20 Bestsellers Whose Authors Regret Having Written Them

The creator of the world’s most famous detective was so fed up with his character that he actually tried to kill him off in a dramatic scene near a waterfall. Fans were so upset and outraged that the author felt compelled to bring the detective back to life, if only to calm the storm. He famously remarked that if he hadn’t killed off Holmes, the detective would probably have killed him first, out of sheer boredom.

Although he wrote the unofficial anthem of adolescence, Salinger hated the fame that The Catcher in the Rye had brought him. The author was constantly annoyed by the glorification of his book’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, and eventually withdrew from the world. Salinger hated “hypocrites” so much that he stopped publishing altogether.

He wrote this novel in a hurry, in just three weeks, to earn a little pocket money, but its success disappointed him. Burgess found the book too violent and felt misunderstood by readers because of a chapter that had been omitted from the American edition. He feared that A Clockwork Orange might glorify the very mindset he was trying to denounce.

Although it is considered one of the greatest works of American literature, Twain hated the final result. He had struggled greatly to finish the novel and had always felt that the ending did not live up to his expectations. Rumor has it that at one point, while he was in the throes of despair, he threw the entire manuscript into the fire.

King has publicly stated on numerous occasions that this horror masterpiece was, in fact, his autobiography, recounting how he overcame his addiction. The novel depicts a very dark period in his life of which he is not particularly proud. While fans of the book enjoyed the thrills it provided, King saw it as a reminder of those dark times.

Tolkien felt that The Hobbit was too childish compared to the world he had created in Middle-earth. In later editions, he reworked the story to give it the more mature tone of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien regretted having made Bilbo’s journey a children’s story, when he had such a vast and dark world to explore.

This cult classic tells the story of a man who makes all his life decisions by rolling dice. The author was frustrated when readers began to take this fictional philosophy literally, thereby wreaking havoc on their own lives. He didn’t expect people to abandon their common sense simply because a character in a book did.

He loves his fans and owes them everything, but Stine had grown tired of the routine that “Goosebumps” had become. It weighed on him to have to constantly come up with new horror stories, month after month. It’s hard to stay passionate about a project when you have to come up with a brand-new story every month.

While most people think this is a story of selfless love, Silverstein took offense at readers’ interpretations of his story. He had no intention of portraying the tree as an ideal parental figure, willing to give everything without reservation until the very end. He was perplexed by those who praised the tree for allowing its only son to destroy it.

When asked about The Road, McCarthy said that the book had left him exhausted and shaken. He didn’t want to be reminded of the dark world he had created and feared he would remain trapped forever in that state of mind. One might wonder who would want to dwell on the total destruction of civilization.

After the death of her young daughter, Rice poured all her grief into this Gothic tale, but she subsequently struggled to cope with the fame that followed. She went through periods when she completely rejected the vampire genre. This shift clearly showed that she wanted to distance herself from the dark and melancholic world that had initially catapulted her to stardom.

Ellis faced a particularly fierce wave of criticism following the publication of American Psycho. He once stated that this negative attention ultimately diverted attention from the original purpose of his social critique of consumerism. Such a wave of criticism can change the way a creator perceives his own work.

Barrie felt extremely guilty about his story after a series of tragic events befell the boys who, in real life, had inspired the character of Peter Pan. After discovering their diaries once they had become adults, he was heartbroken and felt partly responsible. Barrie subsequently donated the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The novel’s enormous commercial success drew attention to the author’s private life that she found deeply uncomfortable. Being constantly asked to discuss such weighty and sensitive topics with strangers became a burden she hadn’t anticipated. It’s easy to understand why she wanted to distance herself from this story.

Lewis Carroll did not care for the fact that his professional career was associated with children’s literature. He grew bitter when people took more interest in his works of fiction than in his theories of logic. Carroll used a pseudonym in the hope that his academic work would be taken more seriously than a story featuring talking animals.

Writing the Tarzan stories was never his passion, but simply a way to support his family. As his son grew up, Burroughs constantly heard how talented his father was at writing the adventures of “that jungle guy.” He felt trapped by his iconic character and never received the recognition he wanted for his other science fiction novels.

At the time of his death, Fitzgerald considered this now-beloved classic a failure, as it had not sold well when it was first published. He died feeling that he was a writer on the decline, whose best days were behind him and whose most important work was overlooked. Ironically, the book he hated the most has become an indispensable masterpiece of American literature.

"Foundation" was Asimov’s most important work, but he found the later volumes rushed and repetitive. The sequels had confused him so much that he often had to refer back to his earlier works just to recall the plot. It’s hard to take pride in a work that seems unfinished.

Legend has it that Stevenson’s wife hated the first draft so much that he burned the entire thing in a fit of rage. He rewrote the whole thing in a matter of days, but the stress of that process lingered. Even though the book was a huge success, the memory of that tension and intense rewriting left a lasting mark on him.

Since the phenomenal success of Twilight, Meyer has complained about the obsessive fan culture. When the highly anticipated Midnight Sun was leaked online, she refused to continue writing the novel. Sometimes authors come to hate their own creations because they feel they no longer have control over them.