Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359167 times)

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1240 on: November 03, 2010, 01:23:09 AM »


Welcome to Author! Author!  

This is a game in which the contestants match their wits with a  challenger, who suggests a character in literature, non- fiction or fiction. The challenger may or may not provide more clues, his prerogative,, and never more than one a day.


Once a day the challenger will say if the guesses are correct or not. The winning contestant gets lots of acclaim and the chance to pose the next challenge. If he does not want to post a new challenge he can say so and whoever does can begin a new game.

Of course you could look these up on google in an instant, what challenge is that? The  idea is to rack one's brain to try to remember where this particular character appeared and who wrote about him/ her. Should be great fun.

The challenger also has the option not to mention the name of the character, but only a description.


Authors used so far:

Author, Book, Character, Challenger, Post#

Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot, JoanK, #752
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment, Roskolnikov, JudeS, #1209, 1213
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Dumas, Alexandre pere, The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan, PatH, #939, 941
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
Essex, Karen, Leonardo's Swans, Isabella d'Este, Mippy, #591
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Gilbert, W. S., The Savoy Operas, Frederick, or the Pirate King, #1108, 1111, 1112
Goodman, Carol, The Night Villa, the slave girl, Gumtree, # 1165
Greene, Graham, The Third Man, Holly Martins, PatH, ##1175, 1179
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  #537
James, Henry, Washington Square, straudetwo, #981, 982
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Keller, Helen, The Story of my Life, Anne Sullivan, JoanK #958
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt, JoanK, #1062
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Miller,Arthur, Death of a Salesman, Gumtree, #1005, 1006
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
Mitford, Nancy, roshanarose, #839, 840
Murdoch, Iris, The Sea, the Sea, Charles Arrowby, straudetwo, #1197, 1198
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita, Lolita, JudeS, #1124
O’Brian, Patrick, Master and Commander, Jack Aubrey, JudeS, #319
Orwell, George, Frybabe, #97
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Plutarch, ----, Themistocles, roshanarose, #1025, 1027
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Eyre, straudetwo, #1230
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Smith, Alexander McCall, 44Scotland Street, Cyril, rosemarykaye, #1238, 1243
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie, Gumtree, #671, 672
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, JudeS, #631, 632
Stone, Irving, Depths of Glory, Camille Pisarro, Gumtree, #802
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Tyler, Anne, Digging to America, Maryam Yazdan,Mippy, #735
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Weir, Alison, Innocent Traitor, Lady Jane Gray, roshanrose, #883
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Windsor, Kathleen, Forever Amber, Amber, Traude, #927, 928
Wodehouse, P. G., Bertie Wooster, PatH, #1046, 1048
Woolfe, Virginia, Orlando, Orlando, PatH, #1141
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173















What a great 'get' Traude.

I haven't read McCall Smith so I'd have scratched my head to no avail.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1241 on: November 03, 2010, 10:40:05 AM »
Rosemary,
 
My answer is late because we  were a little preoccupied last night because of our elections.

The answer is  scones, and their "unbearable lightness" and unmistakable aroma.  That  is also the title of the last book in this particular series -- where things are looking up for Bertie.  

I'm pressed for time right  now but,  with your ndulgence,  would like to say a few more words about Alexander McCal Smith. Thank you.




rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1242 on: November 03, 2010, 04:57:04 PM »
Actually that wasn't what I was thinking of!  The character in question has a gold tooth. The grocer's has a name, very well known in Edinburgh.

Will be very interested to hear further thoughts about A McCall Smith.

Rosemary

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1243 on: November 03, 2010, 08:28:22 PM »
Oh,  of course.

The sub-character is Cyril, Mr. Lordie's dog, who has a gold tooth and is beloved by the other denizens of 44 Scotland Street - except (of course!) Irene, Bertie's mother.  She called  him
'ugly' and 'smelly' on one occasion -  he turned and  bit her ...
 
Gumtree,  McCall Smith is, in my eyes, a gentle philosopher with a profound knowledge of human nature without a mean bone in his body - as they say.  He is astoundingly prolific, as Rosemary said at the outset, and has few equals. 

In the Preface to the first volume of 44 Scotland Street, the author tells us he got the idea of reviving serialized fiction  (customary in the 19th century : Dickens, Balzac, Flaubert)  on a book tour in San Francisco when he met Armistead Maupin, writer of Tales of San Francisco , serially published in the San Francisco Chronicle
That was five years ago. Now there are four sequels to 44 Scotland Street, really and truly an ode to Edinburgh.

















 

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1244 on: November 03, 2010, 09:05:39 PM »
My last post took a lot of time because I was interrupted several times -- Grrrr

In re McCall Smith.  My first experience came with The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
, then came The Sunday Philosophy Club, an Isabel Dalhousie mystery - .  Neither is  really a  "typical" mystery - to the extent I understand it, not being a fan of the genre.   Last came 44 Scotland Street.  I read every volume of each series and like 44 Scotland Street best.

I like the author's voice - the voice of reason,  rare in hese tumultuous days. I like the style, the art and judicious use of  language, and most of all the absence of "heavy breathing" scenes and four-letter words, which seem to be almost a prerequisite for publication these days.  
 

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1245 on: November 04, 2010, 01:29:07 AM »
Traude - thanks for that run down on McCall Smith - he gets talked about so often here on SL and I've intended to get something of his from the library to see what it's all about. From what everyone's saying around the boards about him at the moment ( see the Two by Pym discussion), I guess I'll start with the Scotland Street series and see how I go.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1246 on: November 04, 2010, 03:51:04 AM »
Yes Traude, it's Cyril.  You may recall that he finds his way home by the aroma of the sun-dried tomatoes at Valvonna & Crolla, a wonderful grocer at the top of Leith Walk.  More artistic licence here, as Angus and Cyril are said to do all of their shopping in there - all I can say is, Angus must sell a lot of paintings, because although V& C is a great place to browse, its prices are not exactly everyday.  I seem to recall that A McS is friends with the owner, Mary Contini (I think he is probably friends with most of the "well kent" people in Edinburgh - at least with the nice ones) - she has written a book called "Dear Francesca - An Italian Journey of Recipes Recounted With Love", which I have but haven't read yet.  Her family came to Scotland many years ago.

Rosemary

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1247 on: November 04, 2010, 07:04:47 PM »
Has anyone also read the "Portuguese Irregular Verbs" series by McCall Smith? Not as good as the others, but if you've ever had to deal with stuffy academics, it's hilarious. Besides, I'll read anything he writes.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1248 on: November 04, 2010, 10:13:26 PM »
JoanK,  from what I have read, Irregular Portuguese Verbs,  The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances were earlier works by McCall Smith, and  brought out in new editions in 2003 after the huge international success of the Botswana series featuring Precious Ramotswe.  He really is a very funny man.  And a fine linguist too.  The three ongoing print series are very different the author's versatility is a marvel.

In 44 Scotland Street there's a great deal of Scottish history that I do not remember from our old history books.  I had no idea how deeply people still feel about the rift with England and abaout the Jacobites.  Yes, there is still the same wit and perspicacity, but  with added introspection, even a bit of nostalgia.

Let me please put in one more word about the Isabel Dalhousie series by giving you the title of the books published so far in order to demonstrate the difference of this series from the others :
1. The Sunday Philosophy Club, 2. Friends, Lovers, Chocolate. 3. The Right Attitude to Rain. 4. The Careful Use of Compliments. 4. The Comforts of a Muddy Saturday. Eccoci.  There we are.

I  have posted so much lately that I may have outstayed my welcome here.  Moreover, I'm fresh out of ideas. So I would be grateful if someone else could volunteer to post the next quiz. Thank you in avance, and thank you, Rosemary. It was great fun.







rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1249 on: November 05, 2010, 03:52:53 AM »
Traude -there is a new Isobel Dalhousie novel, "The Charming Quirks of Others" - but as there are about a million people on the list for it at the library, I fear I may not get to read it for some time.

R

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1250 on: November 06, 2010, 08:31:11 AM »
Rosemary,  I had not heard of the last  Dalhousie, The Charming Quirks of Others, but now have my eye on it  :)
 
In my earlier post I listed two different novels with  # 4 and omitted The Lost Art of Gratitude, which is # 6. Now we're all squared away.  Thank you.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1251 on: November 06, 2010, 02:09:46 PM »
Straude: you'll never outstay your welcome. Rosemary, thanks for the new Dahousie book. Time to watch her sail through the Terrible Twos, while meditating on philosophy (that's how I did it  ;)

The books come out so fast I can't keep up. And it's amazing how each has a slightly different tone.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1252 on: November 08, 2010, 08:31:44 PM »
Well, people don't seem to be lining up for the privilege of doing the next quiz, so I'll fill in.

Author: my marriage was somewhat troubled.

Book: was made into several movies and an opera.

Character: my first marriage wasn't a success.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1253 on: November 10, 2010, 10:02:34 AM »
Not so much as a peep!  More clues:

Author: I served in the army for four years.

Book: widely regarded as a masterpiece.

Chaaracter: For a few years I was a member of a well-known secret society.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1254 on: November 10, 2010, 10:24:51 AM »
I think I know who this is but will keep mum for the moment - I really can't manage to do a new challenge right now.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1255 on: November 10, 2010, 11:08:45 AM »
OK, Gumtree, sit there chuckling.  I have a feeling today's clues will give it to several people.  A particularly hard one to give clues that aren't either hopeless or obvious.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1256 on: November 10, 2010, 11:23:56 AM »
I am really t rying, but I haven't got a clue  ???

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1257 on: November 10, 2010, 11:32:14 AM »
PatH - yes I am chuckling - especially as today I received DVD of the latest film on the author's life... will watch it sometime this week  :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1258 on: November 10, 2010, 05:15:48 PM »
Gumtree, if the film is about the last year of the author's life, you've got it.

Come on, JoanK, I know you know it.  So do a lot of people here.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1259 on: November 10, 2010, 07:58:16 PM »
Is it Roald Dahl?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1260 on: November 10, 2010, 08:21:50 PM »
No, not Roald Dahl.  Dahl would make a good quiz, but I didn't think of him.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1261 on: November 10, 2010, 10:14:32 PM »
Sorry, PatH, I have no idea.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1262 on: November 11, 2010, 08:07:09 AM »
OK, Gumtree, sit there chuckling.  I have a feeling today's clues will give it to several people.  A particularly hard one to give clues that aren't either hopeless or obvious.

I think that I am speaking for the majority.  We are happy to receive the obvious. :)
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1263 on: November 11, 2010, 08:49:56 AM »
Indeed, I fear even the obvious may not be obvious enough for me  :)

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1264 on: November 11, 2010, 09:10:26 AM »
PatH,  a masterpiece, filmed several time, that inspired an opera ...
Sorry, I have no clue.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1265 on: November 11, 2010, 10:44:35 AM »
Today's clues:

Author: My theory of history is distinctive.

Book: The opera is by Prokofiev.

Character: My efforts at social reform didn't work very well.

Of course, all you would have to do now is look up Prokofiev, but that's no fun.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1266 on: November 11, 2010, 11:34:13 AM »
Quote
Gumtree, if the film is about the last year of the author's life, you've got it.

That's the very one Pat - chuckles she
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1267 on: November 11, 2010, 03:18:54 PM »
Pierre of War and Peace by Tolstoy.

Would have come in sooner, but off getting new glasses, since my old ones broke. They were only 40 years old, too.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1268 on: November 11, 2010, 05:15:45 PM »
YES, JoanK.  I thought you'd get it if nobody beat you to it.

Only 40 years?  Shoddy workmanship.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1269 on: November 11, 2010, 07:12:35 PM »
Gee Joan, I would have asked for a refund. 

Well done JoanK!!!
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1270 on: November 11, 2010, 11:13:03 PM »
JoanK : just as well you had the glasses for a reason - otherwise I would be asking 'what took you so long' ... :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1271 on: November 11, 2010, 11:20:54 PM »
I'll fill in a few details: JoanK and Babi co-led a lively discussion of "War and Peace" a few years ago, so I was sure someone would get it.  The movie Gumtree referred to is "The Last Station", about the  struggles during Tolstoy's last year.  Christopher Plummer is Tolstoy, and Helen Mirrin is his wife.  I haven't seen it, but I gather it's good.

There was a lengthy BBC movie of "War and Peace"  with Anthony Hopkins as Pierre Bezukhov--a very good job--and a movie with Audrey Hepburn, the perfect Natasha, and Henry Fonda, and there have been others.

Prokofiev's opera isn't much performed because of the massive demands of cast and staging, but I had a chance to see it last spring.  The stage had to be reinforced to hold up the massive conical rotating turntable--imaging waltzing or marching on a slanting floor that's turning.  Nobody fell off, though that's happened in the past.  Anyway, it was very enjoyable.  I shouldn't have been surprised, given when the opera was written (mostly during WWII, with later revisions) but the second half was full of a lot of corny heroic nationalism, "look, we're beating back the evil Napoleon, and we'll always beat back invaders, and mother Russia will always be free".  Fortunately, I have a taste for corny nationalism, but it was a bit thick even for me.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1272 on: November 13, 2010, 09:03:22 AM »
I think it was the Russian version I saw (dubbed in English). Very long, very stiff, but interesting none-the-less. I best remember the camera "flying" over the battle scenes.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1273 on: November 13, 2010, 02:41:48 PM »
The nationalism is in the book, although Tolstoy avoids being corny -- just. (of course, Nationalism for a country that's not yours always seems corny).

Pat reminded me that I'm "it". My mind is blank, but I'll be back with something.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1274 on: November 13, 2010, 03:07:38 PM »
OK, here goes:

Author: was banned from a career as a cleric by a stutter.

Book: often uses another author's words

Character: a well known murderer

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1275 on: November 14, 2010, 06:16:57 PM »
No nibbles? ok, here's more.

Author: was banned from a career as a cleric by a stutter.
Spent years looking after a sick relative.

Book: often uses another author's words.
Is considered a "minor masterpiece"

Character: a well known murderer.
Had an unhappy marraige. 
 
 

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1276 on: November 14, 2010, 09:31:48 PM »
Good grief, I have no idea, even though JoanK tells me that I have, in fact heard of it.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1277 on: November 14, 2010, 10:51:08 PM »
Yopu've not only heard of it, you're fond of it.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1278 on: November 14, 2010, 11:00:11 PM »
I always get a kick out of reading Joan and Pat's exchanges.  Sisterly love :-).  I have no idea either, but the stutter rings a bell, which is not ringing loudly enough. 
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1279 on: November 14, 2010, 11:46:39 PM »
Fond of it?  Aaaak!

The stutter rings a bell with me too, also too faintly.