enderby (1984).
The first two novels in the so-called 'Enderby series' were published in a combined volume, titled Enderby: A Novel, in 1968, and were subsequently adapted into a screenplay by Burgess.
The third title in the series, The Clockwork Testament, is usually subtitled Enderby's End as it was originally intended to be the last book in the series. In the novel, Burgess draws on his experiences following the release of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. Employed as a Visiting Professor at the University of Manhattan, Enderby is vilified as a promoter of violence after one of his screenplays, a film treatment of Gerard Manley Hopkins's The Wreck of the Deutschland, is produced as a controversial sex and violence laden disaster film.
In 1977 Burgess composed a setting of six poems by F. X. Enderby for flute, oboe, cello, piano and soprano, titled The Brides of Enderby. The composition premiered at Sarah Lawrence College, New York, in October 1978.
