Literary Quiz

[Newby]

Is anybody out there doing the Sunday Times / Faber Literary Quiz this year and, if so, would they like to pool information?

[greatsage]

It would seem that the fewer details in the clue, the more well known the book. The more details the less well known. In the case of the "volume ahead" we have few concrete details. So Pride and Prejudice seems very likely.

The actual text is:

At length, quite exhausted by the attempt to be amused with her own book, which she had only chosen because it was the second volume of his, she gave a great yawn and said...

I think this qualifies as for Books 2. Good Call mrs p.

[Newby]

 Sport three is not Bertie Wooster. I did my MA on Wodehouse and I know the stuff backwards... Phoenixxx  you seem to be having the same ideas as me...I thought of Lucky Jim and David Lodge for sport 3... I'm going to Dublin tomorrow and will look up the Perec lead...Cyril Connoly did smoke Balkan Sobranie cigarettes but whether he had rooms or not...Sexton Blake, maybe?...(My pup appears to have eaten a packet of Rennies, better go....)

[greatsage]

i.e. Books 2 :Miss Caroline Bingley.

[Newby]

I've just noticed something...I'm using the print version of the quiz. On the side bar are mentioned Pride and Prejudice and John Cary???. Also the Balkan Sobranie question: "in who's rooms were..." All the other questions are in the present tense. Perhaps then a real person?

[Newby]

Yes. Yes. Yes. Sport 3 (Tennis) John Self in Martin Amis's Money. (Very pleased with self)

[Ray The Grey]

Well done! Good find. I've read quite a few of his books and I really think they are good. Matbe I'll read that as well....

I've been to Foyle's in Central London as well as Waterstone's and some smaller second hand bookshops and I cannot find any Connolly books! Has anyone else had luck?

[Newby]

"Rooms" suggest to me a possible college setting... Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead Revisited maybe...

[LG123]

Hi - I've only just discovered answerbank - I've been trying to do this quiz on my own! The autor photo no.2 is definitely John Carey, as he has written books called 'Original Copy' and 'Pure Pleasure'...

[tautau]

Everything i've read on the net, refers to Cyril Connolly

smoking Balkan Sobranie,s in his Autobiography.

Also refers to rooms he rented in Paris. But I'm at a bit of a loss, as every other question, asks for a fictional character.

[greatsage]

I really don't think the answer for the sobranie is an autobiography, especially as Balkan Sobranie was a fairly popular brand, and I am sure many have puffed on it.

These answers seem almost totally fiction. I barely did this quiz last year but anyone who has followed it from the beginning can they confirm these non-picture answers are always fiction?

Also as for tense - more questions are in the past tense "...who accompanied..." instead of "...who accompanies..."

Now I have rounded up 3 more suspects. At the very least if we could 'eleminate them from our enquiries' it may help. I believe Balkan Sobranie feature in them.

1. Reginald Stories by Saki. I think at least in one of these he puffs on them.

2. D L Sayers (Again) Thrones, Dominations

3. Old Scores - Nicholas DelBanco.

I will keep on searching...

[Aschenbach]

http://print.google.com/print?q=balkan+sobranie&btnG=Search+Print

Still looking like greatsage. More vague Balkan Sobranie possiblilties at google print.

[greatsage]

Oops wrong Reginald... How about Reginal "pongo" Thistethwaite from the Uncle Fred Stories by P G Wodehouse?

[Ray The Grey]

I've just found two references to James Bond smoking them (possibly in later novels)

[Ray The Grey]

Watch out - several of the references seem to be to tobacco or pipes - not cigarettes. Sorry I can't be any more help now.

[Newby]

Not Wodehouse (I would know). Not Thrones Dominations...did Bond have rooms as such?...

[maxwellmarsh]

I'm convinced that "to the fore" must be a clue for the Balkan Sobranie question.  My first thought was golf - but this hasn't really helped me...

[Ray The Grey]

It's not the Reginald in the Saki stories as they all seem to be on one of the websites below. Found a couple more searchable websites:-

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/online.htm

http://www.classicreader.com/allauthor.htm

[Bron X]

Bond smoked 60 a day (!) but I can't find any reference to rooms and I've been through four of them

[LG123]

Think I have just found the answer to Books 4. It's a play called The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith by Arthur Wing Pinero. The title character throws a Bible in the fire and then retreives it!

[mrs p]

well done, LG123. You certainly are more effective at looking things up than I am. By the way, can anyone tell me what the highlighted box "Report this answer" means?