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This must be one of the last puzzles from the late, great Schadenfreude.

God rest Schadenfreude, a brilliant puzzle with no ambiguities and no tedious grid staring. The southwest corner had me stumped for far too long, due to difficult, but fantastic clues.

Wonderful puzzle with a theme which accompanies much of my solving.

Schadenfreude was a tease until the end.

I was convinced that there was a mis-spelling at 36 down until it dawned that he was using a verb!!

secondary system?

Eight of the works are listed with the same numbers on at least two sites. I'm still trying to confirm the numbers intended by the setter for the other three. Wikipedia is notoriously unreliable, so I wouldn't want to rely on that.

The key phrase in the preamble is “The clashing letters specify WHOLE thematic items EXACTLY . . .” The three items that require the secondary system were also the sources of other items that typically incorporate the thematic items given by the clashing items as part of their names.

Thanks, Wintonian. I had completed the grid but had not been able to think of the criterion to which you refer.

All done, except for two clashes:

In Square 11 I have the 5 letters, but can't see how they make a thematic item

For Square10, I don't have either of the contributing words.

Tips please

Sorry, it's too early- that should have said 14, not 11 !