The now traditional Guardian Bank Holiday jumbo puzzle by Maskarade. For some reason, the Guardian chose to print the solution (upside down) immediately below the puzzle in the printed paper. Those solving via the website had to click on a separate link to access the solution. Those who subscribe to the Guardian app did not get offered this puzzle at all! Because there is no prize, and because the solution is immediately available, we have decided to publish this blog early on Monday.
The special instructions read: Sixteen clues consist of anagrams of thematic material, always presented in the right order.
The thematic clues all shared a similar enumeration pattern. Timon and I decided not to try and crack the anagrams before we had some crossing letters, so we decided to solve the normal clues first. These were mainly straightforward, although not all were to be found in the dictionary. The more obscure entries, such as JEONG and NEALE were very fairly clued. The grid, as is usual for these Jumbos, was 23 x 23, but two across clues, at 8 and 69 both had three consecutive unches (unchecked letters), which would not normally be allowed.
The theme was works of literature, followed by the author’s name. Once it became apparent, working out the anagrams was mostly pretty routine, although for some reason Maskarade included three titles in French. In one case, the author’s initials were included (D H Lawrence); in others both first name and surname (e.g. George Eliot), and in others just the surname (e.g. Dickens). The enumerations made all this clear.
As always, congratulations to Maskarade for what must have been a mammoth exercise in grid-filling, not to mention working out all those anagrams!
| ACROSS | ||
| 5/57 | ODES/HORACE |
Red Sea coho (4; 6)
|
| The first thematic clue, though by no means the first that we solved. | ||
| 8/33 | L’ETRANGER/CAMUS |
Clear arguments (9; 5)
|
| One of two works by Albert Camus. | ||
| 14 | LISZT |
Composer‘s catalogue suggested (5)
|
| Sounds like “list”. | ||
| 15 | ETHEL |
Merman provided discreet help, to some extent (5)
|
| Hidden in “discret help”. | ||
| 19 | OVERACTED |
Ted, Vera and co., bemused, piled it on (9)
|
| *(TED VERA CO). | ||
| 20 | WASH |
Stand up in shower (4)
|
| Double definition, just about. Something that stands up to scrutiny might be said to “wash”. | ||
| 22/10/55 | LAVENGRO/GEORGE BORROW |
Begorra! Verger won logo! (8; 6,6)
|
| George Borrow was a 19th century author, best remembered now for this novel and The Romany Rye. | ||
| 24/10/12 | ADAM BEDE/GEORGE ELIOT |
Maid googled ‘bee eater’ (4,4; 6,5)
|
| Another authorial George. | ||
| 26 | NIHILIST |
Heart of philistine turned for one who denies all (8)
|
| *(p)HILISTIN(e). | ||
| 29 | HUMERUS |
Bone’s bad smell certain to return (7)
|
| HUM (bad smell) SURE (rev). | ||
| 31 | DECRIERS |
Reconsider, without working around critics (8)
|
| *REC(on)SIDER. “Around” is the anagram indicator; “without working” tells us to delete ON from the fodder. | ||
| 32 | ACEDIA |
Outstanding helper somehow became sloth (6)
|
| ACE (outstanding), AID (rev) (a helper). This seems to me to be perilously close to an indirect anagram, in that the solver has to think of a word meaning helper and change its format. | ||
| 36 | COR |
My small book or two (3)
|
| COR (pus) (a body of writings, hence books). | ||
| 37 | JEROME |
If thematic, name in full would appear twice pocketing Scandinavian currency (6)
|
| JEROME K(rone) JEROME. in fact the initial K stood for Klapka, the name of an exiled Hungarian general who was staying with the family at the time of his birth. | ||
| 38/1 | LOLITA/NABOKOV |
Look at oval bin (6; 7)
|
| Published in 1955. | ||
| 39 | MACED |
Just over half the mixture is sprayed with tear gas (5)
|
| MACEDoine (a mixture of vegetables or fruit in jelly). | ||
| 41 | EBONY |
Blackwood, bridge player, rather gaunt (5)
|
| E (bridge players are referred to by the points of the compass) BONY (rather gaunt). You have to read the definition as being split into two words. Easley Blackwood was the inventor of a convention used in bridge to enable players to ascertain the number of aces and kings held by their partner. | ||
| 43 | ABBESS |
Nun and mariner live next to ship (6)
|
| AB (Able seaman, sailor) BE (live) SS (ship). | ||
| 44 | ELI |
Priest met Old Vic’s central characters (3)
|
| Central characters of mEt oLd vIc. | ||
| 46 | ARETES |
Fixed time around rugged ridges (6)
|
| SET (fixed) ERA (time) (all rev). | ||
| 47 | LATE SHOW |
Hotel was re-designed for David Letterman’s programme (4,4)
|
| *(HOTEL WAS). | ||
| 48/33 | LA PESTE/CAMUS |
Use place mats (2,5; 5)
|
| The second work by Camus. | ||
| 51/16 | THE TRIAL/KAFKA |
Faith! Take Karl (3,5; 5)
|
| With the help of a few useful crossers, this was our entry into the theme. | ||
| 53 | BERRYING |
Picking fruit and cereal grain and serving gin (8)
|
| BERRY (which can mean cereal grain) *GIN. | ||
| 59 | ORANGERY |
Park officer entered old yard with indoor fruit trees (8)
|
| RANGER (park officer) inside O(ld) Y(ard). | ||
| 60 | IDOL |
Figure one has only half a buck (4)
|
| 1 DOL(lar) (half a buck). | ||
| 61 | BARCELONA |
Olympic venue with watering hole about to entertain billionaire (9)
|
| BAR (watering hole), ELON (Musk) (billionaire) inside CA (about). | ||
| 64 | ROTOR |
It turns round and round and round!(5)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to the fact that the word is a palindrome. | ||
| 67 | JEONG |
To start with, just explain our new grand Korean concept of an unspoken emotonal bond (5)
|
| Initial letters (“to start with”) of Just Explain Our New Grand. This word isn’t to be found in either Chambers or Collins, but was easily verifiable online and the clue was very fair, giving all the letters unambiguously. | ||
| 68 | NEALE |
Hymnodist from mid-Tyrone – a legend (5)
|
| Hidden in “mid-Tyrone a legend”. Another one we had to check online and sadly not an & lit, as he was born in London. Among other hymns, he is perhaps best known for writing Good King Wenceslas. | ||
| 69 | WAREHOUSE |
Audibly question the location of domestic store (9)
|
| Sounds like “where house?”. | ||
| 70 | TERM |
Some semester mainly (4)
|
| Hidden in “semester mainly”. | ||
| 71/58/37D | ULYSSES/JAMES JOYCE |
July mess ceases – joy! (7; 5,5)
|
| Published in 1922. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 3 | OUTLANDER |
Unconscious by a heavy blow, one not from around here (9)
|
| OUT (unconscious) LANDER (a heavy blow). | ||
| 4 | OVERT |
Finished last in sprint – that’s clear (5)
|
| OVER (finished) (sprin)T. | ||
| 7 | SUK |
Dvorak’s son-in-law at market place (3)
|
| Double definition: Josef Suk was a composer and violinist who married the daughter of Antonin Dvorak. | ||
| 8 | LEFT |
Went away with the French paper (4)
|
| LE (French for “the”) FT (Financial Times, newspaper). | ||
| 9 | ANSWERS |
One blasphemes without adult responses (7)
|
| AN (one) SWE(a)RS (blasphemes without adult). | ||
| 11 | RATION |
Helping to remove beer from account (6)
|
| RATION(ale) (account). | ||
| 13/42 | PHEDRE/RACINE |
Enriched pear (6; 6)
|
| Another French work. It’s a tragedy in five acts written in verse. | ||
| 17 | ARABLE |
Old discourse, priest forgot to be cultivated (6)
|
| (p) ARABLE (old discourse). Here P is the abbreviation for priest. | ||
| 21/63/2 | SANDITON/JANE AUSTEN |
Don Juan at sea in nets (8; 4,6)
|
| Austen’s last novel, unfinished. | ||
| 23/6 | THE RAINBOW/DH LAWRENCE |
Draw on bent wheel-chair (3,7; 1,1,8)
|
| Published in 1915. | ||
| 25 | MISERERE |
One’s interrupting this compiler twice about Allegri composition (8)
|
| IS (one’s) inside ME (this compiler), RE RE (about, twice). | ||
| 28/34 | HARD TIMES/DICKENS |
Manchester kid’s ID (4,5; 7)
|
| Published in 1854. | ||
| 30 | MARLOWE |
Fictional detective depressed, carried by horse (7)
|
| LOW (depressed) inside (carried by) MARE (horse). The reference is to Philip Marlowe, Raymond Chandler’s private detective. | ||
| 31 | DEMOCRATIC |
About to include Republican leader amid vernacular reference to his opponents (10)
|
| R(epublican) inside CA (about), all inside DEMOTIC (vernacular). | ||
| 35/56/18 | WAVERLEY/WALTER SCOTT |
Travel to West Crawley (8; 6,5)
|
| Walter Scott’s first novel, published in 1814. | ||
| 40 | UNSEALED |
Convertible used lane that’s not yet open (8)
|
| *(USED LANE). I’m not entirely happy with the definition here: “unsealed” can mean “opened” or “not sealed”, so I wonder if Maskarade meant to say “not yet closed”? | ||
| 45/65 | THE BELL JAR/PLATH |
Tell BT – ‘Help rajah’ (3,3,4; 5)
|
| There’s an enumeration error in the clue, which should of course read 3,4,3. The novel was published in 1963. | ||
| 49/27 | PENDENNIS/THACKERAY |
Ninety dark sheep can (9; 9)
|
| Novel published in 1848-50 by Thackeray. | ||
| 50 | STIR UP |
Instigate prison rising (4,2)
|
| A simple charade. | ||
| 52 | HOGARTH |
Engraver, stop on courtyard (7)
|
| HO (command to a horse to stop) GARTH (courtyard). | ||
| 54/56/18 | ROB ROY/WALTER SCOTT |
Rectory blast or two (3,3; 6,5)
|
| Another work by Scott, published in 1817. | ||
| 62 | RIGEL |
State hair product for star (5)
|
| RI (Rhode Island, state) GEL (hair product). | ||
| 66 | HUT |
Regular haunt that’s in the garden (3)
|
| Alternate (regular) letters in HaUnT. |
AID(helper) also bothered me in ACEDIA as being close to an indirect anagram and I think would have been better with a reversal indicator, but its 3 letter shortness is a mitigating factor. My only other bit of a struggle was BERRYING, where I read the clue as “picking fruit and (picking) cereal grain…” and then wondered whether “serving gin” was redundant.
Thank you – really enjoyed this one. I parsed COR as the abbreviation (“small”) of Corinthians (“book or two”). But I do like COR(pus) as well.
Also noticed that 46 (ARETES) was copied clue-and-all from another recent Maskarade. Though I can’t be mad because I didn’t solve it the first time around 😀
The Bel Ljar by Sylvi Aplath.
I’m dubious about 69 – surely a house is a domicile, not a “domestic”. Thanks bridgesong for all the parsings (I was stumped by half a dozen), and Maskarade for the challenge.