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List of Unfinished Works
Why did Samuel Taylor Coleridge not finish “Kubla Khan”?
Which famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci is unfinished?
Why was Mount Rushmore left unfinished?
On an autumn day in 1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge began writing the poem “Kubla Khan,” which he claimed to have conceived during an opium-induced reverie. It was never to be finished—a visit from a “person on business from Porlock” (commonly shortened to “person from Porlock”; Porlock is a coastal English village) is supposed to have caused Coleridge’s recollection of his dream to vanish. In some accounts the interruption occurred during the dream itself. Either way, Coleridge was able to commit only a “fragment” of the poem to paper. Ever since, the “person from Porlock” has earned infamy proportionate to the status of “Kubla Khan” as one of the best-known unfinished literary masterpieces. Some scholars have dismissed the “person from Porlock” as an invention by Coleridge that he used to excuse his failure to complete the poem. The phrase has since come to articulate a block or insufficiency in the creative process. Porlockian disruptions can assume different forms, such as the creator’s own inability to see a project through—Leonardo da Vinci, for instance, is believed to have been a procrastinator. External factors can also cause the suspension or termination of creativity. Mount Rushmore was never completed because of funding limitations, the onset of World War II, and the death of the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum.
The most common “person from Porlock” is the grim reaper. Many literary, artistic, and musical works have been left unfinished by the deaths of their creators. Several have been completed by someone other than the deceased writer, painter, or composer; for example, some of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, including The Silmarillion, were edited and published by his son Christopher Tolkien. Many unfinished works, however, are famous precisely because they are incomplete. Some of these are listed below.
Aeneid by Virgil
The epic poem Aeneid, written by the Roman poet Virgil between 30 and 19 bce, incorporates various legends about the mythic hero Aeneas, who fled the sack of Troy and is celebrated as the founder of Lavinium (parent town of Alba Longa and of Rome). The work is organized into 12 books, and about 60 lines were left unfinished at the time of Virgil’s death on September 21, 19 bce.
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The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1387–1400), framed as 24 stories told by a group of pilgrims, is incomplete in various ways. The “General Prologue” lists 30 pilgrims, but some do not tell stories; some stories, such as “The Cook’s Tale” and “The Squire’s Tale,” are incomplete; and Chaucer did not complete his plan of having the pilgrims tell stories on their return journey.
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Spenser’s The Faerie Queene is an allegorical poem relating the adventures of different knights, each of whom represents a virtue. The knights serve the Faerie Queene, who represents Glory and Queen Elizabeth I. Spenser finished only 6 of the 12 books he had originally conceived. Even so, The Faerie Queene consists of more than 36,000 lines and is one of the longest poetic works written in English.
“Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Coleridge managed to record 54 lines of “Kubla Khan.” Subtitled “A Vision in a Dream. A Fragment,” the poem offers a concept of paradise—in Xanadu, where Kubla Khan decreed his “stately pleasure-dome,” corresponding to Shangdu, which was founded by the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan and became his summer capital.
Don Juan by Lord Byron
Byron wrote 16 cantos of the satirical poem Don Juan, which presented a version of the fictional character who is generally depicted as a great seducer. He had written 16 stanzas of a planned 17th canto before dying of a fever he contracted during his involvement in the War of Greek Independence.
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Sanditon by Jane Austen
Sanditon, named for a fictional seaside town where the events of the book are set, is the last novel that Austen embarked on just months before her death in July 1817. She wrote 11 and a half chapters, and the book was first published in 1925 with the title Fragment of a Novel. A continuation was supplied by Austen’s niece Anna LeFroy, and her manuscript was published in 1983. Several others have written conclusions to the novel, and a TV adaptation ran from 2019 to 2023.
The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens
Dickens died in 1870, halfway through writing The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He left no solution to the disappearance of the whodunit’s title character. Six of Edwin Drood’s planned 12 chapters exist and were published in the same year that Dickens died. Various resolutions have been written since. In 1873 a printer named Thomas Power James published a version that he claimed had been dictated to him by the spirit of Dickens. James’s version received an endorsement from Arthur Conan Doyle on the basis that it reflected Dickens’s style.
Billy Budd, Foretopman by Herman Melville
Melville began work on the novella Billy Budd, Foretopman, also called Billy Budd, Sailor, shortly before his death in 1891, leaving an unfinished manuscript. It was first published in 1924, and a definitive edition was issued in 1962. Set in 1797 during the Napoleonic Wars, the novella follows a sailor named Billy Budd, who accidentally kills his master-at-arms and is hanged for the crime.
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Kafka’s The Trial (original German title: Der Prozess) was compiled from an unfinished manuscript after his death in 1924 and published in 1925. There has been debate on whether the chapters follow the intended order in Kafka’s tale of a young man entangled in a web of frustrating bureaucracy. The narrative flows from the opening sentence: “Somebody must have slandered Joseph K., for one morning, without having done anything wrong, he was arrested.”
The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon was edited by Edmund Wilson and published in 1941 with six complete chapters, an abridged conclusion, and some notes by the author, who died in 1940. Fitzgerald, who had an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter, centered the story on Monroe Stahr, a burned-out Hollywood executive who loses control of his studio and his life.
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
Capote had been at work on Answered Prayers, based on his socially prominent friends, for more than 20 years when he died in 1984. However, no complete manuscript was found despite the $1 million advance he had received for it. For Capote the consequences of writing the novel were grievous: publishing selections from it in Esquire resulted in social exclusion and feuds with his famous friends. A compilation of the chapters that were found was published as a book in 1986.
Juneteenth by Ralph Ellison
Ellison’s second novel, Juneteenth, was compiled and shortened from an unfinished manuscript and published in 1999, five years after his death in 1994. The title refers to the Juneteenth holiday in the United States, which commemorates the end of slavery. Like Ellison’s first novel, Invisible Man (1952), Juneteenth explores themes of racial identity and discrimination.
The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
Published in 2011, The Pale King is a series of tales strung together around a common setting in rural Illinois, with characters linked to the locale. Prior to Wallace’s death by suicide in 2008, he left behind an array of material in the form of a manuscript containing 12 chapters, a floppy disk, hard drives, and more. His editor Michael Pietsch assembled and edited the material into a publishable novel.
Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci
In 1481 da Vinci received a commission to paint an altarpiece for the Augustinian monks of San Donato in Scopeto, outside the walls of Florence. He was contractually required to complete the painting within 24 months with the possibility of an extension of six months. The painting remained unfinished because da Vinci left for Milan the next year. It shows the three Magi and others paying homage to the infant Jesus, who is cradled by the Virgin Mary.
The Entombment by Michelangelo
The Entombment is believed to have been painted by Michelangelo and depicts Christ being conveyed to his tomb after the Crucifixion. There is uncertainty about whether the artwork was created by Michelangelo, but what is undisputed is the unfinished nature of the painting, parts of which are entirely blank. The painting was likely commissioned in 1500 for the church of Sant’Agostino in Rome but was left incomplete when Michelangelo departed for Florence the following year.
Athenaeum portrait by Gilbert Stuart
An unfinished portrait of George Washington known as the Athenaeum portrait was painted by Stuart in 1796. It was commissioned by Martha Washington, but Stuart decided to keep the painting and left it incomplete. Despite its unfinished state, the painting is one of the most famous portraits in the world and served as the basis for the engraving of Washington used on the dollar bill.
Symphony in B Minor by Franz Schubert
Schubert left behind several compositions in fragmentary form, but it is Symphony in B Minor (Unfinished), numbered as either his seventh or eighth symphony, that has both endured and fascinated generations of music lovers. The score, dated 1822, was discovered about 30 years after Schubert’s death in 1828, and many admirers remain convinced that the symphony’s missing fragments are still waiting to be found.
Requiem in D Minor, K 626 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Mozart’s requiem mass, left incomplete at his death in 1791, was commissioned by Franz, Graf (count) von Walsegg-Stuppach, who intended to pass it off as his own composition. It was meant as a tribute to the count’s wife, and Mozart was contractually obliged to suppress his involvement in the composition. Until the late 20th century the work was most often heard as it had been completed by Mozart’s student Franz Xaver Süssmayr. Subsequent completions have since been offered, such as one by musicologist Robert D. Levin.
Turandot by Giacomo Puccini
Puccini was halfway through the third act of his final opera, Turandot, when he died in 1924. It was completed by Franco Alfano, but when it was performed for the first time at La Scala in Milan in 1926, the conductor, Arturo Toscanini, famously stopped the show midway through the third act at the point where Puccini’s composition ended. The opera tells the story of Princess Turandot, who sets three riddles for her suitors. The aria “Nessun dorma” is among the best-known operatic compositions.
Mount Rushmore
Construction on Mount Rushmore was abandoned during World War II, leaving the monument incomplete in several ways. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum’s vision included a Hall of Records as well as a large inscription of nine important events in American history during the period spanning the terms served by the four presidents depicted—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. The inscription was left out of the final plan, and work on the Hall of Records ended when Congress decided in 1939 that only the faces should be constructed. Borglum died in March 1941, and work on the project was shut down in October that year.
Bonus: A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
Martin began writing The Winds of Winter, the sixth installment of his planned seven-book epic saga A Song of Ice and Fire, in June 2010. As of August 2025 he is still writing it. The fifth book, A Dance with Dragons, was published in 2011, and two hugely successful TV series have been broadcast in the years since: Game of Thrones (2011–19) and its spin-off, House of the Dragon (2022– ). The remaining books, however, seem to be lost somewhere in the wilderness beyond the Wall. Hope springs eternal for Martin’s fans, who have been clamoring for progress in the fantasy series for more than a decade. Still, things look bleak. In 2025 Martin told Time that The Winds of Winter is “the curse of my life.” Should he ever complete the book, this list will be updated.
