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Quiz about Unfinished Works by Great Authors
Quiz about Unfinished Works by Great Authors

Unfinished Works by Great Authors Quiz


An interesting facet of literature is the unfinished manuscript. Many authors leave a work-in-progress that can offer insight into the creative process and frustrate the reader with unrealized potential. All of the works in this quiz are published.

A multiple-choice quiz by firemaple783. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
firemaple783
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
221,720
Updated
Feb 25 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Tough
Avg Score
5 / 10
Plays
641
Awards
Top 35% Quiz
- -
Question 1 of 10
1. Not only because it remains without a resolution, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" is a suspenseful novel. When the author died, the unrecorded conclusion was lost but the book is still noted as a classic. Who wrote this puzzling novel of crime and detection? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Published with a rough outline based on the author's notes, "The Last Tycoon" marked the end of what legendary American writer's career? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Because of the author's tendency to get sidetracked on other works, "The Garden of Eden" was never completed over a fifteen year period and was published 25 years after the writer's death. Who wrote it? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. The "Christian Science Monitor" reported, "if it could have been completed, "The Buccaneers" would doubtless stand among the richest and most sophisticated" of the author's novels. What New Englander wrote this intricate work? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. The messy state of his final novel, "El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo" ("The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below"), reflects the author's declining belief in his own ability to write - a likely factor in his decision to commit suicide. Regardless of his own doubt, this author is a treasured figure in Latin American fiction; who is it? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The potential novel "Sanditon" was abandoned due to illness but is not only available in its fragmentary form, but also in an edition completed by a writer known simply as "Another Lady." Who wrote this book that deals with a number of topics including hypochondria? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. This author left an unfinished manuscript called "Emma" when she died in pregnancy. The potential novel was later completed by another author and republished as "Emma Brown" in 2004. Who wrote the original 19th-century fragment about Victorian England? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. "Under the Jaguar Sun" was intended to contain five stories - one for each sense. Unfortunately, the author passed away after only completing three of the five tales. This slender volume is still a testament to the author's vibrant imagination. Who wrote it? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. This author's final novel, "Arctic Summer," was left unfinished when the author passed away after suffering a number of strokes. The book was published a decade after the author's passing. Who wrote this slender volume? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. This book's presence is unique in this quiz because its development was not arrested by the author's death, but by the author's arrest. While working on the manuscript for "Netochka Nezvanova," the author was sent to a Siberian labor camp. The book was published in partial form and never revisited by the author. Who wrote this psychological but relatively simple tale? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. Not only because it remains without a resolution, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" is a suspenseful novel. When the author died, the unrecorded conclusion was lost but the book is still noted as a classic. Who wrote this puzzling novel of crime and detection?

Answer: Charles Dickens

Written and published in monthly installments, Dickens finished roughly half of his final novel when he died after suffering a stroke in 1870.
2. Published with a rough outline based on the author's notes, "The Last Tycoon" marked the end of what legendary American writer's career?

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Edmund Wilson formed the tentative outline that comprises the end of Fitzgerald's final novel, first published nearly a year after the author died of a heart attack.
3. Because of the author's tendency to get sidetracked on other works, "The Garden of Eden" was never completed over a fifteen year period and was published 25 years after the writer's death. Who wrote it?

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

After Hemingway's suicide, the manuscript was revised and heavily edited for publication. Among Hemingway's other posthumously published works, "Islands in the Stream" also received extensive editing before being published nearly a decade after the author's death.
4. The "Christian Science Monitor" reported, "if it could have been completed, "The Buccaneers" would doubtless stand among the richest and most sophisticated" of the author's novels. What New Englander wrote this intricate work?

Answer: Edith Wharton

The manuscript for "The Buccaneers" was completed by Marion Mainwaring and published in 1993, 56 years after Wharton's death.
5. The messy state of his final novel, "El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo" ("The Fox From Up Above and the Fox From Down Below"), reflects the author's declining belief in his own ability to write - a likely factor in his decision to commit suicide. Regardless of his own doubt, this author is a treasured figure in Latin American fiction; who is it?

Answer: Jose Maria Arguedas

Arguedas's suicide in 1969 ended a career that garnered much critical praise. However, considering favorable comparisons made to the works of Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, he has earned a relatively small audience outside of Latin American culture.
6. The potential novel "Sanditon" was abandoned due to illness but is not only available in its fragmentary form, but also in an edition completed by a writer known simply as "Another Lady." Who wrote this book that deals with a number of topics including hypochondria?

Answer: Jane Austen

Austen died in 1817 of Addison's Disease, leaving "Sanditon" incomplete. Although not among Austen's most beloved works, "Sanditon" is relished by many readers for its biting satire aimed at 19th-century pomp.
7. This author left an unfinished manuscript called "Emma" when she died in pregnancy. The potential novel was later completed by another author and republished as "Emma Brown" in 2004. Who wrote the original 19th-century fragment about Victorian England?

Answer: Charlotte Bronte

Charlotte Bronte's original 20-page manuscript inspired Clare Boylan to expand what some critics believe could have been Bronte's masterpiece into a respectable Victorian mystery.
8. "Under the Jaguar Sun" was intended to contain five stories - one for each sense. Unfortunately, the author passed away after only completing three of the five tales. This slender volume is still a testament to the author's vibrant imagination. Who wrote it?

Answer: Italo Calvino

The tales for the senses of taste, hearing, and smell make up the book's 96 pages. The reader is left to ponder how Calvino would have handled the missing two senses, sight and touch. The world was robbed of an incredibly creative writer when Calvino passed away in 1985 of a brain hemorrhage.
9. This author's final novel, "Arctic Summer," was left unfinished when the author passed away after suffering a number of strokes. The book was published a decade after the author's passing. Who wrote this slender volume?

Answer: E.M. Forster

"Arctic Summer" is one of the few works by E.M. Forster that hasn't been adapted for film. Movies made from Forster books include "A Passage to India," "Howard's End," "Where Angels Fear to Tread," and "A Room with a View."
10. This book's presence is unique in this quiz because its development was not arrested by the author's death, but by the author's arrest. While working on the manuscript for "Netochka Nezvanova," the author was sent to a Siberian labor camp. The book was published in partial form and never revisited by the author. Who wrote this psychological but relatively simple tale?

Answer: Fyodor Dostoevsky

"Netochka Nezvanova" was intended to be Dostoevsky's first full-length novel but was tragically cut short when the author was sent to a labor camp for involvement in a radical political group. Dostoevsky's time in labor camps inspired such classic works as "Memoirs from the House of the Dead."
Source: Author firemaple783

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