The Times lit quiz

[Newby]

It's that time of year again, folks...shall we?

[captainandy]

I meant to say I'm not sure an Irish person can be described as being from the North Country.

Greatsage: good stuff!
Some typos. McEwan (second vowel's an 'a')'. Snow should read Snowe; Vilette - Villette; and Atilius - Attilius.

Cemeteries 4 is Henry Fielding's eponymous hero 'Tom Jones'.

[greatsage]

captaincandy - ta, and updated including the excellent Tom Jones answer

http://www.geocities.com/timeslitquiz

[tautau]

Well it's north of Watford

[Flapwing]

Good job Great sage.
Jobs 1 is definitely Marcus Attilus by the way.

[michealk]

well done captainandy. Yes definitely henry fieldings tom jones for somerset pitched battle. The north country snaky one is proving to be a puzzle isn't it? I think it is a poem maybe a keats or tennyson?

[Ray The Grey]

Supernatural 3 -
Christabel � Samuel Taylor Coleridge

[Ray The Grey]

20 year old lover - sounds like Steinbeck possibly??

[Flapwing]

Quarrels 1: Could it be Martha in Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

[greatsage]

It is indeed Martha from Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. The fictional 20 year old is their son

[Flapwing]

Great - nearly there then...
I was thinking Cemeteries 3 might have something to do with Pat Barker or maybe Faulks... even Doris Lessing.....?
Musings really

[tautau]

Supernatural 3
Excuse my ignorance, is Christabel Northern, and if so why?

[greatsage]

Christabel... "Sir Leoline lives at "Langdale Hall," a supposed castle in the immediate vicinity of the poets' homes"
And in the poem are mentioned
"�*Bratha Head, Wyndermere, Langdale Pike*, etc. ... All of the places ... [are]... within a dozen miles of the Wordsworths' ... which was the home of Coleridge from 1800 to 1804"
i.e. the Lake District.

[phoenixxx]

flapwing - you may be right about Faulks. It's years since I read Birdsong but Cemetries 3 rings a vague bell. Does anyone have a copy?

[Ray The Grey]

I've checked and Cemeteries 1 isn't Smilla's Feeling for Snow. Sorry.
Nothing Greek/Roman/French or Russian so far - very unusual
Other notable absences - Keats, Milton, Byron, Amis, Maugham, Boyd, Atwood, Priestley, Orwell, Miller, Tenessee Williams & Steinbeck.
Possibility of Julian Barnes Talking It Over, Cross Channel, Etc for Quarrels 5

[Newby]

Should we be looking for Faber Authors?

[michealk]

sorry one and all but don't go too much on christabel. I plowed through it and although I agree the north country girl is met cannot really see that snaky intruder is appropriate for what happens to her. Anyone else with thoughts?

[Ray The Grey]

Hello, the website I saw it on explained clearly that Geraldine was a Lamia, effectively female top, snake body, which entranced Christabel and would have had its wicked way had her mother's spirit not intervened.

She is North Country, the intruder was snaky, and she was bewitched. Also, it is from a poet who is famous enough to fit with most other questions
If you find anything more convincing I will happily admit I am wrong, but otherwise I am sure it's right and will stick with it

[LindsayR]

I've got Ambrose Bierce for author 4 and DH Lawrence for Author picture 5.... I'm not 100% tho

[LG123]

Have checked Cars 3 and am sure it's Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates. A car driven by a US Sentaor goes off a bridge, killing the passenger.

[greatsage]

Yes, all that, and it is a Toyota:

"THE RENTED TOYOTA, DRIVEN WITH SUCH IMPATIENT exuberance by The Senator, was speeding along the unpaved unnamed road, taking the turns in giddy skidding slides, and then, with no warning, somehow the car had gone off the road and had overturned in..."

Looks like that only leaves a handful left to get!