 He worked as a literary critic for several publications, including "The Observer" and "The Guardian", and wrote studies of classic writers, notably James Joyce.A versatile linguist, Burgess lectured in phonetics, and translated "Cyrano de Bergerac", "Oedipus Rex", and the opera "Carmen", among others.Burgess also composed over 250 musical works; he considered himself as much a composer as an author, although he enjoyed considerably more success in writing.