The Lost Works Of Literature

Literature is a vast creative ocean. Billions of work have been created and billions have been lost with time. Some works have remained unfinished by the authors due to their untimely death. While some works have purposely not been finished by the authors, leaving the readers to wonder how they might have ended.

There have been a lot of literary works which have been lost with time. This might have happened due to carelessness in preserving those works or have been forgotten by people over time. These works are not just literary creations, they are sometimes a reflection into the author's mind. Even sometimes, these unfinished or lost works seem like a lost link to an unresolved mystery.

Let us find out about these lost works of literature which we never had the opportunity to read:

Canterbury Tales: Geoffrey Chaucer

Canterbury Tales is one of the most celebrated works of English literature. It is a collection of 24 tales narrated by a group of pilgrims while on the way to pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket. Sadly, Chaucer could finish writing only 24 tales of the originally planned 124 before his death in 1400.

Love's Labour Won: William Shakespeare

The existence of the work titled Love's Labour Won is controversial. Some scholars believe that it was an alternative name for Taming Of The Shrew. But according to the list of published works of Shakespeare, both the plays were included in it which clearly shows that both are different set of works.

Sandinton: Jane Austen

It could have been another of Jane Austen's masterpieces. The manuscript of Sandinton was originally titled, 'The Brothers', likely after the Parker brothers in the story. However, Jane Austen died before completing the novel and it was renamed as Sandinton by her family after her death.

The Magic Harp: Wolfgang von Goethe

It was written as a sequel to Mozart's opera, The Magic Flute. Goethe worked on it from 1794 to 1796. But he left it unfinished due to some reason.

Memoirs: Lord Byron

Memoirs suffered at the hands of the publisher, John Murray. Before his death, Lord Byron had himself given the manuscripts to Murray for publishing. But Murray along with Lord Byron's five friends and executors, decided to burn those manuscripts. They thought that the scandalous details in the work would damage, Byron's reputation.

Double Exposure: Sylvia Plath

After Plath's suicide, many of her unpublished works were taken care by her long separated husband, Ted Hughes. Hughes burned quite a number of journals and letters of Plath, which she wrote during the final years of her life. A nearly finished novel, Double Exposure is said to feature a husband, wife and mistress. It was probably a semi-autobiographical work by Sylvia Plath. According to Hughes, the manuscript could not be located.