TLS Crossword 1167 by Broteas – March 17, 2017

it’s time once again for our family to come out of hibernation and return to rural New York where we rely on the town library for internet connection on weekends.  In case of trouble I’ve given my local phone number to our boss Vinyl who lives somewhere over the border in Connecticut.  When we were last there it was BT (Before Trump) – it seems a very long time ago.  If I miss the early comments on a Friday I’ll check in and reply on Sunday or Monday.  Definitions in italics underlined.  Answers in bold caps.  In several cases here the whole clue is the definition.

Across

1. Like one sure if another fails, following twenty-nine distinct damnations (10)
CATALECTIC.  Tricky.  The reference is to Robert Browning’s poem Soliloquy Of The Spanish Cloister, which is composed in this verse form where a syllable is dropped from the beginning or end of a line.  No quotation marks to point the way so it took some exasperated flailing about before I got the drift.  The relevant part of the poem reads:

There’s a great text in Galatians,
Once you trip on it, entails
Twenty-nine distinct damnations,
One sure, if another fails.

The poem is addressed to a hated fellow monk, Brother Lawrence.  I haven’t read much of Browning since A Level English when we “did” My Last Duchess, and this wasn’t familiar.
7.  Brian or Erica, fighting a war in ’74 (4)
TATE.  The War Between The Tates is a 1974 novel of American campus life in the 60s by Alison Lurie.  The title seems to be a play on “The war between the States” i.e. the American Civil War.  It was made into a movie in 1977.
9.  Shakespeare’s Roman bull (6)
TAURUS.  Caesar’s lieutenant in Antony And Cleopatra.  For people who go in for astrology Shakespeare is a Taurus (late April birthday).
10.  Leading character from Wagner and another German seen in Rolling Stone (8)
WANDERER.  W[agner] with ANDERER=another in German.  Fortunately you didn’t have to know any German to get this.  Unfortunately it reminded me of The Happy Wanderer song which was on the radio ad nauseam in my early childhood.
11.  One in wild abandoned, in Scandinavian tales of summer (9,4)
DANDELION WINE.  Nostalgic non-sci-fi 50s novel by Ray Bradbury.  DANE=Scandinavian containing anagram (abandoned) of ONE IN WILD.
13.  A girl meeting priests, we hear, and a judge’s lover (3,7)
ANN VICKERS.  ANN=girl.  VICKERS sounds like (we hear) vicars=priests.  She is the protagonist of the 30s novel by Sinclair Lewis, later made into a movie.
15.  A Pre-Raphaelite beginning, which failed to take off (4)
GERM.  As in beginning, not bug.  It was the name of a magazine started by the Brotherhood in 1850 which did not survive its fourth issue.  I suppose I’d better confess how I went off the rails.  I had G*R* and the Lawrence theme.  So first I thought of Alma-Tadema who Anglicized his first name to Lawrence – that was the Pre-R beginning.  Then I proceeded to T.E. Lawrence and the Great Arab Revolt, which didn’t really get off the ground either in spite of a lot of picturesque trotting about on camels.  That got me to GAR* but then what?  Just threw in the towel and threw in P as in “proclamation'” or “project”.  Yes I know.  I’ve never liked Pre-R art anyway – not out of snobbery but ever since I happened upon a version of the Morte D’Arthur with their creepy illustrations when I was about 9.
16.  Star part in kidology (4)
IDOL.  [k]IDOL[ogy].  I think we had that word in an Anax puzzle once.  Hmmm.
18.  One giving advice on ugly acne, perhaps (5,5)
AGONY UNCLE.  Very neat.  Anagram (perhaps) of ON UGLY ACNE.
21.  The last line of Raleigh’s last poem?  (3,10)
THE CONCLUSION.  Sir Walter may have revised an earlier poem into this 8-line version written in the Tower before his execution. He’d been imprisoned for long periods under Elizabeth and James and had dodged death enough times to be ready for it by then.  It was found in his Bible afterwards.
23.  Byzantine raids in a location visited by Lawrence (8)
SARDINIA.  Anagram (Byzantine) of RAIDS IN A.  Sea And Sardinia is one of D.H. Lawrence’s travel books from the 1920s.
24.  One with a gentle master, reflecting nothing in drama, for example (6)
TRANIO.  He is the servant of Lucentio, suitor of Bianca, in The Taming Of The Shrew.  O=nothing with IN and ART=drama, all reversed (reflecting).
26. A philosopher?  Yes, that’s right (4)
AYER.  Alfred Jules.  AYE=yes with R.
27.  The horsemen of Babel? (3,7)
RED CAVALRY.  1920s collection of short Russian stories by Isaac Babel.

Down

2.  A row about a boy’s story that was added in translation (7)
ALADDIN.  A DIN=row containing (about) LAD=boy.  The tale was not originally one of the 1001 Nights stories told by Scherezade, and was not from Arabia but from China.  It was added to the collection by 18th Century translator Antoine Galland.
3.  In a song, a place for a castle?
AIR.  Double definition.
4. One in an English school is a girl (5)
ELSIE.  E[nglish] LSE=school containing I=one.
5.  Master writer‘s article about something small (1,1,5)
T.H. WHITE.  The Master was a 1950s sci-fi novel of his.  THE=article containing (about) WHIT=something small.  I may have been thinking of T.E. Lawrence because I entered an E instead of an H.
6.  Heartless deception’s seen through in a Victorian attempt to influence public opinion (9)
CONINGSBY.  CON[N]ING’S=deception’s without the N in the middle (heartless) BY=through.  1844 novel by Benjamin Disraeli set in the Reform era of the 1830s.
7.  Lawrence’s last work was on this version of a story of unlikely romance (3,4,3,1)
THE KING AND I.  That’s Gertrude Lawrence.  Her final stage performance was with Yul Brynner in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical.
8. The most remarkable horror story about Jordan, by Thomas Kenneally (3,4)
THE FEAR.  Autobiographical 1960s novel with a protagonist named Danny Jordan.  I’m not sure where “most remarkable” comes in.
12.  Victorian author, possibly writing for this person (5,6)
NOVEL READER.  NOVEL=new.  READE (Charles)=Victorian author.  R=writing – one of the three.
14.  “What’s yours is mine” we could say to this big shot (4,5)
COAL OWNER. My only hesitation was in thinking of the ownership of the pit rather than the product.
17.  Dry atomic nitrogen in home-made gas plant (7)
DITTANY.  TT=dry and AN=atomic nitrogen contained in DIY=home-made.  Apparently it exudes a flammable vapour, thus the name.
19.  A source of cherries or something else to eat (7)
ORCHARD. Thank goodness – a write-in.  OR with CHARD – the fashionable veggie, or am I thinking of kale?
20.  More bony flank I erroneously embraced (7)
LANKIER.  And another write-in, just in time.  Hidden in [f]LANK ER[roneously].
22.  Extreme intelligence (5)
ULTRA.  Double definition.  Intelligence – see Bletchley.
25.  A new top-quality collection of memories (3)
ANA.  A N[ew] A=top-quality.  VictoriANA etc.