This seems to be Grecian’s ninth Independent puzzle since a debut in March 2022. It is the first puzzle by Grecian that I have blogged.
I suspect many solvers will have spotted the theme long before I did, as literature is not one of my strengths. Knowing that Tuesday is theme day, I did a bit of research and established that the clues and the grid contain several characters and locations from Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities. There are also some more general French (and Russian) revolutionary allusions.
In terms of location we have PARIS (9 across) and LONDON (7 down). There are characters from the novel in the grid, Jerry CRUNCHER [2 down], Jarvis LORRY [16 down] and Sydney CARTON (22 down). The clues mention other characters, Lucie and Dr Manette, Madame Defarge, Charles Darnay and the Marquis St Evremonde. The reference to Faubourg in the clue at 21 down relates to the fact many French nobles moved to there just before the Revolution.
More generally in French Revolution terms we have JEAN-PAUL MARAT (4/16 down), GUILLOTINE (14 down) and BASTILLE (19 down). The Russian revolution gets a look in with TSAR at 8 down. Finally, we could possibly link VENGEANCE and SCOUNDREL into the revolutionary and Dickens theme.
There were a few scientific entries to balance the literary stuff, so this was a puzzle to satisfy many tastes.
I have come across most of the entries but RETINOL and APHAGIA are words I don’t use very often.
| No | Detail |
| Across | |
| 9 |
City gentleman knocked back by secretary (5) PARIS (city) PA (personal assistant; secretary) + SIR (form of address for a gentleman) reversed (knocked back) PA RIS< |
| 10 |
Rogue One’s cast is sexy (9) EROGENOUS (producing erotic desire or gratification; sexy) Anagram of (cast) ROGUE ONE’S EROGENOUS* |
| 11 |
Geneva Convention extremely complex with European payback (9) VENGEANCE (retribution; payback) Anagram of (complex) GENEVA and CN (outer letters of [extremely] CONVENTION) + E (European) VENGEANC* E |
| 12 |
Bill knocked back wine in summer (5) ADDER (one who sums items; summer) AD (advertisement; poster; bill) + RED (description of wine) reversed (back) AD DER< |
| 13 |
Witch in a Private Eye article is a problem for consumer (7) APHAGIA (inability or unwillingness to swallow or eat; problem for consumer) (HAG [witch] contained in [in] [A + PI {private investigator; private eye}]) + A [indefinite] article) A P (HAG) I A |
| 15 |
Vitamin secret in olive extract (7) RETINOL (vitamin A) RETINOL (hidden word in [extract] SECRET IN OLIVE OIL) RETINOL |
| 17 |
I sort swimming trunks (5) TORSI (trunks) Anagram of (swimming) I SORT TORSI* |
| 18 |
Party for small dog (3) LAB (LABour Party) LAB (abbreviation for [small] LABrador [breed of dog]) double definition LAB |
| 20 |
Ancient European articles (5) ELDER (an ancestor; an ancient) EL (Spanish [European] form of the definite article, the) + DER (German [European] form of the definite article, the) giving European articles EL DER |
| 22 |
Worldly Lucie’s coming back wanting one afternoon with Romeo (7) SECULAR (relating to the present world or things that are not spiritual; worldly) LUCIE’S reversed (coming back) excluding (wanting) I (Roman numeral for one) + A (afternoon) + R (Romeo is the international radio communication codeword for the letter R) SECUL< A R |
| 25 |
Meet at 1 on board empty ferry (7) SATISFY (meet [the requirements of]) (AT + I [Roman numeral for one]) contained in (onboard a ship [SS]) SS + FY (letters remaining in FERRY when the central letters ERR are removed [empty]) S (AT I) S FY |
| 26 |
See 4 Down [JEAN-PAUL] MARAT |
| 27 |
Played his shot with Madame Defarge initially holding on (9) SHIMMERED (scintillated; flickered; played) Anagram of (shot) HIS + ([MME {Madame} + D {first letter of (initially)} DEFARGE] containing [holding] RE (with reference to; on) SHI* MME (RE) D |
| 30 |
Uncle Rod’s stray dog (9) SCOUNDREL (villain; rascal; dog) Anagram of (stray) UNCLE ROD’S SCOUNDREL* |
| 31 |
Darnay rejecting a novel full of lust (5) RANDY (full of lust) Anagram of (novel) DARNAY excluding (rejecting) one of the As RANDY* |
| Down | |
| 1 |
Wide boy heavyweight’s comeuppance (4) SPIV (flashy black-market hawker; wide boy) VIPS (Very Important Persons’s; heavyweight’s) reversed (comeuppance; down entry) SPIV< |
| 2 |
Testing moment for singer after putting cocaine before career (8) CRUNCHER (testing or critical moment) C + RUN (race; career) + CHER (reference CHER, American singer born 1946) C RUN CHER |
| 3 |
Man maybe endlessly fooled (4) ISLE (reference the ISLE of Man, an island in the Irish Sea off the west coast of England) MISLED (fooled) excluding the first and final letters (endlessly) M and D ISLE |
| 4/26a |
Revolutionary lecturer getting into Japan amateur wrestling (4-4,5) JEAN-PAUL [MARAT] (reference JEAN-PAUL MARAT [1743-1793, when he was assassinated in his bath], French political theorist, physician, and scientist. A journalist and politician during the French Revolution, he was a vigorous defender of the lower classes) L (lecturer) contained in (getting into) an anagram of (wrestling) JAPAN AMATEUR JEAN-PAU (L) MARAT* |
| 5 |
Problem involving United’s showboater (6) POSEUR (a person who adopts poses and affects opinions, etc, in order to impress others; showboater) POSER (difficult question; puzzle; problem) containing (involving) U (united) POSE (U) R |
| 6 |
Dr Manette angry about power division in country (10) DEPARTMENT (division of a country) Anagram of (angry) DR MANETTE containing (about) P (power) DE (P) ARTMENT* |
| 7 |
League boss without working capital (6) LONDON (capital city) (L [league] + DON [Mafia boss]) containing (without [outside]) ON (working) L (ON) DON |
| 8 |
Some aristocrats are the enemy of the revolution (4) TSAR (enemy of the Russian revolution) TSAR (hidden word in [some] ARISTOCRATS ARE) TSAR |
| 13 |
Nothing between key soprano singers (5) ALTOS (singers) O (character representing zero or nothing) contained in (between) (ALT [computer keyboard key] + S [soprano]) ALT (O) S |
| 14 |
Final fate of Sydney’s crop? (10) GUILLOTINE (behead; crop) GUILLOTINE (in a Tale of Two Cities; SYDNEY Carton takes the place of Charles Darnay and is beheaded by the GUILLOTINE) GUILLOTINE |
| 16 |
House actor’s articulated vehicle (5) LORRY (vehicle) LORRY (sounds like [articulated) LAURIE (reference Hugh LAURIE [born 1959], English actor who play Gregory HOUSE in the Fox medical drama series HOUSE) LORRY |
| 19 |
Nick Bottom hiding cash box (8) BASTILLE (French prison; nick) BASE (bottom) containing (hiding) TILL (cash box) BAS (TILL) E |
| 21 |
Hot for personal assistant in office close to Faubourg (8) DESIRING (wishes for in a sexual sense; hot for) SIRI (Apple’s virtual assistant; personal assistant) contained in (in) DEN (office) + G (last letter of [close to] FAUBORG) DE (SIRI) N G |
| 23 |
Tory without skill making a packet (6) CARTON (box; packet) CON (Conservative) containing (without [outside]) ART (skill) C (ART) ON |
| 24 |
How to get growth in to Worthing or Bognor? (6) RESORT (Bognor is a seaside resort on the South coast of England) RESORT (if your RE-SORT the letters of GROWTH IN you can form WORTHING) RESORT |
| 26 |
Tips from Marquis St Evrémonde embracing upperclass inspiration (4) MUSE (an inspiring goddess; an inspiration) MSE (first letters of [tips from] each of MARQUIS, ST and EVRÉMONDE) containing (embracing) U (upperclass) M (U) SE |
| 28 |
Horse trial (4) MARE (horse) MARE (nightMARE; horrifying experience; trial) MARE |
| 29 |
Periods of revolution a year in the case of Dickens (4) DAYS (a period of time equivalent to one revolution of the earth) (A + Y [year]) contained in (in) DS (letters forming the outside of [case of] DICKENS) D (A Y) S |
Excellent puzzle all round, and I loved the theme which is really well exploited. Favourites are the quite brilliant 24d for the wordplay and 29d for the definition.
Thanks, Grecian and Duncan.
Enjoyed this although it took a while. Nicely deceptive surfaces in the anagrams which was a feature of Grecian’s last puzzle in March. Maybe APHAGIA for a toppie where ‘Eye’ became ‘I’. Liked the clueing style – ‘without’ as a container indicator – and the variety and ambiguity. Still do not understand ‘shot’ in 27a (maybe KVa will enlighten) and RESORT went in unparsed until now. Thanks to Duncan and to Grecian.
Sorry Duncan. I didn’t read the blog carefully enough. I had played as the anagrind but it was of course the def.
Thanks, Grecian and duncanshiell!
A very well-written blog covering every aspect of the puzzle.
Liked SHIMMERED, ISLE and RESORT.
It is a far, far better thing that Grecian does, than they have ever done … Well, not entirely true but I couldn’t resist. (And surely better than ‘it was the best of puzzles, it was the worst of puzzles ‘…)
I spotted the theme fairly early and very much enjoy puzzles where there is both surface theme and relevant solutions so this was right up my street. Favourites include VENGEANCE, ELDER, SATISFY, SECULAR, CRUNCHER, BASTILLE, RESOT and DAYS. I took the definition of GUILLOTINE to be referring to the use of the office device for cropping paper.
Thanks Grecian and duncan
Very enjoyable, especially once I cottoned on to the theme which wasn’t too hard to spot in both clues and answers but some of the parsing was tricky, eg for SHIMMERED, RESORT and DESIRING and overall I didn’t find this easy. Favourites were the thematic BASTILLE for ‘Nick’ and the ‘crop?’ def (parsed as per PM @5) with the misleading surface for GUILLOTINE.
For a man of your erudition not to use the word APHAGIA very often, Duncan – sorry, to doubt you, but I just can’t swallow that.
Thanks to Duncan and Grecian
I can’t put it better than PostMark @5 has done.
A super puzzle with a blog to match – many thanks to both.
I loved it-fine tribute to a great book
But PostMark may have to watch his back while Mme Defarge is knitting!
I’m with Postmark and Eileen
Many thanks to Grecian and Duncan
Nicely done, Grecian, although I didn’t find it an easy solve despite the theme content.
I fully expect to have a ‘Les Mis’ earworm all day!
Thanks to our compiler and to Duncan for the review – don’t worry, I also had to check on APHAGIA!
Thanks both. Unfamiliar with the detail of the book but got the general French Revolution vibe, otherwise GUILLOTINE may have evaded me, so it was my only unparsed entry, having eventually twigged the clever RESORT. My only unknown definition was that SHIMMERED can mean ‘played’
It’s not generally known that Dickens started his career as a journalist on local papers in the midlands. Since you ask, it was the Bicester Times, it was the Worcester times.
Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to setter and blogger.
We seem to be cracking puns with a vengeance today!
An enjoyable challenge – thanks, Grecian and Duncan.
Many thanks to Duncan for the excellent blog and to all you solvers for the lovely comments about the puzzle. The VENGEANCE is a key character in the book and Jerry CRUNCHER rides on a MARE to convey an important message to Jarvis LORRY at the start of the novel. Hope to see you here again soon. G