Chronological list of literary one-hit wonders (not exhaustive)

Title Author Year Filmed Other novels Other genres
Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley 1818 yes yes yes
Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 yes no yes, poetry
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  (followed by Though the Looking-Glass, 1871) Lewis Carroll 1865 yes yes yes – mathematical works
Black Beauty Anna Sewell 1877 yes no no
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde 1891 yes no yes
Dracula Bram Stoker 1897 yes yes yes
Winnie-the Pooh (followed by The House at Pooh Corner, 1928) A.A. Milne 1926 yes yes yes
Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 yes no yes – novelettes, novellas
Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 yes yes “Ultramarine”, 1933 yes – posthumously published novels
Dr. Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1956 yes no yes
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 yes no unfinished work, published posthumously
A Clockwork Orange Antony Burgess 1962 yes yes no
Lord of the Flies William Golding 1964 yes yes – many yes
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil John Berendt 1994 yes no yes
Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 yes no yes – numerous translations
Lives of the Monster Dogs Kirsten Bakis 1997 no no yes – 1 short story
Glass Books of the Dream Eaters G.W. Dahlquist 2006 no yes yes
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Díaz 2007 no yes yes
The Princess of Nowhere Prince Lorenzo Borghese 2010 no no no
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Series Stieg Larsson 2011 yes yes no
Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 not yet! no yes