List of unfinished novels completed by others
This is a list of unfinished novels completed by others .
Title
Original author
Completing author(s)
Notes
The Assassination Bureau, Ltd
Jack London
Robert L. Fish [ 1]
London wrote 20,000 words, but could not come up with a logical ending.
L'Astrée
Honoré d'Urfé
Balthazar Baro (4th part), Pierre Boitel, sieur de Gaubertin (5th and 6th parts)
D'Urfé completed three parts of this immense work (5399 pages).
Blind Love
Wilkie Collins
Walter Besant
Collins "left detailed plans for the last third of this novel".[ 2]
The Buccaneers
Edith Wharton
Marion Mainwaring [ 3] [ 4]
Eruption
Michael Crichton
James Patterson
Crichton was writing this novel while fighting cancer and his widow Sherri gave Patterson permission to finish the story.[ 5]
The Ghost-Seer
Friedrich Schiller
Hanns Heinz Ewers
Hornblower and the Crisis
C. S. Forester
Several
The Knight of Sainte-Hermine
Alexandre Dumas
Claude Schopp
The nearly complete lost novel was rediscovered in 1990 by Dumas expert Schopp, who wrote three more chapters.[ 6]
The Last Theorem
Arthur C. Clarke
Frederik Pohl
Suffering from ill health and writer's block , Clarke asked Pohl to finish the novel. Clarke reviewed and approved the final manuscript just days before he died, but the critics' opinions were mixed.
Micro
Michael Crichton
Richard Preston [ 7]
It was based on an untitled, unfinished manuscript found on his computer.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
Charles Dickens
Numerous
Six of 12 planned instalments (23 chapters) were published.
Poodle Springs
Raymond Chandler
Robert B. Parker
Chandler wrote four chapters, consisting of 31 pages. Ed Victor, the agent for his estate, asked Parker to supply the rest.[ 8]
Sanditon
Jane Austen
Numerous, including Anna Austen Lefroy , Austen's niece[ 9]
Austen finished 11 chapters.
St. Ives
Robert Louis Stevenson
Arthur Quiller-Couch
Quiller-Couch wrote the final six chapters.[ 10]
Thrones, Dominations
Dorothy L. Sayers
Jill Paton Walsh [ 11]
Under the Hill
Aubrey Beardsley
John Glassco
The Watsons
Jane Austen
Numerous, including Joan Aiken
See also
References
^ "The Assassination Bureau, Ltd" . Kirkus Reviews .
^ Blind Love . Simon & Schuster . 21 March 2014. ISBN 9781609774653 .
^ Steiner, Wendy (17 October 1993). "Finishing Off Edith Wharton" . The New York Times .
^ Siegelman, Lee (August 1995). "By Their (New) Words Shall Ye Know Them: Edith Wharton, Marion Mainwaring, and The Buccaneers " . Computers and the Humanities . 29 (4): 271–283. doi :10.1007/BF01830396 . JSTOR 30204504 . S2CID 38423406 .
^ Rancilio, Alicia (June 6, 2024). "How 'Eruption,' the new Michael Crichton novel completed with James Patterson's help, was created" . The Associated Press . Retrieved October 16, 2024 .
^ Crace, John (6 May 2008). "Claude Schopp: The man who gave Dumas 40 mistresses" . The Guardian .
^ Bacharach, Sondra; Tollefsen, Deborah (Summer 2015). "Co-Authorship, Multiple Authorship, and Posthumous Authorship: A Reply to Hick" . The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism . 73 (3): 331–334. doi :10.1111/jaac.12187 . JSTOR 43496587 . Retrieved 25 March 2023 .
^ McBain, Ed (15 October 1989). "Philip Marlowe Is Back, and in Trouble" . The New York Times .
^ "6 Books that Continue the Story of Sanditon" . PBS .
^ "St Ives, 1897" . robert-louis-stevenson.org/ .
^ "Thrones, Dominations" . Publishers Weekly .