Crossword 277: Outer Space

Alfred Fowler Patten, The Child and the Star

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Had enough of this blighted ball, this suffering sphere, this ghastly globe?  Fly with me to outer space!  It’s time for me to confirm what you’ve long suspected.  How, you’ve asked yourselves and each other, could any mere earthling come up, fortnight after fortnight, with such brilliant puzzles?  In fact I come from the planet Lapnet—a happy place, where hipster slang, and euphemism, and jargon, and brand names, and paid athletes, and Hollywood celebrities, are unknown.

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277-Outer-Space.puz

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277 In Outer Space

Novel 277: Coulson Kernahan, Scoundrels & Co. (1899)

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A writer accidentally joins a group of professional terrorists and frustrates their plots.

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John Coulson Kernahan (1858-1943), a journalist and critic as well as a novelist, wrote a dozen or so works of fiction; this one is notable for its rapid succession of thrilling incidents and its witty style.

“A most ingeniously imagined series of adventures.” Bookman, August, 1901

“Mr. Kernahan’s detective stories are rather different from anyone else’s.  This sort of literature usually attracts either by being very horrible or by being very ingenious—or by both.  Mr. Kernahan is not quite either; he seldom tries to be blood-curdling, and then generally fails; while both his characters and his incidents are too frankly impossible to earn him a reputation for ingenuity.  What, then, is the secret of his success?  It appears to lie in his briskness and geniality, in the attitude of tolerant alacrity with which he is always ready to oblige . . . his readers.” Manchester Guardian, March 27, 1901

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https://archive.org/details/scoundrelsco00chicgoog

Crossword 276: Not Now

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Not now!  I’ll try to think up something to say about this week’s crossword eventually, but right now I’m just too busy.  It seems like everybody needs me all the time.  This person wants me to help with this thing, and that person wants my advice on that thing, and this other person hasn’t seen me in ages, and that other person thinks she may as well cancel the party if I don’t come.  People are counting on me, and I can’t let them down.  So I’m sorry—I’ve got to go right now; but I hope you like the puzzle anyway.

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276-Not Now.puz

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276 Not Now

Novel 276: Clementina Black, Orlando (1880)

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A good man loves a good woman betrothed to a bad man.

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Clementina Black (1853-1923), whose sister was the translator Constance Garnett, was a feminist and labor activist as well as the author of a dozen or so works of fiction.

“There is a pathetic charm in Miss Black’s stories which must compel the sympathy of her readers”; this is “distinctly a clever, wholesome, and affecting romance.” Athenaeum, January 17, 1880

“We can . . . speak well of Orlando, and, but for certain longueurs in it, we could speak very well. . . .  There is some freshness about most of the characters. . . .  The book is rather one of those which one reads with a pleasant and equable feeling of satisfaction than one of those which deserve the terms ‘enthralling,’ ‘entrancing,’ ‘engrossing,’ or any other of the usual laudatory participles.  But of its kind it is very far from unsuccessful.” Academy, January 24, 1880

“Miss Black has woven an interesting and touching story out of simple and natural materials.” Saturday Review, April 10, 1880

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/orlando01blac

v.2 https://archive.org/details/orlando02blac

v.3 https://archive.org/details/orlando03blac

Crossword 275: Alien Invasion

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I pity the poverty of imagination that forces so many crossword constructors to draw on other people’s movies and television shows when they want to add to their puzzles some of the excitement of interstellar warfare.  Here, in the constraints of a 15 x 15 puzzle, with no outside assistance, I create my very  own science-fiction universe.  I expect an avalanche of Hollywood sequels, and commercial tie-ins, and fan-fiction sites, to follow in due course.

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275-Alien-Invasion.puz

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275 Alien Invasion

Novel 275: Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd, The World We Live In (1884)

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After five years in Baluchistan, a man returns to Scotland to pursue the woman he loves, now widowed.

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Oswald John Frederick Crawfurd (1834-1909), aside from writing some ten novels, was British consul at Oporto from 1866-1890.

“A very good story, told with skill, taste, and what in music is called brio. . . . The talk is excellent, various, natural . . . ; characteristic, so that we know the talkers, and make mental portraits of them.” Spectator, July 5, 1884

“A capital novel.  It is lively and sparkling throughout, and one can only regret that it is so short.” Athenaeum, July 5, 1884

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Crossword 274: Specialists

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I am often asked, “Why are your crosswords so much better than other people’s crosswords?”  The answer—specialization!  As I’ve said before, “I” am (is?) not a single person, but a collective, diverse in age, and race, and gender, and everything else imaginable, including skills.  So there is a specialist for Down answers, and another, altogether different, specialist for Across answers; there are specialists for clues, for blocks, for partial phrases, for abbreviations.  An entire department, with its own vice-president, handles the crosswordese.  There is a letter-addition team and a letter-subtraction team, a punning team and a parsing team.  Doesn’t this cost a lot?  Sure it does!  But you the solver deserve the best, and here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Victorian Novel Recommender, the best is just what you always get.

Special thanks to test-solver Charles Montpetit for coming up with some of the theme material in today’s puzzle.

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274-Specialists.puz

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274 Specialists

Novel 274: Thomas Bailey Aldrich, The Stillwater Tragedy (1880)

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In a New England town plagued by labor troubles, a detective searches for a murderer.

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Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), editor of the Atlantic Monthly from 1881-1890, published a dozen or so works of fiction, in addition to much poetry and criticism.  The Stillwater Tragedy features a murder mystery and a labor strike.

“The faithful potrayal of life in a manufacturing village; the distinct and vivid etchings of character; the graceful turns of fancy and humor; the simple and wholesome love affair; the naturalness, purity, and equipoise with which the story is told, all mark it as one of the best of Aldrich’s prose performances.” Louisville Courier-Journal, September 3, 1880

“The book is something much better than a novel of the familiar detective class. . . .  the plot is not used as a mere framework on which to display the delicately drawn pictures by which Mr. Aldrich has long been known and admired; the incidents of the story are used not only to illustrate but to develop the characters of the chief personages. . . .  The book has a symmetry of form and an evenness of texture which show the hand of the true artist.” New York Tribune, September 12, 1880

A contrasting view:

“It is all very clever, astonishingly clever.  But it is a kind of cold, cynical brilliancy which in a short story may be very entertaining, but which in a novel soon palls upon one’s taste.” Scribner’s, November 1880

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/stillwatertraged01aldriala

v.2 https://archive.org/details/stillwatertraged02aldriala

Crossword 273: Running Short

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What with supply-chain issues and some strategic downsizing, our store of words has been sadly depleted.  A long course of severe weather has shut down the mines from which we imported most of our homophones. And of course a small concern like ours can’t hope to compete with the big players while the global anagram shortage keeps driving up prices.  So for now we’re going to have to make do with fewer theme answers and smaller words, such as you’ll find in today’s puzzle.

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273-Running Short.puz

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273 Running Short

Novel 273: Peter Hay Hunter and Walter Whyte, My Ducats and My Daughter (1884)

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The poor nephew of a Scottish industrialist pursues a career in journalism.

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I can discover nothing about Walter Whyte. Peter Hay Hunter (1854-1909), a minister in the church of Scotland, wrote some seven novels. This one is particularly interesting for its carefully realized setting, a badly polluted Scottish industrial town.

It is “both in point of conception and execution . . . above the average of the ordinary novel”; “the style is vigorous and unaffected” and the author “possesses a considerable fund of shrewd humour.” Athenaeum, May 17, 1884

“It is written in clear, flowing, idiomatic English; the plot, without being trite and commonplace, is consistent and probable; there are three or four very well drawn characters in it.” Academy, May 24, 1884

“It is evidently written by a man who knows the world. . . .  The style is sufficiently lively to keep the reader wide awake. . .   The more finished characters are carefully and consistently drawn.” Saturday Review, July 12, 1884

A contrasting view:

“While the book is amusing, the story is ill-constructed, and its materials of almost venerable antiquity.” Spectator, July 12, 1884

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/myducatsmydaught01hunt

v.2 https://archive.org/details/myducatsmydaught02hunt

v.3 https://archive.org/details/myducatsmydaught03hunt

Crossword 272: Out of the Past

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Have you seen “Out of the Past”—the 1947 movie directed by Jacques Tourneur, starring Robert MItchum, Jane Greer, and Kirk Douglas, adapted by Daniel Mainwaring from his 1946 novel?  If not, do so right away!  It’s one of the best movies ever made!  I had to watch it half a dozen times to figure out its plot (and there are still some points I’m not quite clear on), but I enjoyed it every time.  I’d have hired the same cast and director for this puzzle, if puzzles had casts and directors, and if they weren’t all dead.

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272-Out-of-the-Past.puz

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272 Out of the Past

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A crossword of mine appears Friday, March 17, in Universal Crossword

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Novel 272: Catherine Crowe, The Adventures of a Beauty (1852)

John Everett Millais, The Farmer's Daughter

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A farmer’s daughter secretly marries a baronet’s heir.

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For Crowe, see Novel 023.

“There are few writers who possess an equal ability with Mrs. Crowe, of throwing her characters into complications, and dextrously disentangling them.” Bentley’s Miscellany, January, 1852

It may be “enjoyed as one enjoys the feats of a conjuror who can make a card fly out of the pack into a gentleman’s pocket or a lady’s reticule, and restore it to its proper place.” Westminster Review, April, 1852

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https://archive.org/details/10892458.1980.emory.edu

Crossword 271: A Plus

William Powell Frith, A Dream of the Future

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Only after I gave this puzzle its title did I remember having already made a crossword called “A Minus” (Crossword 005). Someday soon I’ll construct a puzzle and find, to my horror, that it’s exactly the same puzzle—in theme, grid, fill, and clues—as the one I constructed last year, or month, or week.  And when that happens I’ll put an end to this website at last and turn to my other lifelong dream—mastering the accordion.

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271-A-Plus.puz

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271 A Plus

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A crossword of mine will appear Saturday, March 4, in the Wall Street Journal.

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Novel 271: Frances Cashel Hoey, Griffith’s Double (1876)

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An adventurer schemes to marry an Australian heiress.

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For Cashel Hoey, see Novels 067, 153.

The novel “deserves the success which is earned by a well-thought-out and elaborate plot, a clear style, and incidental tokens of both humorous and pathetic insight.” Athenaeum, August 5, 1876

“This is a very clever novel.  But . . . there are sins against credibility in these volumes, and sins against art. . . .  There may be graphic sketches of scenery and character . . . but the mind of the reader becomes bewildered when there is a mass of detail of the most intricate description, which takes away his capability to follow the real purport of the story.  We think that in the novel before us Mrs. Cashel Hoey has jumped from crag to crag of invention with wonderful agility, but others will find a difficulty in keeping up with her during these really marvellous feats. . . .  The story is well written, and much ingenuity is displayed in its conception and evolution.” Examiner, August 26, 1876

“The plot of ‘Griffith’s Double’ is complicated beyond all necessity.  The real strength of the book lies in its very pleasant and kindly tone, and in the quiet humour of the descriptions of life in the country town of Wrottesley.” Pall Mall Gazette, September 5, 1876

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v.1 https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003FB82#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-336%2C0%2C3190%2C1952

v.2 https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003FB88#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=6&xywh=-368%2C-1%2C3261%2C1995

v.3 https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000003FB8E#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=0&xywh=-1322%2C-125%2C4063%2C2485

Crossword 270: Me First

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Many advanced young crossword constructors pride themselves on making puzzles that, as they put it, “Look like me.”  I’m going them one better this week, with a puzzle that not only looks like me, but has me in it! I’m putting me first, for a change!  It’s me time!  It’s all about me!  Me!  I’ll let you solve this one; but I’m thinking about moving towards a system where I make puzzles only about me, exclusively for me.

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270-Me-First.puz

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270 Me First

Novel 270: Annie Edwardes, A Blue-Stocking (1877)

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, Boarding the Yacht

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In Jersey, a gentleman rescues a young widow’s child from drowning.

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For Edwardes, see Novels 158 and 212.

“Mrs. Edwardes is at her best in this book.  It has . . . the quiet humour which we have missed in her later works.” Spectator, October 20, 1877

“It is pleasant, bright, and inoffensive.” Saturday Review, November 24, 1877

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https://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/permalink/f/89vilt/oxfaleph014766163

Crossword 269: Wild Animals

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We tried to set up a wildlife refuge here at David Alfred Bywaters’s Crossword Cavalcade and Fortnightly Victorian Novel Recommender, out behind the smithy next to the organic garden.  But the deer kept eating the arugula, and the lions kept eating the deer, so we had to give it up.

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269-Wild-Animals.puz

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269 Wild Animals

Novel 269: Frances Milton Trollope, The Vicar of Wrexhill (1837)

James Jacques Joseph Tissot, In Church

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A widow falls under the spell of an Evangelical clergyman.

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Here is another novel by Trollope, for whom see Novels 029, 079, 138, 189, 190, and 191.

“This is certainly the best novel that Mrs. Trollope has produced, as regards dramatic execution and development of character.  It . . . shows how the highest and best feelings of our nature may be turned by evil guidance and misdirected enthusiasm.” Literary Gazette, September 16, 1837

“Never has the affectation of piety been more mercilessly lashed. . . .  Her object—a laudable one, as every one must admit, has been to show the pernicious effects of sectarian bigotry. . . .  This, Mrs. Trollope has done with unexampled vigour and ability.” Sunday Times, September 17, 1837

A contrasting view:

“To invent a succession of domestic atrocities, and then fasten them upon a particular class of religionists, proves nothing but that the author is an exceedingly illogical and absurd person. . . .  In truth this work is very disagreeable. . . .  Every thing in it is represented in excess . . . ; and the spirit of the whole is that of a perverse and tortuous mind, full of venom. . . .  Other authors contrive to get out of themselves—to lose themselves in the fiction. . . .  Mrs. Trollope never does this; she is always present to us in her books; we feel her influence in the bitter taunt, the vulgar spleen, the ill-natured reproof, the scurrilous criticism, and the giggling cant of good-breeding.” Court Magazine and Monthly Critic, October 1837

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v.1 https://archive.org/details/vicarofwrexhill01trol

v.2 https://archive.org/details/vicarofwrexhill02trol

v.3 https://archive.org/details/vicarofwrexhill03trol

Crossword 268: I Don’t Like Your Tone!

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I don’t mean your tone, gentle solver!  Studies have shown a strong positive correlation between appreciation for inventive, humorous wordplay, artistic gridding, fair but challenging clues, and all-around cruciverbal quality on the one hand, and a pleasing tone on the other.  I’m referring to everybody else’s tone.

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268-I-Don’t-Like-Your-Tone.puz

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268 I Don’t Like Your Tone

Novel 268: Noell Radecliffe, Sybilla Lockwood (1864)

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An heiress, married for her money by one bad man, is tempted by another.

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For Radecliffe, see Novels 005, 105, and 157.

“The people in Sybilla Lockwood are more like . . . ‘humans’ than people in stories usually are.” Saturday Review, July 30, 1864

“The novel is a very extraordinary one.  The subject is . . . adultery. . . . We cannot think ‘Sybilla Lockwood’ at all fitted for general reading. . . .Otherwise the execution, though not brilliant, is singularly faultless.  The motives and the conduct of the different characters bear a rational relation to each other.” Spectator, August 13, 1864

A contrasting view:

“There is not in ‘Sybilla Lockwood’ sufficient weight of interest to carry the reader through the private affairs of the numerous characters. . . .  The novel is badly constructed, being merely a bundle of personal histories, with no plot or story to bind them together.” Athenaeum, September 10, 1864

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v.1 https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004A970#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-60%2C-1%2C2737%2C2082

v.2 https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004A976#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-113%2C0%2C2609%2C1984

v.3 https://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_00000004A982#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=4&xywh=-93%2C-1%2C2674%2C2034