TLS 843 (6th August)

Author   linxitPosted on Categories Other Crosswords
This was a real struggle – less than half completed when I had to give up and start Googling. Even then it was no picnic, and I had to come back to it a couple of days later to finish.

Across
1 OEILLADE – a quotation, and probably an OED citation.
5 ROXANA – Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress is a 1724 novel by
9 WHEATLEY – (Way Ethel)*. I read a lot of Dennis Wheatley novels when I was in my teens, as my dad had the complete set. I didn’t know he was acknowledged as an authority on satanism though, although a lot of the books are about it (particularly the Duc de Richleau series).
10 RACHEL – The Rachel Papers was Amis’s first novel, in 1983.
12 LYALL – hidden in “terribly allergic”. This would be Gavin Lyall (never heard of him, I’m afraid).
13 SCHONBERG – “beautiful mountain” is a direct translation of his name into English (although the O should have an umlaut over it).
14 A MAN OF HONOUR – 1903 play by W. Somerset Maugham, or an 1873 novel by US writer George Cary Eggleston (as A Man of Honor).
18 CASINO ROYALE – (Easily croon a)*. The clue doesn’t ask for it, but this was Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel. There’s also a real Casino Royale in Las Vegas though.
21 HIPPOCOON – (Chopin op. (“0”))*. In Greek mythology, Hippocoön was a Spartan prince who overthrew his brother Tyndareus to become king. Hercules killed him and all his sons, and reinstated his brother.
23 TRUTH – The Truth is one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, published in 2000. Émile Zola wrote Vérité (published posthumously in 1903), but I don’t understand the “some of the time” bit.
24 UNITED – quotation from Shakespeare.
25 GIRONDIN – double definition.
26 ESMOND – (Demons)*. The History of Henry Esmond (1852), by Thackeray.
27 INN SIGNS – Rose and Crown is the 5th volume of Seán O’Casey’s six-volume autobiography, The Green Man (1952) is a novel by Storm Jameson, and The Red Bull (1938) is a Nero Wolfe murder mystery by Rex Stout. They’re all also common pub names (although I don’t think I’ve ever been in one called The Red Bull).

Down
1 OSWALD – from King Lear, Act 4 Scene 6 (just after he’s killed Oswald), Edgar says “I know thee well: a serviceable villain”.
2 ICEMAN – The Iceman Cometh, 1939 play by Eugene O’Neill.
3 LITTLE MEN – a sequel to Little Women by Louisa M. Alcott, and a reference to the Lilliputians in Gulliver’s Travels.
4 DRESSING ROOM – DRESSING (decorating) + ROOM (space). Wow, a straight cryptic clue!
6 OWAIN – O + WAIN. Owain Glyndŵr was the last native Welsh Prince of Wales, back in the 14th century.
7 ASHKELON – an ancient city in Israel, which I’d vaguely heard of (enough to check once I had three of the crossing letters). I have no idea what the royal publishing ban has to do with it though.
8 ALLEGORY – ALL + E(ast) + GORY
11 THE FLYING INN – 1914 novel by G. K. Chesterton.
15 OBLATIONS – (to albinos)*. Is “unique” supposed to be an anagram indicator? Sheesh!
16 ICEHOUSE – The Ice House (1992), Minette Walters’ first crime novel. Strange enumeration in the online version – (3.5)(8). Their software has been doing weird things lately though.
17 PSEPHISM – the clue is a paraphrase of Chambers’ definition of the word: “a decree of the Athenian assembly (from their voting with pebbles)”. psephos is Greek for a pebble.
19 SUN DOG – 2002 novel by Monique Roffey, and ref. the Noel Coward song “Mad Dogs And Englishmen Go Out In The Midday Sun”.
20 THINGS – Things As They Are, a 1794 novel by William Godwin, or a 1964 novel by Paul Horgan.
22 OCEAN – The Golden Ocean (1956), an early novel by Patrick O’Brian which predates his famous Jack Aubrey series by over a decade.

One comment on “TLS 843 (6th August)”

  1. 24:28 (1 wrong). I didn’t find this one too bad, and would have been well under 20 minutes if I’d thought of ICE HOUSE straight away. When I eventually got it, I couldn’t think why on earth it had taken me so long; and once I had the U and E to help me with UNITED and ESMOND the rest of the SW corner came out very quickly … apart, that is, from PSEPHISM, where I was torn between that and PSEPHIUM and eventually opted for the latter.

    I couldn’t come up with a satisfactory explanation for “some of the time” in 23A. A Hugh McLeave wrote A Moment of Truth: The Life of Zola, so perhaps there’s a reference there.

    On the other hand ASHKELON was one of my easy wins. King David’s lament for Saul and Jonathan (2 Samuel 1:17-27) includes the verse (1:20) “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised exult.”

    PS: Thanks for kindly agreeing to blog this puzzle – it’s easier for my brain to cope if you blog the odd-numbered ones and I blog the even-numbered. I’ll try to remember to blog the next acrostic.

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