When I discovered that it was a Harribobs EV on my turn to blog, my first instinct was to go and hide behind the sofa…
…but when I came back out it was still there!
(My trepidation comes from many previous mental tussles with Harribobs, one of the more devious EV (and IQ/Listener) setters, including the wonderful EV 1248 Snowball (back in the days when we had nearly 3 weeks to solve and blog) and, more traumatically, EV 1319 Vive la Différence, which I failed to solve and for which I had to post a rare DNF blog…)
Anyway, back to this puzzle…the preamble states that:
“One or more (consecutive) words must be removed from each of 13 clues before solving; in each case, the extra words contain a string of letters, either starting at the start of a word or ending at the end of a word, which can be unjumbled to create a name. In 26 other clues, the wordplay leads to the answer plus an extra letter; in clue order, extra letters describe part of the grid to be highlighted. 13 WORKING TITLES corresponding to the names, in order, must also be highlighted, with adjacent blocks in different colours; just 13 cells should be uncoloured. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
That means 39 of 47 clues have something going on, meaning each clue had to be approached as one of three possible scenarios – extra words; extra letter in wordplay; normal.
With age and experience sometimes comes enlightenment – sometimes it can be fairly obvious that a clue has extra words in…they tend to be a bit longer than ‘normal’, obviously, and the surface read may seem a little laboured, as the setter has had to shoehorn the extra words in. Or they can be really hard to find…
I had a couple of reads through the clues, sans pencil, and hit on a couple of potential candidates:
- in 25A, the ‘toad’ must be a natterjack, with Jack (Kerouac) ‘spurned’ to give ‘natter’ (gossip) – which leaves FOLLOW IDLE as possible extra words
- and in 3D, the ‘Hawaiian farewells’ must be ‘alohas’, and the ‘last’ of Plymouth Brethren leaving could be HN, but there isn’t an N in Alohas, so maybe BRETHREN is the extra word
So far so good, and I pressed on with some cold solving, looking out for extra words, and trying to find as many of those extra letters as I could.
The first (of several) PDMs came with ‘GENEVAN BOOK‘ as the extra words at 13A, and realising the ‘name’ could be NABOKOV. FOLLOW IDLE for WILDE and RICHIELIEU’S PRIDE for EURIPIDES soon followed, and it was clear we were probably looking for 13 authors.
The wordplay letters were also slowly falling in to place, and looked to start with BOOK…in the Across clues, and gradually yielded BOOK CASE, PERIMETER AND ROW SIX.
The preamble states that this indicates what is to be highlighted, so I shaded the perimeter and row six – the ‘middle shelf’ of the ‘bookcase’ – and started to concentrate on getting the last few extra words, and the corresponding names. I also took a punt that the ‘working titles’ would be anagrams of books by the authors, and if this was a bookcase then they would probably be vertical sets of letters.
Nabokov had to be ‘Lolita’, and I think this was the first one I found, in columns 4 and 5 of the top shelf (appropriately?!), leaving two cells above which might be part of the 13 unshaded. This meant that there must be one or two books to the left of Lolita, and there weren’t obvious candidates for the two-book theory – LANK or KLAN and GERI or ERGI – but together they made KING LEAR – which helped me find Shakespeare at 5A.
I was on a roll now – finding ‘The Magus’ on the other side of ‘Lolita’. I happen to have read a few John Fowles (WOLFE SENT) books in my teenage ‘voracious reader’ stage, so I knew this one. And I was familiar with ‘Nausea’ by Sartre (RESTRAINTS), although I can’t claim to have read it.
And gradually it all fell into place, although I needed some e-research to find ‘Mort’ by Terry Pratchett; ‘Housekeeping’ by Marilynne Robinson; ‘Ben Hur’ by Lew Wallace. Plus some of the less famous/familiar to me titles by Beckett (clearly ‘Waiting for Godot’ would not fit on this bookshelf!) and Wilde. At one point I did wonder whether there might be a book nonchalantly lying horizontally across the top of some others, but that would have been too cruel, I think
To my shame, the last author/book I deduced was Frank Herbert and ‘Dune’ – having been an avid reader of the entire Dune series of books in said teenage years. (In fact, I think it is the only one of the thirteen I do own, apart from maybe King Lear in a Shakespeare omnibus.) The Dune books still have pride of place on my bookshelf, and I plan to re-read them at some stage…once my teenage daughter gets through them, as she has just taken the first couple off to university to get started on that journey!
So, the thirteen are:
- KEEPS A HEARSE – SHAKESPEARE – KING LEAR
- GENEVAN BOOK – NABOKOV – LOLITA
- WOLFE SENT – FOWLES – THE MAGUS
- RESTRAINTS – SARTRE – NAUSEA
- DEBRETT CHAPTER – PRATCHETT – MORT
- FOLLOW IDLE – WILDE – SALOME
- RICHELIEU’S PRIDE – EURIPIDES – MEDEA
- BORIS NONCHALANTLY – ROBINSON – HOUSEKEEPING
- TILL MECHANIC – MITCHELL – CLOUD ATLAS
- BRETHREN – HERBERT – DUNE
- WE ALL CAME – WALLACE – BEN HUR
- RACKET BET – BECKETT – MALONE DIES
- REGENERATIVE – GREENE – THE COMEDIANS
And the bookcase looks like this:
And there we have it – an eclectic bookcase featuring 13 ‘WORKING TITLES’ by various authors, and just 13 cells left unshaded. And I have only realised as I wrote up the blog that the authors appear in the clues in the same order as they are arranged on the shelves – in the normal Western order of left to right, top to bottom. A nice touch, and a fact that might have helped me get to the end a bit earlier!
In proportional terms, given that the perimeter and middle shelf are ‘only’ shaded, and not thematically treated, I make it that there are 97 cells making the book titles – or just over 57% of the total 169 cells. A pretty impressive amount of material to have packed in, given that ‘Snowball’ ‘only’ had about 40%…
In terms of timings, I actually had the grid pretty much filled by the evening of the Sunday this was published (having spent quite a lot of the day working on it), but not having cracked the final stages. And then I was awake between about 3 and 4 o’clock on the Monday morning and, in a frenzy of last-bits solving, shading and author-title-searching I managed to finish it off, in pencil/working copy at least, at precisely 04:38 according to my notes. Certainly a personal record for a Harribobs, to have it solved within 24 hours!…
So, many thanks to Harribobs for a fine puzzle – up there with many others of his classics. Where to start – the grid construction? the high percentage of thematic material? the tight, hard-but-fair, clueing? the fact that symmetry is maintained throughout? All things that must be so hard to achieve, but seem to be de rigueur from this setter…
I trust all is clear above and below…I’m off for my usual post-Harribobs-blog lie down in a darkened room…
(NB. I have noticed that there is a typo in the grid above – the intersection of GIAOUR and SALADS should be an A not an S – but I don’t have the bandwidth to re-do the animation! I hope I got it correct in my submitted version…)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Extra letters / Removed word(s) / Name |
Clue (definition underlined, extra word(s) in bold)
Logic/Parsing (extra l(e)tters in brackets) |
|
| 1 | PRISSY | Strait-laced rector is overwhelmed by first half of thriller (6)
P_SY( |
||
| 5 | SPARTAN | KEEPS A HEARSE / SHAKESPEARE |
Greek character keeps a hearse in hospital (7)
S_AN (sanatorium, hospital) around PART (role, character) |
|
| 11 | GATHER | B | Crowd, taken aback, reserve The Razor’s Edge (6)
GA(B) (bag, or reserve, taken aback) + THE + R (either end, or edge, or RazoR) |
|
| 13 | RENE | GENEVAN BOOK / NABOKOV |
Genevan book about north European philosopher, Descartes? (4)
RE (about, regarding) + N (north) + E (European) |
|
| 14 | INRO | O | Wearing jumper and Japanese accessory (4)
IN (wearing) + RO(O) (kangaroo, jumper) |
|
| 15 | AGENTS | WOLFE SENT / FOWLES |
Representatives from Times impressed by books Wolfe sent (6)
AGE_S (times) around (impressed by) NT (New Testament, a set of books) |
|
| 16 | SKELLUM | O | Local rascal and short outlaw wrestling bears (7)
S_UM(O) (wrestling) around (bearing) KELL( |
|
| 17 | OLMS | K | Cave-dwellers start to lurk in Dostoevsky’s place of exile (4)
O_MS(K) (Dostoevsky’s place of exile) around L (start of Lurk) |
|
| 19 | SAAM | RESTRAINTS / SARTRE |
Scandinavian translation of Mrs Dalloway, free of original worldly restraints (4)
subtractive anagram, i.e. translation, of M( |
|
| 20 | WENT OUT | DEBRETT CHAPTER / PRATCHETT |
Debrett chapter was broadcast entirely in Paris after London? (7, two words)
WEN (London, a great ‘wen’, or sebaceous cyst, according to William Cobbett, in the 1820s) + T_OUT (French, i.e. in Paris, for all), entirely) |
|
| 21 | FLAUNE | Vintage pancake following two of Escoffier’s articles (6)
F (following) + LA + UNE (two French articles, i.e. Escoffier’s – one definite, the other indefinite) |
||
| 23 | AMOUNT | Value what Black Beauty is (6)
Black Beauty (a fictional horse) could be said to be A MOUNT |
||
| 25 | NATTER | FOLLOW IDLE / WILDE |
Follow idle gossip when toad spurns Kerouac, say (6)
NATTER( |
|
| 28 | SANEST | RICHELIEU’S PRIDE / EURIPIDES |
Most sensible contessa, avoiding company, wounded Richelieu’s pride (6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. wounded, of ( |
|
| 30 | MUNDANE | Dull OT books face-to-face on middle of shelf (7)
MUN (Num, or Numbers) and DAN (Daniel) – both biblical books from the Old Testament, ‘face to face’ – plus E (middle letter of shElf |
||
| 33 | PACE | C | Somewhat steep acceleration rate (4)
hidden word, i.e. somewhat, in ‘steeP AC(C)Eleration |
|
| 37 | REEK | A | Greene, Kafka, regularly smoke (4)
regular letters in ‘gReEnE k(A)fKa’ |
|
| 38 | DESEEDS | BORIS NONCHALANTLY / ROBINSON |
Boris nonchalantly removes pips from centre of cheesecake during performances (7)
DE_EDS (performances) around SE (centre of cheeSEcake) |
|
| 39 | GIAOUR | S | Old heathen girl’s half a bitter (6)
GI( |
|
| 40 | EMIT | E | Issue of Stephen King book anticipated by retired uncle (4)
EM(E) (obsolete, i.e. retired, for uncle) before (anticipating) IT (novel by Stephen King) |
|
| 41 | FEES | Charges Oberon and Titania? (4)
double defn.: FEES can be charges; and FÉES with an accent are fairies, such as Titania and Oberon in MSND |
||
| 42 | UNBIAS | P | Academic dipping into joke book is free from prejudice (6)
(P)UN (joke) + B (book) + I_S around (dipped into by) A (academic) |
|
| 43 | ENLISTS | TILL MECHANIC / MITCHELL |
Doctor listens till mechanic gets engaged (7)
anag, i.e. doctor, of LISTENS |
|
| 44 | PARKED | E | Temporarily left author with onset of dementia, around middle of April (6)
P(E)A_KE (author, Mervyn Peake) around R (middle of apRil), plus D (first letter, or onset, of Dementia) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Extra letters / Removed word(s) / Name |
Clue (definition underlined, extra word(s) in bold)
Logic/Parsing (extra l(e)tters in brackets) |
|
| 1 | PEISHWA | R | Die with acting prime minister of Marathas (7)
PE(R)ISH (die) + W (with) + A (acting) |
|
| 2 | RANKLE | I | Utter untruth to cause annoyance (6)
RANK (utter) + L(I)E (untruth) |
|
| 3 | SAOLA | BRETHREN / HERBERT |
Vietnamese native returning Hawaiians’ farewells when last of Plymouth Brethren leaves (5)
SAOLA (Vietnamese ox-like mammal, so native) = ALO( |
|
| 4 | STILTON | TS Eliot, out of sorts and lacking energy, finishing off Parmesan cheese (7)
STILTO (anag, i.e. out of sorts, of TS ( |
||
| 6 | PRESA | M | Sign showing entry point before motorway service area (5)
PRE (before) + (M)SA (motorway service area) |
|
| 7 | ANNUAL | E | University charges get tougher yearly (6)
ANN(E)_AL (get tougher) around (charged by) U (university) |
|
| 8 | TESLA | T | Serb who invented most recent cycles (5)
LATES(T) (most recent) cycling first two letters to the end = TESLA |
|
| 9 | ANEMONE | Wildflower, both times expunged from novel Atonement (7)
anag, i.e. novel, of A( |
||
| 10 | NESSIE | E | Ascetic turns up clutching one example of Fantastic Beasts (6)
(E)NESS_E (Essene, ascetic, turned up) around (clutching) I (one) |
|
| 12 | HAUT | R | Spenser’s arrogant about stabbing pain (4)
H_U(R)T (pain) around (stabbed by) A (about) |
|
| 18 | IN ON | WE ALL CAME / WALLACE |
Aware of international drama, we all came back to town (4, two words)
I (international) + NO (or noh, Japanese drama) + N (back letter of towN) |
|
| 19 | STYME | A | Scottish peer wants to live in Leith with yours truly (5)
ST(A)Y (Scottish, i.e. in Leith, for to live/dwell) + ME (yours truly) |
|
| 22 | UTAH | N | Part of USA where maniac gets on a horse (4)
(N)UT (maniac, enthusiast) + A + H (horse) |
|
| 24 | MADE MEN | D | Mafia inductees and maniacs probed by McBain? (7, two words)
MAD MEN (maniacs, again!) around E(D) (Ed McBain, author of crime novels) |
|
| 26 | ANOSMIA | RACKET BET / BECKETT |
Lack of sense in a numbers racket – bet on target coming up (7)
A + NOS (numbers) + MIA (aim, or target, coming up) |
|
| 27 | REESTED | R | Scott’s smoked grass, full of repose (7)
RE_ED (grass) around (full of) (R)EST (repose) |
|
| 28 | STRIFE | End of the first horrific conflict (6)
anag, i.e. horrific, of E (end of thE) + FIRST |
||
| 29 | SALADS | O | Dishes so unfortunately broken by daughter (6)
S(O) + ALA_S (unfortunately) around (broken by) D (daughter) |
|
| 31 | NO DICE | REGENERATIVE / GREENE |
Negative response from NHS advisors storing surfeit of regenerative drugs (6, two words)
N_ICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence, NHS Advisors) around (storing) OD (overdose, surfeit of drugs) |
|
| 32 | HEGEL | W | Change one’s mind about German philosopher (5)
(W)HE_EL (change one’s mind) around G (German) |
|
| 34 | CLOUT | S | American fool carries weight (5)
CLO_T (fool) around (carrying) US (American) |
|
| 35 | HERB | I | Perhaps mustard and hard cheese on the counter (4)
H (hard) + E(I)RB (brie, or cheese, on the counter, or reversed) |
|
| 36 | LEEAR | X | Glaswegian storyteller’s strangely relaxed forgetting ending (5)
anag, i.e. strangely, of RELA(X)E( |
|
I probably don’t stop to think enough about how difficult it must be to dream up some of these grids — it is just too much to wrap my brain around — but seeing Harribobs and Ifor in consecutive weeks and actually getting to the end in each one was quite memorable for me. I didn’t do the 13 colours so thanks MC for the usual nice grid and exhaustive-for-me/exhausting-for-you blog. Think of all the genius we would be missing had this series been canceled. My sincere thanks to all involved.
Harribobs is an undisputed master of grid construction. Sometimes virtuoso grid constructions can be like virtuoso instrumental passages: incredibly clever but a total bore for the audience. Some of Harribobs’s recent puzzles involved discovering the thematic material by using numerical letter values to count round the grid (e.g. Inquisitor 1679: Heavy Metal Band) and while one must admire the cleverness of those constructions, I found them a tedious slog.
Fortunately Harribobs has left that trick behind (forever, I hope) and produced a puzzle which fulfils the one requirement of any crossword: it was fun to solve. The clues were challenging but always just within reach, relying on clever wording rather than obscurities from the murkiest depths of Chambers. Each PDM led nicely to the next; once you’d got the bookcase you knew where the books should go, and after finding a few of them it became clear that the books appeared in the same order as the clues (nice touch which kept the momentum going and maintained the fun element).
I made life difficult for myself by being stupid and lazy, which meant that for a while I had Petrarch and Woolf instead of Pratchett and Wilde, and I also had the wrong Mitchell (Margaret). I spent far too long looking for Lost Laysen which I found on Google after realising Gone with the Wind had an odd number of letters. But it all worked out in the end with a satisfying, unambiguous neatness that puts this among the best advanced puzzles I’ve solved for a long time. Bravo Harribobs (and no more letter-counting, please!).
A tough but very satisfying solve for me, and what a piece of construction. Getting all of those titles into a grid successfully must have taken some doing. Very helpful to me that the authors appeared in the right order to narrow down the research needed for the five titles I hadn’t heard of. Thanks and congratulations to Harribobs for a great puzzle and to mc-rapper for an excellent review.
This was some tour de force.
Solving the crossword was the first challenge. It is normal now to have three types of clue – one normal and two special – and the extra time needed to both unravel and solve them all can be considerable. This was one of those puzzles.
I got my first inkling of the kind of theme when I was most of the way through the clues, having seen Shakespeare almost glaring at me from ‘keeps a hearse’ in the clue to SPARTAN and the word BOOKCASE (with one letter missing) to start the message. I also had ROW SIX to end the message.
It took a while to identify all the writers from the anagrams, Fowles and Pratchett taking the longest. Finding the works to shade in the two zones in the grid was a very enjoyable task, especially when I realised (from King Lear, Lolita and a couple of others) that they were in the same order as the relevant clues. I had to give up on finding the works by ‘Robinson’ and ‘Mitchell’ (whoever they are/were) because it would have taken too long. (But if I had remembered the instruction about the 13 unshaded cells I might have got them!)
A wonderful conception, design and construction. Thanks to Harribobs, and to mc_rapper67 for a great blog.
An excellent puzzle with so much literary content — had to search for the “obvious” Pratchett title — and there are many possible Robinson and MItchell authors.
Apropos 28a: one of my solving partners reminded me of the the Groucho Marx quip: “Euripides. Eumenides”. (I always knew a classical education would be useful someday)
Thanks for the various comments and feedback – looks like we all (masochistically?) enjoyed this one! And maybe I was the only one not to notice that the books were in the same order as the authors in the clues…
ub at #1 – in my submitted version, I just went for two alternate colours for the books – I thought that would be easier to scan. I am somewhat colour-blind (more ‘colour ignorant’) but luckily the Paul Drury blogging utility site where I do the grids has the name of the colours as well as the colours on the selection palette…if they are distinct enough for me then they should work for most others…
cruciverbophile at #2 – as an IT/Excel/data nerd I quite enjoy the ‘letter counting’ puzzles as well, but ‘one man’s meat…’ etc. I also considered Margaret Mitchell first…
Alan B at #4 – I didn’t get Shakespeare until near the end – obvious when I eventually saw it.
Ilan Caron at #5 – top Marx for that quip. ‘Euripides? I Medea new one…’ (I’ll get my coat…)