The preamble to OBSTACLE says that solvers have to find in the grid: a desired ‘union’, a place, and an obstacle to said union (37 letters in all) – with 19 corrected misprints providing a further hint. What sort of ‘union’ could Chalicea mean? Chambers offers just the 18 (eighteen!) options in its first entry for UNION: a trade union, a mathematical union, an economic union, a state of wedlock, etc. – as well as a second definition related to the Unio genus of pearl mussels…plenty to choose from then!…
I was lucky to strike a chord with the setter’s wavelength on this one, and my first pass was fairly productive. With ‘only’ 19 out of 45 clues having misprints, there was a better than even chance of hitting a ‘normal’ clue, and things fell into place reasonably smoothly. Having said that, I didn’t help myself by lazily putting ‘PERTH’ instead of ‘BERTH’ at 1A.
It also turns out that I didn’t help myself by reading too much sci-fi in my formative years, and not paying attention in Eng Lit at skool… Once the grid started to fill up, and the extra letters started to spell out ‘MAD WOMAN IN THE ATTIC’, and I could see ‘ROCHESTER’ and ‘THORNFIELD’ in the grid, I couldn’t make the penny-dropping connection straight away. I then found ‘JANE’, and vaguely connected ROCHESTER and JANE to ‘Jane Eyre’, guessing that Thornfield must have been a (stately?) home in the novel.
But, who was the mad woman? I had to revert to Messrs Wiki and Oogle to discover that BERTHA MASON was Mr Rochester’s original betrothed, but he had found her to be a bit loopy and locked her up in the attic for 10 years…from where she escaped to destroy Jane’s wedding veil – hence becoming an ‘OBSTACLE’ to Rochester’s bigamous intentions.
So, an educational experience for your correspondent and, on a solving and denouément level, maybe a gentler EV than some recent offerings. But most enjoyable, and a pleasure to solve and blog, including some interesting and new (to me) words like FUMS, CHORISIS and BUNIA… Many thanks to Chalicea – now, should I go and mug up on the Jane Austen-sized gap in my literary knowledge, or shall I just watch the box set?!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Corrected Misprint | Clue (definition underlined, misprinted word in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
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| 1 | BERTH | rooM | Ozzie city blamed originally for parking roos at sea (5) / (P)ERTH with B (first letter of Blamed) for P (parking) |
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| 6 | MASONRY | crAft | Madonna shelters her child in stone-worker’s croft (7) / MA_RY (Madonna) around (sheltering) SON (her child) |
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| 12 | AFFOORD | Crashing off-road, Ed’s to yield (7) / anag (i.e. crashing) of OFF-ROAD |
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| 13 | BUNIA | traDes | Indian who traces iodine in polymerised rubber (5) / BUN_A (polymerised rubber) around I (iodine) |
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| 14 | FUMS | Wingers | Fu Manchu’s principal section for Chinese singers … (4) / FU + M (principal letter of Manchu) + S (section) |
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| 15 | CHORISIS | mOre | … is pursuing disastrous choirs method of getting mare by branching and splitting (8) / CHORIS (anag, i.e. diasatrous, of CHOIRS) followed (pursued) by IS |
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| 17 | SERAPHIM | People of pure and gentle character destroyed samphire (8) / anag (i.e. destroyed) of SAMPHIRE |
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| 19 | FONDS | Money | Highly prizing southern honey in France (5) / FOND (find of, highly prizing ‘something’) + S (southern) |
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| 20 | ECHT | reAl | Foreign dramatist’s deleted British reel in Germany (4) / (BR)ECHT (foreign, German, dramatist) deleting BR (British) |
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| 21 | INCARNATE | To heal’s instinctive, including cases initially resistant (9) / IN_NATE (instinctive) around (including) CA (cases) + R (resistant, initially) |
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| 23 | CHEST | Switzerland is (to Depardieu) a safe place for his money perhaps (5) / CH (Switzerland, Confederation Helvetica) + EST (is, in French, i.e. ‘to Gerard Depardieu’) |
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| 25 | NIUE | Island territory in EU in chaos (4) / anag (i.e. in chaos) of IN EU |
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| 28 | DEEP | Intense river pressure (4) / DEE (river) + P (pressure) |
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| 30 | ANELE | Brew with this oil could be renewable (5) / ‘subtractive’ anag (i.e. could be) of RENEWABLE minus BREW |
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| 33 | DEPENDENT | Ed reversed literary style with negative effect for hanger-on (9) / DE (Ed, reversed) + PEN (literary style) + DENT (negative effect) |
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| 34 | ACAI | Tucked in to revolutionary aphrodisiacal fruit (4) / reversed, hidden, word (i.e. ‘tucked in to’ & ‘revolutionary’) in ‘aphrodisIACAl’ |
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| 35 | ERUCT | Belch’s transitive remedy returns (5) / T (transitive) + CURE (remedy), all returning |
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| 36 | GRAINERS | Kinky earrings for people who remove hair (8) / anag (i.e. kinky) of EARRINGS |
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| 38 | PASTE-UPS | plaNs | Draft plays before printing – reshuffled set up as page (8) / anag (i.e. reshuffled) of SET UP AS + P (page) |
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| 40 | ZONK | hIt | Tailpiece of fez on king’s smart hat (4) / Z (last letter, or tailpiece) of feZ) + ON + K (king) |
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| 41 | THORN | doorN | Musical instrument follows intro to The Doors, perhaps (5) / T (first letter, or intro, of The) + HORN (musical instrument) |
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| 42 | FIELDER | baTter | Flipping umpire accepts demented idle banter? No, not this one (7) / F_ER (ref, or umpire, flipped) around (accepting) IELD (anag, i.e. demented, of IDLE) |
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| 43 | SEERESS | Prophet’s subject to strain losing time acquiring Early English (7) / S(T)_RESS (subject to strain, losing T – time) around EE (Early English) |
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| 44 | NASTY | Hateful | Fateful hush in course of negative vote (5) / NA_Y (negative vote) around ST (interjection, hush!) |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Corrected Misprint | Clue (definition underlined, misprinted word in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | BASSET | Ears | Queer beasts, breed of hound with long bars (6) / anag (i.e. queer) of BEASTS |
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| 2 | EFFECTIVE RATE | Dramatically vet fierce fate for currency’s deviation from parity (13, two words) / anag (i.e. dramatically) of VET FIERCE FATE |
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| 3 | TOMATO | Fruit’s extremely arresting dull surface (6) / TO_O (extremely) around (arresting) MAT (dull surface) |
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| 4 | HOSPICE | cAre | Establishment for cure of the dying, house with element providing interest (7) / HO (house) + SPICE (element providing interest) |
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| 5 | ARCH | Cunning structure of wedge-shaped stones? (4) / double defn. ARCH can be cunning; and also a wedge-shaped structure of stones |
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| 7 | ABOMASAL | Accepted old measurement entering at the lowest level of cow’s true stomach (8) / A (accepted) + B_ASAL (at the lowest level) around OM (old measurement) |
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| 8 | SUR | On French limitless taking of interest on loans (3) / (U)SUR(Y) – taking of interest on loasn, without its ‘limiting’ letters |
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| 9 | ONIONED | Differently done in orchard at first produced by means of a bulb (7) / anag (i.e. diffrently) of DONE IN + O (first letter of orchard) |
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| 10 | RAID THE MARKET | Artificially upset stock prices, make third-rate changes (13, three words) / anag (i.e. changes) of MAKE THIRD RATE |
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| 11 | YESSES | Words expressing joy of actual existence in empty years (6) / Y_S (’empty’ YearS) around ESSE (actual existence) |
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| 16 | SNARED | Toil | In a boil, growled aggressively, losing control finally (6) / SNAR(L)ED – growled aggressively, losing L (final letter of controL) |
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| 18 | ICE BEER | White Arctic creature has energy for taste of awful strong lager (7, two words) / ICE-BE(A)R – white Arctic creature, with E (energy) for A (first letter, or taste, of Awful) |
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| 22 | RUMPUS | rackeT | Racked cut of beef, universal success at first (6) / RUMP (cut of beef) + US (first letters of Universal and Success) |
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| 24 | HANDGUNS | fIrearms | Hot and comfortable, raised forearms (8) / H (hot) + AND + GUNS (snug, or comfortable, raised) |
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| 26 | EJECTOR | Person dispossessing another, one who refuses to accept, losing head (7) / (R)EJECTOR – one who refuses to accept, losing ‘head’ |
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| 27 | NETIZEN | North eastern raised spot with space for enthusiastic surfer (7) / NE (North Eastern) + TIZ (zit, or spot, raised) + EN (space, in printing) |
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| 29 | ADEPTS | aCes | Ages past, English and Dutch reformed (6) / anag, i.e. reformed, of PAST + E (English) + D (Dutch) |
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| 31 | CANOLA | Oil container regularly on loan (6) / CAN (container) + OLO (regular letters of ‘On LoAn’ |
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| 32 | MISERY | Wretchedness of gambling stake ruthlessly emptied out (6) / MISE (gambling stake) + RY (RuthlesslY emptied out) |
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| 37 | ASIA | Continent’s area, three quarters of section of earth’s crust (4) / A (area) + SIA(L) – three quarters of SIAL, section of the earth’s crust) |
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| 39 | ERE | Prior to lesson in Gordonstoun, lecturer’s missing (3) / (L)ERE – learning, or lesson, in Scotland, i.e. Gordonstoun) – losing L (lecturer) |
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I studied Jane Eyre many years ago at school; obviously too many years ago as I had no memory of the name Bertha Mason and had to look it up. Nice gentle stuff from Chalicea. It seemed a bit odd to have to highlight AND, however. I could understand if it were part of a group of cells with the two names, but on its own? Strange.
mc_rapper67, many thanks for that lovely warm and encouraging blog. It seems to me to be a shame that, unlike the IQ where there is a welcome outpouring of comments, your masterful blogs receive very little input – but I promise, we do read them. Such a shame, too, to have that ‘Jane Austen’-sized gap. I am a far greater admirer of her works than of the Bronte ones and will attempt to produce an Austen crossword one of these days.
Mike, this was set long, long ago (actually for the previous EV Editor, James Leonard, who did the vetting – poor Chris inherited it with its flaws) and putting the AND JANE in that way was the nearest I could get to symmetry in those relatively early days of compiling.
Thanks, Chalicea, for your kind words, and the background to this puzzle…and for gently pointing out the ‘Bronte-o-saurean’-sized gap in my literary knowledge…DOH!…