Which are the best unfinished books?

[kiki1982]

Yea. Kafka managed to write the ending, but it was still an unfinished book. As for The Castle, according to Max Brod, Kafka already had the ending in his mind, but never managed to put it down. However the concept of "finished" is relative in Kafka, not absolute.

Yes, I read that when I was writing my post, but I left it in my post nonetheless. I think it was in a letter to Brod that Kafka told him about the ending to The Castle, although as you say, the idea of something being 'finished' is relative in Kafka. We should really presume that that was how it would have ended, had Kafka written his novel to the very end.

[jasque]

Thanks a lot you all people.

All your posts will be considered.

I'll start with The Castle and Dead Souls

[2X2E5]

The Idiot by Dostoevsky
Dead Souls by Gogol

[kev67]

The Good Soldier Schweik. I haven't read it, but Alexei Sayle keeps mentioning it in his memoirs. Supposedly a satirical war comedy by Czeck writer Jaroslav Hasek. It was intended to have six volumes but only three were completed.

[ralfyman]

Also, Virgil's Aeneid.

[Jackson Richardson]

Elizabeth Gaskell died before writing the last chapter of Wives and Daughters. It is a long time since I read it, but I understand the missing final chapter is totally predictable and the whole work is much admired.

I will re-read Jane Austen's Sanditon some time.