Column Chronicles: Failed books by great authors revealed

Failed books by great authors revealed

Frank Cotolo
October 22, 2015

Recently, a group of literary historians revealed the existence of some books that were painfully hidden by their authors. Some men and women who are known for having produced some of the world's classic fiction wrote the books. But, all of the volumes were met with such immediate failure and critical disdain that they were taken from the shelves soon after being published and burned under the authority of the authors.

Each of the books discovered were attempts to heavily cash in on one of the huge successes they were based upon.

"They were sequels and prequels," said Nerv Whitsend, one of the historians. "They were rapidly written and poorly thought out and released to make a whole lot of money based on the originals' popularity."

Among the books found was "The Best Earth," a novel written by Pearl Buck to follow her superb work, "The Good Earth". Witsend said it was "cheesy, with a lot of sex scenes, some of which included the main character of the first book, who died in the last chapter."

Charles Dickens, after attaining immediate success from the bound volume of his serial newspaper story, "Great Expectations," was lambasted by critics when he authored "No Expectations."

The prequel traced the life of the criminal who escapes prison and later changes the life of the boy who helped him. Witsend said a critic who read a galley of the novel and reviewed it, wrote, "Dickens may have been drinking heavily when he wrote this, since he kills off the main character, making it impossible that he shows up in the next book."

George Orwell's sequel to his iconic "1984," titled "1985," was among the discoveries. Witsend said it was a poorly told story of Big Brother finding his little brother, who leads a revolt against him. Witsend said, "Orwell was obviously forced into writing the novel because he had a lot of debts. In An Orwell biography, the writer claimed that Orwell began writing a book similar to his popular 'Animal Farm' called 'Insect Farm,' but abandoned the project when he won a large sum of money betting on a cock fight."

Also among the books found was Jules Verne's' "40,000 Leagues Under The Sea," which follows was meant to cash in on the success of the book that introduced Captain Nemo and his famous Nautilus submarine. Witsend said, "Nemo showed up in a couple of other books that were published after Verne tried to whip this one out quickly. A publisher gave Verne a huge advance if he would write a series of books that added 20,000 leagues in each title. But after writing only one sequel, Verne backed out of the deal. The publisher sued but never got its advance money returned because Verne claimed it was given to him in small bills and coins, all of which were lost in a flood that washed his bank away."

Frank Cotolo can be found hosting the talk and interview programme Cotolo Chronicles. You can send him an e-mail at this address: frank@148.ca.