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I have now conferred with my brother, who solved this the proper way, so I now know the (un)jumbled thematic words and the associated extra letters and motif. But yes, I got there without those things.

Just as well, I feel, because I'm not sure when I would have figured out the jumbles. I couldn't even do it when I otherwise had the solution! (Admittedly, I didn't spend much more time on it then.)

I'm glad for those who did or will enjoy this puzzle. I've been in your shoes at other times.

Hi simond9x, your post at 18 is confusing me. I do not see why the other two aspects need to join up.

Morning, gitto. I'm sorry but a silly coincidence threw me yesterday. Having sorted (and highlighted) the other two parts of the end game, I moved onto the last two words of the Across misprints. (Trying to be careful to avoid spoilers here). The first two things I drew (the upper pair, although I drew them slightly wider than they should have been) not only seemed to complete a rough approximation to the character, but both also passed through 5 letters which, in the English language, were 'similar' to what I was looking for. That coincidence made me think I'd done it correctly although the overall character wasn't perfect. I had another look this morning and immediately saw what I should have done. I still think it's a coincidence that the ****** I drew passed through those 5 letters.

Good morning simond9x, I thought you must have done something wrong. I am no longer confused, but I had began to doubt my solution even though I was convinced that it was correct.

All resolved including the thematic items. I assume those 14 have no special significance other than their generic link to the title of the work?

I have a full grid and enjoyed getting there. But I’ve stalled; I can’t make anything out of any the extra words minus any one letter. No doubt I’ve gone agley somewhere: “operator error” is always the most likely diagnosis!

Jack, you're where I was. I managed to guess both the entry to be replaced and the replacement, which pointed to the work.

Jack, if you get the two names, that may help. The preamble tells you that they have a letter in common: these are two of the five similar letters and are symmetrically placed in the grid.
The replacement entry will contain two more of the five, also symmetrically placed.

For the jumbled words in the down clues, I recommend looking at 7, 9 and 11 down.
9 down: there is only one anagram with the correct number of letters and it leads nowhere, which suggests the word is not in the dictionary.
11 down: the letters are not conducive to good anagrams so try thinking of an anagram that would not be in the dictionary.
Once I got 11 down, 7 down was next and the rest were straightforward, which gave me the motif. Wikipedia did the rest.
Like you, I got stuck and I missed the 4-letter name, even though it's a common one.
This is definitely one of the more 'niche' themes unless you are over 60. The 'work' was new to me.

Niche? It's a very famous work of its kind.