The Tuesday slot this week is filled by Hieroglyph, whose puzzles I have hitherto had little experience of either solving or blogging.
Having spotted the grid’s perimeter, I wondered if we were in Nina territory today. A quick perusal of the clues clearly indicates a theme around 18A, with this as gateway clue and then 7 other related entries. However, I see no hidden message of any kind in either perimeter or grid.
Hieroglyph has to be congratulated on accommodating all 7 of George Eliot’s novels in the grid. It took me a while to crack 18A, as I fell into the (obvious) trap of looking for a German writer, having decided that the “East” was part of the wordplay and “German” part of the definition. It was only when I subtracted the last letter from “toile-t” and reversed it that the penny dropped. After that, it was a case of looking to see where the novels that I knew – 1/3/13, 2/27A, 9, 24/29 – might be feature in the grid, leaving the remaining three to be teased out from the wordplay and confirmed online. Indeed, I should really give some of these novels another airing, although now that the Easter holiday is over, I suppose that project will have to be put on hold for a while.
As for the non-themed clues, the fish at 23 was new to me, although I will try to remember its “claim to fame”, see below. I am not sure I have parsed 18D satisfactorily in respect of “up”, so please set me straight if required. As for my favourites today, I rather liked the misdirection of “1D” in 7, and 28 for its surface. However, owing to the extensive treatment of the theme, I think that this is more the kind of puzzle where one rather appreciates the whole, which is greater than the sum of its parts.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 07 | HIDING | 1D at home in the outskirts of Hamburg’s out of sight
[ID (=1D) + IN (=at home)] in H<ambur>G (“outskirts of” means first and last letters only) |
| 08 | RECOUPS | Gets back notes about hostile takeover
COUP (=hostile takeover, coup d’état) in REs (=notes, in music) |
| 10 | IMAM | Religious leader in possession of anima mundi
Hidden (“in possession of”) in “anIMA Mundi” |
| 11/05 | HOI POLLOI | The masses vote in controversial Ohio institute
[POLL (=vote) in *(OHIO)] + I (=institute); “controversial” is anagram indicator |
| 12 | IGLOO | The White House’s one good room?
I (=one) + G (=good) + LOO (=room); cryptically, since it is made of snow, an igloo could be described as a “White House”! |
| 15 | DAHLIAS | Mixed salad including tops of Indian hibiscus flowers
*(SALAD + I<ndian> H<ibiscus); “tops of” means first letters only; “mixed” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | GEORGE ELIOT | On the way back John almost, for instance, runs over East German writer
TOILE<t> (=John, lav; “almost” means last letter dropped) + E.G. (=for instance) + R (=runs, in cricket) + O (=over, in cricket) + E (=East) + G (=German); “on the way back” indicates (here full) reversal; George Eliot – the pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans (1819-80) – was a leading English writer of the Victorian era; her 7 novels all appear elsewhere in the grid |
| 23 | BLEAK | Cold // fish
Double definition. According to Chambers, a bleak is a small silvery river fish whose scales yield a pigment used in making artificial pearls |
| 25 | NYMPH | Beautiful girl and politician in New York hospital
MP (=politician) in [NY (=New York) + H (=hospital)] |
| 26 | CHI | Letter from Athens detailed feature
CHI<n> (=(facial) feature; “de-tailed” means last letter dropped); chi is the 22nd letter of the Greek alphabet, hence “letter from Athens” |
| 28 | JEALOUS | Green aloe preparation used in French gravy
*(ALOE) in JUS (=French gravy); “preparation” is anagram indicator |
| Down | ||
| 01/03/13 | THE MILL ON THE FLOSS | 18A’s 1,000,000-1 in shots he left out
MILL<i>ON (=1,000,000; “-1” means letter “i” is dropped) in *(SHOTS HE LEFT); “out” is anagram indicator; The Mill on the Floss was George Eliot’s second novel, published in 1860 |
| 02/27 | ADAM BEDE | 18A’s novel honour editor returned
ADA (=novel, by Vladimir Nabokov) + MBE (=honour) + DE (ED=editor; “returned” indicates reversal); Adam Bede was George Eliot’s first novel, published in 1859 |
| 04 | FELIX HOLT | 18A’s radical English lecturer in difficulty, initially hectored old Lieutenant
{[E (=English) + L (=lecturer)] in FIX (=difficulty)} + H<ectored> (“initially” means first letter only) + O (=old) + LT (=lieutenant); Felix Holt, the Radical was George Eliot’s fifth novel, published in 1866 |
| 06 | SPOOKS | Special Post Office fine ultimately angers spies
S (=special) + PO (=Post Office) + OK (=fine) + <anger>S (“ultimately” means last letter only) |
| 09 | MIDDLEMARCH | 18A’s led astray during 75th/76th days of the year?
*(LED) in MID-MARCH (=75th/76th days of the year, counting from Jan 1); “astray” is anagram indicator; Middlemarch was George Eliot’s sixth novel, published in 1871-2 |
| 14 | SUE | Petition Native American people in speech
Homophone (“in speech”) of “Sioux” (=Native American people) |
| 16 | APT | Appropriate carpets oddly missing
<c>A<r>P<e>T<s> (=appropriate), “oddly missing” means all odd letters are dropped |
| 17 | BRANCH OUT | Farm engaged in fight to diversify
RANCH (=farm) in BOUT (=fight) |
| 18 | GEE | Character // to move on up?
Double definition: gee is a letter of the alphabet AND to gee (up) is to encourage, e.g. a horse to move forward |
| 19 | OIL | Some alternatives to social lubricant
<s>O<c>I<a>L (=lubricant); “alternative to” means alternative letters only are used |
| 20 | PAY DIRT | Filthy lucre?
Cryptic definition: figuratively, pay dirt (“filthy”) means a source of riches; literally, it is gravel or sand containing enough gold to be worth working |
| 21/21A | DANIEL DERONDA | 18A’s odd adrenaline rushes
*(ODD ADRENALINE); “rushes” is the anagram indicator; Daniel Deronda was George Eliot’s seventh and final novel, published in 1876 |
| 22 | ROMOLA | 18A’s moral quandary around the middle of October
<oct>O<ber> (“middle of” means middle letter only) in *(MORAL); “quandary” is anagram indicator; Romola was George Eliot’s fourth novel, published in 1863 |
| 24/29 | SILAS MARNER | 18A’s southern individual somehow learns about damage
S (=southern) + I (=individual, as in ISA, for example) + [MAR (=damage) in *(LEARNS)]; “somehow” is anagram indicator; Silas Marner was George Eliot’s third novel, published in 1861 |
| 27 | BONY | Skinny lad after ingesting starter of nectarine
N<ectarine> (“starter of” means first letter only) in BOY (=lad) |
Thanks RatkojaRiku and Hieroglyph.
My home turf, this one. The only bijou regret-ette I have is that knowing the works, they were write-ins from the enumeration, when I would probably have preferred to struggle a tad more.
Thanks RatkojaRiku and Hieroglyph.
Having been thoroughly irritated by today’s Guardian, I thought I’d have a go at this instead. However this one unsatisfactory too – as Conrad Cork says, once GEORGE ELIOT was in, it was just a case of matching the novels to the spaces (very clever to construct the grid, though, Hieroglyph).
In fact I didn’t get BLEAK – I hadn’t heard of the fish.
Oh no, it’s a themed puzzle where detailed knowledge of the subject makes it much easier! 🙁
Having the “OT” from 18A was enough to see that it was an Eliot, and it wasn’t TS so it must be George. “The mill on the floss” was the only book I remembered, so that was a write-in without looking at the clue. I did like the clue for “Middlemarch”. But the other theme answers I mostly ignored, and failed to enter, and didn’t worry about. I’d have appreciated a bit more of a hint for 18A, “bleak”, given that most monosyllables in English seem to be the name of some sort of fish.
Some people must like this sort of thing but it always puts me off. I know that I could have looked up a list of the theme answers in a couple of seconds, but I spend all my life looking things up online. The crossword for me is a time offline, without references or clever apps. Never mind, tomorrow will be different!
SILAS MARNER must earn an accolade for the clue with the highest proportion of unches, possibly ever, eight of eleven. Gets my vote as the worst bit of construction in a broadsheet daily I’ve ever seen.
Interesting observation sidey – but the answer was so obvious surely that it hardly mattered.
I’m with muffin that neither today’s Guardian (will I ever understand why people rave so much about Paul?) nor this provided huge amounts of pleasure. However, you have to admire the construction of a crossword so heavily themed as this, and there were some nice little moments (e.g. the White House).
I was ambivalent about this one: I got GEORGE ELIOT fairly early (from the enumeration and a couple of crossers) and then most – but not all – of the novels were write-ins, which kind of spoils the fun. And I’m not a massive fan of themed puzzles, although I do recognise that others like this kind of stuff.
Thanks to S&B.
Not my favourite sort of crossword, with cross-references as well as answers divided between across and down lights (and intersecting). But a fairly easy solve over coffee; the ‘aha’ moment came when I managed to unscramble 21dn/21ac which then gave me write-ins for 18ac etc. Nice misdirection in 7ac. BLEAK and PAY DIRT were new to me.
Thanks, Hieroglyph and RatkojaRiku
I thought this was a good puzzle. As others have noted, getting all of George Eliot’s novels into one grid, plus of course her name, was quite an achievement considering there were no real obscurities in the rest of the answers. I’ve never read any of them, and although I’ve heard of most of them I needed the wordplay for ROMOLA (thanks to Romola Garai the anagram fodder was arranged correctly) and FELIX HOLT. I had trouble in the SE corner where it took me a while to complete the puzzle with the BLEAK/PAY DIRT crossers.
Anyone who fished the Thames, as I did, when I was a boy and it was free will remember catching bleak, a small, useless fish, that would get on the hook instead of the hoped-for roach (another fish to store up in your memories).
As a Geoge Eliot addict, I thank Heiroglyph for a very fast solve today – minutes istead of hours!
We’re not ‘up’ on George Eliot so none of the themed answers were really a write in. We could see the parsings but have to admit that we googled the writer to sort them out.
So…. we’re a bit ambivalent about the puzzle. It was amazing for Heiroglyph to include so many themed answers. There were some very good misdirections – 1ac was one. However, overall it felt a bit of a let-down.
Thanks to Hieroglyph and RR.
I am new to cryptics having ‘taught myself’ how to understand and solve via Tim Moorey’s excellent book whilst on holiday last summer. For me, this puzzle was immensely satisfying as I managed to get George Eliot relatively early, leading me to rapidly insert the novels. But pay dirt and annoyingly, spooks, eluded me……oh well, Easter break over, next puzzle to be solved on this year’s Summer Hol….!
Anyone else put “eta” for 26 at first? Feature of dETAiled…
I meant to say at the time that sidey’s comment @4 is the most unfair I can remember seeing for some time. Hieroglyph managed to include George Eliot and all her novels, and didn’t even resort to any obscure words. Anyone who thinks he can condemn his/her skill at construction on the basis of this puzzle is either confused or dishonestly vindictive. I would also note that counting the As in SILAS MARNER as unchecked is not really correct – they check each other, and this, along with the themed connection, makes the clue quite easy in spite of the unhelpful grid. In fact throughout this puzzle Hieroglyph impressively managed to combine the difficult and easy elements intelligently and fairly.