Writers who regretted books written because readers misunderstood them

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Many authors at some point in time begin to hate their books or heroes fostered on the pages. Sometimes this happens after the tenth rewriting of the work, when it seems that there will be no end to it, sometimes the reaction of readers and critics is disappointing, but there were cases that a successful novel became the cause of aggression or the development of mass phobias, writers were horrified at the harm that inflicted their works and even tried to "destroy" already published books.

Ian Fleming and James Bond (1953-1966)

- wrote the "literary dad" of the most famous spy.

Over the long history of "Bondiana" Agent 007 not only brought its creator considerable income, but also managed to get pretty boring. Fleming did not overestimate his character and considered him "a boring and uninteresting person", and "Casino Royale" - "a terribly awkward opus." In the ninth novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, Fleming tried to convey his own vision of the protagonist more frankly, and for this he wrote a book on behalf of a young woman in love with him, but the readers did not seem to understand the plan.

The author then wrote to the publisher:

Anthony Burgess A Clockwork Orange (1962)

The English writer, literary critic and composer spent many years engaged in literary research of the works of Shakespeare and Joyce, but gained fame after the publication of the provocative novel A Clockwork Orange. This satirical dystopia, according to the author, was also misunderstood by society:

Stephen King (as Richard Bachman) Rage (1977)

The idea of a story about a teenager who came to school with a gun and tried to solve his problems by force was born to King in his distant youth, when he was just trying to write. The draft manuscript has been gathering dust in the table for many years until the author returned to it at a more mature age. The book was published, although it did not become a hit. In the 1980s, school shootings increased in the United States. A group of such shooters were found to have copies of Rage. This made a huge impression on the writer.

- wrote Stephen King in his essay "Weapons".

Peter Benchley "Jaws" (1974)

The American writer and screenwriter has created the only work that could be called "cult". The debut novel, a circulation of twenty million copies and a film that conquered the whole world, led to an unexpected result. A huge number of people began to fear sharks and consider them vicious and touchy monsters. Benchley later regretted that he let this genie out of the bottle and tried, to the best of his ability, to reduce the harm from his own work, but the paranoid fear of sharks turned out to be incredibly tenacious.

The author of "Jaws" fought for many years for the preservation of the animal world of the oceans and sharks, including, he tried to tell people that these are not such evil and aggressive creatures, but the bloody thriller was much more interesting than lectures. “- said Benchley in an interview shortly before his death.

In the history of literature, there are often cases when readers perceive works not quite the way their creator would like them to. So, for example, there are known book heroes who accidentally got out of the author's control and won the ardent love of readers, although the writer did not want this.