Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359183 times)

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1400 on: December 31, 2010, 11:56:48 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#

Anonymous, Beowulf, Beowulf, PatH, #1301
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
Coetzee, J. M., Disgrace, David Little, Straudetwo, #1336
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Conroy, Pat, The Great Santini, Conroy's father, JudeS #1319
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
Davies, Robertson, The Cunning Man, Jonathan Hullah,  straudetwo, #1382
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
Lamb, Charles and Mary, Tales From Shakespeare, Macbeth, JoanK, #1301
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
Rowling, J. K, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry, PatH, #1409
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
Tolstoy, Leo, War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov, PatH, #1267
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
Zola, Emile, Germinal, Etienne Lentier, Gumtree, #1352


Only the latest heading is up to date.






















Joan K - the narrator with her feet in the sink is in fact a "she", Cassandra Mortmain, heroine of the truly wonderful "I Capture The Castle" by Dodie Smith (she who write 101 Dalmatians).

The books starts:

"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.  That is, my feet are in it; the rest of me is on the draining board, which I have padded with our dog's blanket and the tea-cosy."

To quote the book jacket:

"(this) timeless, witty and enchanting novel about growing up.  Cassandra Mortmain lives with her bohemian and impoverished family in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere.  Her journal records her life with her beautiful, bored sister Rose, her fadingly glamorous step-mother Topaz, her little brother Thomas and her eccentric novelist father who suffers from a financially crippling writer's block.  However, all their lives are turned upside down when the American heirs to the castle arrive and Cassandra finds herself falling in love for the first time..."

"I know of few novels - except Pride & Prejudice - that inspire as much lifelong affection in their readers" - Joanna Trollope

"This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met" - JK Rowling

There isn't much I can add to this!  I read it because I read somewhere that it was a novel handed down from mother to daughter - well, my mother failed there  :) - but I have handed it down to my elder daughter, Anna, who loves it, and also to my neighbour, who loved it so much that she gave copies to all of her friends for Christmas.

It has been made into quite a good film, although I would definitely read the book first.

Rosemary

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1401 on: January 01, 2011, 12:59:12 PM »
No, not The Ugly Duckling.

Time for more clues.  Sorry I missed yesterday--too busy coughing and sneezing.

Author: My writing life began under difficulties.
I drew on a lot of traditional lore from the past.
I now devote some of my profits to charity.

Character: My early childhood was quite bleak.
I was much happier when I discovered my abilities.
I cut my education short to tackle  a very important problem.


Book: A bestseller.
Has been made into a movie.
Is the last of the author's books about the character.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1402 on: January 01, 2011, 05:42:08 PM »
I always seem to get my sister's books -- maybe because we read the same things. But I'll wait til someone else gets it.

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1403 on: January 02, 2011, 03:16:23 AM »
PatH - I am really trying, but I haven't got the first idea - any more clues?

Rosemary

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1404 on: January 02, 2011, 08:20:26 AM »
"I now devote some of my profits to charity."

Author still living?

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 #1405 on: January 02, 2011, 08:51:23 AM »
Yes, the author is still living.  I know you have all heard of this one, and some of you have read it.

More clues later when I think of them.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1406 on: January 02, 2011, 02:53:00 PM »
More clues:

Author: My writing life began under difficulties.
I drew on a lot of traditional lore from the past.
I now devote some of my profits to charity.
My first marriage didn't last, but my second is very happy.

Character: My early childhood was quite bleak.
I was much happier when I discovered my abilities.
I cut my education short to tackle  a very important problem.
Some of the friends who helped me weren't human.


Book: A bestseller.
Has been made into a movie.
Is the last of the author's books about the character.
Has been translated into many languages.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1407 on: January 03, 2011, 06:11:05 PM »
More clues--these should do it.

Author: My writing life began under difficulties.
I drew on a lot of traditional lore from the past.
I now devote some of my profits to charity.
My first marriage didn't last, but my second is very happy.
I'm British.

Character: My early childhood was quite bleak.
I was much happier when I discovered my abilities.
I cut my education short to tackle  a very important problem.
Some of the friends who helped me weren't human.
I fell in love with my best friend's sister.


Book: A bestseller.
Has been made into a movie.
Is the last of the author's books about the character.
Has been translated into many languages.
The movie is just ending its run about now.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1408 on: January 03, 2011, 11:19:06 PM »
I cannot even guess when this could have been written. Sorry.

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1409 on: January 04, 2011, 12:35:43 AM »
Is it J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1410 on: January 04, 2011, 08:03:05 AM »
YES!  Good for you, deems2.  Your punishment for being clever is that now you're it.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1411 on: January 04, 2011, 08:20:20 AM »
Deems2, only the list of previous books on the current page is up to date.

roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1412 on: January 04, 2011, 08:58:26 AM »
Well done deems2.  Go for it!
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

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1413 on: January 05, 2011, 12:05:09 AM »
Yikes!  This game is way more frightening than Blanko.  :-\  But I will give it a try.  I apologise in advance for everything I do wrong.

That being said...I believe we start with vague clues, right?

Author:       I was born under a different name.

Character:  I am the star of the novel.

Book:          The book was not an immediate success.

Gumtree

  • Posts: 2741
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1414 on: January 05, 2011, 01:09:14 AM »
Deems2 There is no right or wrong way so you won't do anything wrong.

Those clues have just narrrowed the possibilities to about 20 gazillion....
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1415 on: January 05, 2011, 08:55:31 AM »
Ha!  Well, let's take it down to 10 gazillion.

Author:       I was born under a different name.
                             I write sentences that go on for paragraphs.

Character:  I am the star of the novel.
                             I never get to tell my story.

Book:          The book was not an immediate success.
                              The narrative is a bit jumbled.  Particularly in the beginning.
                             

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1416 on: January 05, 2011, 09:07:55 AM »
I thought perhaps that out of the now 10 gazillion we might be talking Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy? - but I believe that Sterne was the author's real name.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1417 on: January 05, 2011, 10:19:31 AM »
Oh dear, I read something by somebody who did that years and years ago. Funny, all I remember is reading the endless sentences. Can't even say what it was about.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1418 on: January 05, 2011, 10:29:05 AM »
Endless sentences makes one think of Marcel Proust and Henry James - but methinks they were their real names so we can cross them off the list.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1419 on: January 05, 2011, 01:28:51 PM »
I'm thinking that it is a Victorian era writer, but not necessarily British.

I looked up "longest sentence" and found a short entry in Wikipedia. A guy by the name of Nigel Tomm takes the cake with a sentence 469,375 words long. Maybe that is why I never heard of him.  :D Anyhow, the ones listed (very short list) I have never read.

A comment about long sentences: My BF with the PhD in Education, Reading specialty, says many people lose the thread with sentences much over fifteen words long. I think he can't possibly be referring to mos of us, but to the younger generations brought up on Sesame Street style sound bites. I remember the short sentences in the Dick and Jane series as a youngster. That hasn't affected my comprehension of longer sentences, nor my propensity to write same.


roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1420 on: January 05, 2011, 09:59:19 PM »
Charles Dickens was known to write long sentences, but Charles Dickens is his real name..
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 #1421 on: January 06, 2011, 03:06:48 AM »
More clues please!!!!

R

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1422 on: January 06, 2011, 09:09:55 AM »
José Saramago (Blindness) also wrote in long sentences, often more than a page long, without benefit of paragraphs, or punctuation - save for periods.  There's also Philip Roth.

We may be looking for something more "classical".

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1423 on: January 06, 2011, 06:50:09 PM »
Sorry rosemary, I got stuck at the office.

I loved Blindness.  Those were incredible sentences.

Author:     I was born under a different name.
                  I write sentences that go on for paragraphs.
                  I am short; I drink; I fall in love.

Character:  I am the star of the novel.
                    I never get to tell my story.
                    I am a caretaker, a best friend and an enemy to my family.

Book:          The book was not an immediate success.
                   The narrative is a bit jumbled.  Particularly in the beginning.
                   The book is fiction and is set in a fictional place, but everything about the book is absolutely real.

As an aside, I fell in love with this book the first time I read it.  But some people don't like it much.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1424 on: January 06, 2011, 07:41:55 PM »
AAAARRRGGGHHH!

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1425 on: January 07, 2011, 03:26:43 AM »
PatH - you said it !  AAAARRRGGGHHH
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1426 on: January 07, 2011, 05:07:00 AM »
Enigmatic, to put it mildly.  "I was short and liked to drink" sounds like Truman Capote, but I am sure that he wasn't the only short man (or is it woman?) who enjoyed a drink (or fifteen)..  The other descriptors don't match Capote, unfortunately. 

Perhaps at this stage, we need to know about the time in which the story was written, and pushing it a little further, the place.  Temporal and spatial always good clues.  You are doing well Deems2.  I could be totally off-track, but I get the feeling that this book is about a crime.
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

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1427 on: January 07, 2011, 10:23:49 AM »
Sorry, folks.  I knew I wasn't going to be any good at this.  I didn't intend to make you AAAARRRGGGHHH.   :-\

Author:     I was born under a different name.
                  I write sentences that go on for paragraphs.
                  I am short; I drink; I fall in love.
                  I am an American and I am from the South.

Character:  I am the star of the novel.
                    I never get to tell my story.
                    I am a caretaker, a best friend and an enemy to my family.
                    I smell like trees.

Book:          The book was not an immediate success.
                   The narrative is a bit jumbled.  Particularly in the beginning.
                   The book is fiction and is set in a fictional place, but everything about the book is absolutely real.
                   The author's preference was to publish the book in multiple colors.

I hope these clues work better.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1428 on: January 07, 2011, 10:36:29 AM »
Deems2, you're doing a great job.  All the best quizzes have people going Aaarrrggghhh.  Those are obviously good clues, and when the light bulb lights up for one of us, we'll all kick ourselves.  This is the way it's supposed to work.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1429 on: January 07, 2011, 11:56:28 AM »
William Faulkner?

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1430 on: January 07, 2011, 07:51:40 PM »
Woohoo!  Frybabe wins!

William Faulkner was born William Falkner.  I love his writing.  It takes time to really read his sentences.  He drank, but he didn't drink when he was writing.

Great job, Frybabe!

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1431 on: January 07, 2011, 09:00:42 PM »
Does anyone know what book and character this is? I am NOT a William Faulkner fan. Maybe Thomas Sutpen and  Absalom, Absalom?

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1432 on: January 08, 2011, 04:09:20 AM »
I have, as my friend would say, not got a scoobie  ???

Still trying!

It's an excellent quiz.

Rosemary

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1433 on: January 08, 2011, 09:42:13 AM »
More clues?

Author:     I was born under a different name.
                  I write sentences that go on for paragraphs.
                  I am short; I drink; I fall in love.
                  I am an American and I am from the South.
                  I am William Faulkner.

Character:   I am the star of the novel.
                     I never get to tell my story.
                     I am a caretaker, a best friend and an enemy to my family.
                     I smell like trees.
                     I am female.

Book:          The book was not an immediate success.
                    The narrative is a bit jumbled.  Particularly in the beginning.
                    The book is fiction and is set in a fictional place, but everything about the book is absolutely real.
                    The author's preference was to publish the book in multiple colors.
                    The book is divided into four parts and takes place on four different days. 

roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1434 on: January 08, 2011, 09:56:50 AM »
Rosemarykaye - I, too, was "scoobieless".  Hoping that is the correct adjective from a noun I have never heard of before.

deems2 - I am not familiar with Faulkner, but learning about him is what makes this site so valuable for me.  Good challenge!
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 #1435 on: January 08, 2011, 11:12:45 AM »
Would it be Abbie in "As I Lay Dying"?

Faulkner is an author I think I don't like, but every time I've picked up a book of his, I've read it straight through without stopping, unable to put it down.

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1436 on: January 09, 2011, 10:10:05 AM »
No, sorry, not Absalom, Absalom (great book - you are on the right track) and not As I Lay Dying(funny, funny book).  Perhaps one more clue.  This should do it.

Author:     I was born under a different name.
                  I write sentences that go on for paragraphs.
                  I am short; I drink; I fall in love.
                  I am an American and I am from the South.
                  I am William Faulkner.

Character:   I am the star of the novel.
                     I never get to tell my story.
                     I am a caretaker, a best friend and an enemy to my family.
                     I smell like trees.
                     I am female.
                     My name may not be spoken.

Book:           The book was not an immediate success.
                    The narrative is a bit jumbled.  Particularly in the beginning.
                    The book is fiction and is set in a fictional place, but everything about the book is absolutely real.
                    The author's preference was to publish the book in multiple colors.
                    The book is divided into four parts and takes place on four different days. 
                    She should have died hereafter;
                    There would have been a time for such a word.
                    Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
                    Creeps in this petty pace from day to day

Frybabe

  • Posts: 10024
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1437 on: January 09, 2011, 10:24:38 AM »
Oh dear, we're quoting Shakespeare now.
Expecting company shortly, be back later.

deems 2

  • Posts: 166
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1438 on: January 09, 2011, 02:59:35 PM »
Sorry, Frybabe.  The title is in the soliloquy.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1439 on: January 09, 2011, 03:58:14 PM »
The Sound and the Fury!

I was stumped for a while. I couldn't remember if the quote was from Hamlet or MacBeth.

So now I must think of something. Give me a couple of hours.