Unfinished work
"
Unfinished work" refers to creative works that have not been completed. It most commonly relates to an incomplete final piece by a person who died before it was finished or one that was abandoned at some stage. The work is sometimes completed by another person and
released posthumously. The term can be used to refer to ongoing work which could eventually be completed.
There are many examples of popular writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers not completing pieces of work. What they have left behind leads to speculation of what the finished piece would have been like, with many people attempting to finish or recreate the work.
Various reasons exist for work not being completed, some within the creator's control and others not. Many works have been abruptly stopped when the creator died, while some people, aware of their failing health, make sure that they set up the project for completion. If the work involves other people, such as a cast of actors or the subject of a portrait, the work may be stopped because of their unavailability. Some projects are just too grandiose and would never be likely to be finished, while others should be easily possible but the creator is continually unhappy with the progress of the work and keeps restarting it.
Literature
Numerous acclaimed
authors have left work incomplete, with many pieces published when the demand for their work was apparent. One of the earliest and most prominent examples is
Thucydides'
History of the Peloponnesian War, which breaks off in mid-sentence.
D. H. Lawrence drafted and abandoned
Mr Noon in 1921, the first part of which was then published posthumously in 1934 as part of the
A Modern Lover collection.
Some novels can remain unfinished because the author continually redrafts and rewrites the story. Often there is enough material for somebody else to compile and combine the work, making a finished story based upon several different rewrites.
Mark Twain's
The Mysterious Stranger was written in three different versions over a period of 20 years, none of which were complete. Twain biographer and
literary executor Albert Bigelow Paine combined the stories and published his version six years after Twain's death.
["A History of War". Accessed 6 August 2006] Similarly,
J.R.R. Tolkien continuously rewrote
The Silmarillion throughout his lifetime; a definitive version was still uncompiled at the time of his death, with some sections very fragmented. His son,
Christopher Tolkien, invited fantasy fiction writer
Guy Gavriel Kay to reconstruct some parts of the book, and they eventually published a final version in 1977.
[Tolkienlibrary.com. "Collecting The Silmarillion". Accessed 9 August 2006.]The size of the project can be such that a story is never finished.
Geoffrey Chaucer never fully completed
The Canterbury Tales to the extensive length that he originally intended. However, Chaucer had already written much of the work at the time of his death, and the Canterbury Tales are considered to be comprehensive and an excellent work despite the unfinished status.
[6 December 2000. "Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer : an overall survey". Accessed 9 August 2006.]Some works are presented as separate sections, each being written at different times. This can lead to the situation where something can appear to be completed but the author actually intended for it to continue, or where other authors try to fake their own writing as part of the work. The first four
cantos of
Lord Byron's
narrative poem Don Juan were written in 1818 and 1819, with a further 12 being completed and published before his death in 1824. Numerous "continuations" of the story had been published by various publishing houses even between issues of the story, with several fake conclusions also being published. Byron had intended to continue the story, as evidenced by the find of the 17th canto after his death, but it is not clear how long the poem would continue or how it would conclude. It is still regarded as one of his greatest achievements.
[Hubeart, Thomas. 1996. "Whatever Happened to Don Juan? Finding the Ending to Byron's Poem". Accessed 9 August 2006.] Charles Dickens was writing
The Mystery of Edwin Drood in monthly installments when he died, completing just six of the twelve intended. The story surrounded the murder of the titular Edwin Drood; because the story was never finished the murderer was never revealed.
[Perdue, David. David Perdue's Charles Dickens page. "The Mystery of Edwin Drood". Accessed 10 August 2006.] The book was still made into a film and
a musical, with the latter having the unusual concept of the audience voting for who they think is the murderer.
[Tams-Witmark Music Library. "Drood (The Mystery of Edwin Drood)". Accessed 10 August 2006.]Drawings, paintings and sculptures
Many artists left behind incomplete pieces of work, but it is difficult for them to be completed by another artist without damaging the original. Some artists completed the paintings of their mentors, such as the work
Giulio Romano is believed to have done on
Raphael's
Transfiguration,
[Gerten-Jackson, Carol. "Raphael". Accessed 10 August 2006.] and
Titian's completion of
Giorgione's
Sleeping Venus.
[The Economist. 27 July 2006. "Venitian art: The line of beauty". Accessed 10 August 2006.]Instead of completing another artists masterpiece, particularly when many years have passed, unfinished works often inspire others to create their own version.
Michelangelo left several unfinished
sculptures and
paintings, with sketches and partially-completed paintings inspiring others.
[Lane, Jim. 24 March 1999. "A Painter's Legacy". Accessed 6 August 2006.] If the work is to be done on commissioned but is not finished it is often passed on to another artist.
Leonardo da Vinci's work on
Adoration of the Magi for the
Augustinian monks was halted when he left
Florence for
Milan. Still requiring an
altarpiece, a painting was eventually completed by
Filippino Lippi. Both paintings now hang in the
Uffizi gallery.
[Loadstar's Lair. "Adoration of the Magi". Accessed 10 August 2006.]A piece of work may not be completed if the subject becomes unavailable, such as part of the landscape changing or even the person being painted dying.
Elizabeth Shoumatoff's
Unfinished Portrait of 32nd
U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt was started around noon on
12 April 1945 but left unfinished when Roosevelt died later that day.
During the
Renaissance,
Donatello made sculptures that appeared unfinished by only sculpting part of the block, leaving the figure appearing to be stuck within the material. He called this technique "
non finito", and it has been used by several artists since then.
[The Open Door Web Site. "The Renaissance". Accessed 10 August 2006.]Music
In the days of
classical music all compositions were sketched on manuscripts – the technology to record music did not exist. Many
unfinished symphonies have been pieced together by others, after the composer's death, with some remaining incomplete until many decades later. One of the most famous examples of unfinished musical compositions is
Franz Schubert's
Symphony No. 8 in B minor, or as it is more commonly known,
The Unfinished Symphony.
[Vial Jaffe, Jane. Stockton Symphony Association. "Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D759". Accessed 9 August 2006.]Since recording equipment has been an integral part of writing music it has been possible to use the original master tapes and
demos to construct a song from the parts that had already been completed. Many demos are released officially if the artist has been unable (or unwilling) to complete it, or made available as a
bootleg recording. The continued popularity of
The Beatles led to "
Free as a Bird" and "
Real Love" being released in the mid 1990s after the band members pieced together incomplete recordings by the deceased
John Lennon.
[Sullivan, Caroline. Guardian Unlimited, 21 November 1995. "Do they believe in yesterday?". Accessed 6 August 2006.] Both songs reached the top five in the British singles chart.
Some artists will try to ensure that their work is completed (as much as possible) before their health prevents them from continuing.
Johnny Cash, aware of his failing health, made sure that he recorded the vocals for 60 more songs, with the music being completed after his death. These songs were compiled by producer
Rick Rubin and released as
American V: A Hundred Highways and
American VI.
[Gundersen, Edna. USA Today, 1 May 2006. "Johnny Cash's final work yields 2 more albums". Accessed 6 August 2006.]Film
Films may not be completed for several reasons, with some being
shelved during different stages of the production.
Arrive Alive was scrapped after a week of filming when the comedy was not living up to the screenplay. Shelving a film without it ever being released can be very expensive for the studios, with
Arrive Alive costing $7 million.
With so many people involved in
filmmaking it is very possible for a film to remain incomplete because of an injury or death. While a member of the crew (even a
producer or
director) can often be replaced, it is much more difficult to change to a different
actor if many of the scenes have already been filmed. For example,
Dark Blood was cancelled halfway through filming due to the death of its star
River Phoenix. Some films have been completed despite such problems.
Brandon Lee died after filming most of
The Crow, but the remaining scenes were played by
stunt double Chad Stahelski with Lee's face digitally composited onto the double.
[Urban Legends Reference Pages. 7 December 1997. "Brandon Lee". Accessed 9 August 2006.]Continued delays can prevent a film from ever being completed.
Something's Got to Give was a
1962 film with a difficult production history, which included the firing of leading lady
Marilyn Monroe. She was later rehired but died before filming started; without the delay the film might have been completed.
[CoverUps.com. "Marilyn Monroe's Death, Countdown To Tragedy". Accessed 9 August 2006.]Orson Welles is one director famed for his unfinished projects. Most famously he tried to film a version of
Don Quixote for 25 years, but the death of two actors eventually made him give up his pursuits.
Citizen Kane remains the only film that was released as Welles intended, with other films remaining incomplete or being changed by the studios. His death on
10 October 1985 came while he was working on
The Other Side of the Wind and
The Dreamers, the former being nearly completed.
[Cabrelli, Paolo. 22 May 2006. "Sunken Treasure: The Drowned World of Lost Movies". Accessed 9 August 2006.]It is not only live-action films that can be problematic.
The Thief and the Cobbler was a twenty-six-year
animated film project by
Richard Williams which was taken away from him and completed by
Fred Calvert.
[Briney, Daniel. 21 August 2001. "The Thief and the Cobbler: How the Best Was Lost, 1968-1995" at ToxicUniverse. Accessed 6 August 2006.]On
27 April 2005 the "Artist's Rights and Theft Prevention Act", a subpart of the
Family Entertainment and Copyright Act, was signed into U.S. law. This act allows for organisations or individuals to apply for copyright protection on unfinished commercial products, such as
software, films, and other visual or audible media.
[Center for Democracy and Technology. April 2005. "Analysis of the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 (S. 167)" . Accessed 9 August 2006.] For example, a photographer can preregister a photograph by giving a written description before the work is finished.
[Lang, Daryl. 14 November 2005. "New Copyright Law Lets Photographers Register Unfinished Work". Accessed 9 August 2006.]*
Software testing*
Unfinished building*
Workprint
