There is one missing word in each of these literary quotations. For each one, the goal is to:
- Fill in the blank
- Name the author and title of the work
Same rules as last time: no search engines, first complete and correct answer wins, no partial credit.
- Thou shouldst not have been old before thou hadst been ___.
- ___ is willing.
- That’s why it’s a sin to kill a ___.
- When a man’s ___ is killed, he’s supposed to do something about it.
- Yes, isn’t it ___ to think so?
- ___ is the last refuge of the incompetent.
- You can’t be a successful ___ and design women’s underclothing.
- Her ___ is full of money
- I can resist everything except ___.
- Be good to little doggies, you ___ man.
- I mean if we even had a ___, that would be something.
- The right to ___ in different colors.
- ___ modality of the visible.
- The ___ makes the profit. And everybody has a share.
- I have lived too long on my ___.
- His eyes were the color of ___ water.
- I will take the ___ though I do not know the way.
- The time has come, the ___ said, to talk of many things.
- He was prouder of being wounded than a really modest person would be of being ___.
- I have a good mind not to take Aloysius to Venice. I don’t want him to meet a lot of horrid Italian ___ and pick up bad habits.
Thanks for the idea though
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9) temptation, Wilde, Lady Windermere’s FanReport
6) Violence, Asimov, FoundationReport
2) spirit, Matthew 26:40-43, New TestamentReport
specifically Matthew 26:41Report
4) Partner
The Maltese Falcon, Daishiell HammetReport
3) mockingbird
9) temptation
16) muddy
19) killed
17) shortcut
(all are guesses, most are probably wrong)Report
oops
3) Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbrid
everything else – no ideaReport
3. “a mockingbird” Harper Lee.
5. “pretty.” Hemingway
14. “company.” Heller
17. “ring” TolkienReport
And the titles?Report
Yikes, I didn’t read the rules:
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
5. Sun Also Rises
14. Catch-22
17. Fellowship of the RingReport
(The last two are guesses.)Report
8. Voice. Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald.Report
20. Gigolos Waugh, Brideshead revisitedReport
Well, not so much Gigolos as possibly Members of Parliament.Report
…or bears… but mostly MP’s.Report
I put that one in just for you.Report
Aloysius was very concerned you were ignoring us, but then he’s such a slow reader he didn’t see us way at the bottom.Report
1. Wise, Shakespeare
2. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh/ Matthew
3. Mockingbird, Lee
4. Partner, Chandler
5. Pretty, Hemingway
6. Violence, (don’t know)
7. No idea
8. Voice, Fitzgerald
9. Temptation, Wilde; or ice cream, Tod Kelly
10. No idea
11 Wheelbarrow, Golding (This is a guess, because it’s line from the movie Princess Bride,but I haven’t read the book)
12. No Idea
13. Ineluctable, Joyce
14. Syndicate, Heller
15. No idea
16. No idea
17. Ring, Tolkein
18. Walrus, Carrol
19. modest, Twain
20. No ideaReport
@tod-kelly
You are very good….Report
Oops, just saw i needed titles. So…
1. King Lear
2. Gospel According to Matthew
3. To Kill a Mockingbird
4. Um…. The Big Sleep?
5. Sun Also Rises
6. Don’t know
7. Don’t know
8. Great Gatsby
9.Lady WIndermere’s Fan
10. DOn’t know
11. Princess Bride
12. Don’t know
13. Ulysses
14. Catch 22
15. Don’t know
16. Don’t know
17. Fellowship of the Ring
18. Jabberwocky
19. Joan of Arc
20. Don’t knowReport
Oh crap, and I meant to do “killed” for 19.Report
Recapping:
1. wise, King Lear, Shakespeare (Tod)
3. mockingbird, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbrid (Kolohe)
4. partner, The Maltese Falcon, Hammett (greginak)
5. pretty, The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway (Gabriel)
6. violence, Asimov, Foundation (Scarlet)
8. voice, Gatsby, Fitzgerald (Saul)
9. temptation, Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan (Scarlet)
11. wheelbarrow, Golding, The Princess Bride (Tod, who should read the book.)
13. ineluctable, Joyce, Ulysses (Tod)
14. syndicate, Heller, Catch-22 (Tod)
17. ring, Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (Gabriel)
19. killed, Twain, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Tod)
Scores so far:
Tod 5
Scarlet, Gabriel 2
kolohe, Saul, greginak 1
Still outstanding:
2, 7, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, 20
Hints:
The authors of 10 and 16 have both won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The author of 15 won the Pulitzer, but for a different book.
2 is not from a religious work.
I expected at least one of the contestants to know 15. I am very surprised that one of the others hasn’t gotten 20.
18 has been partially guessed, but no one has gotten all of the pieces correct.
10 and 12 are reasonably obscure, though I expect we’ve all heard of (and even read things by) their authors.Report
@mike-schilling
I know the book and author of #20, but not the exact.Report
7. Dictator, Wodehouse, Carry on Jeeves.Report
Carry on Jeeves is a story collection; the quote is from a novel. Care to have another try?Report
My children believe that it comes from _The Code of the Woosters_
*cough* Eulalie *cough*Report
Oh crap. I did the poem and not the book on 18.
Through the looking Glass is the title, everything else standsReport
Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter are different poems, but they’re both in Through the Looking Glass. One point to Gryffindor.Report
16. Dark? Beloved, Toni Morrison.Report
I’m too late again, but I see some Wodehouse made it here, too. These are fun.Report
Still waiting for the name of the Wodehouse book that’s in.Report
Monday updates:
18. walrus, Carroll, Alice Through the Looking Glass (Tod)
20. bears, Waugh, Brideshead Revisited (Marchmaine)
Aloysius is a bear. You can see him in Marchmaine’s avatar.
7 has been partially answered (the missing word and author, but not the title)
Still open 2, 10, 12, 15 16
Monday hints:
2. Think “magician”.
10. From one of a very well-known author’s first books. The speaker is San Francisco himself.
12. Dada.
15. The speaker is the book’s protagonist. Her name sounds like public transit.
16. It’s a description of the series’s chief villain, and is not a complaint.Report
Dammit.
16 should read “is not a compliment“.Report
OH!!!
15: “friends”/ Wharton, House of Mirth!!!!Report
I would never, ever have gotten the clue for 15 if I hadn’t just read the clue for 10.Report
Now to 16. It has to be a villain that shows up in multiple books, and since it’s Mike it probably has to be old-school literature villain, not someone like Voldemort or Hannibal Lecter.
Here are the old school villains of series I can think of (some of which link to authors or books from the last contest)…
Moriarty, Blofeld, Capt. Hook, Mrs. Coulter, Ripley, Golum, The Mule, Capt. Nemo, Saruman, Wicked Witch of the East, and… um…
Does anyone have others, or do these help anyone suss out the quote about the eyes/water?Report
What makes you so sure it’s a villain?
That description would fit Lan to a T.
(Wheel of Time, Robert Jordan).Report
That was Mike’s clue.Report
Recall that 16 was written by a Nobel laureate.Report
Hmmm…. So now I’m thinking, maybe the character is Shere Kahn? (Only serial villain I can think of from a Nobel laureate.) But that may not be right, and even if it is I could guess Kipling and make a best guess at Jungle Book, but it gets me no closer to the missing word.Report
That is a really clever guess.
But as it happens the author is an American.Report
That doesn’t help much.
I’m rifling through Americans I know who had recurring characters, but am having a tough time. Hemingway had Nick Adams, but he’s not a villain. Having a hard time thinking of A “series” by Steinbeck, Buck or Lewis.
Faulkner had a ton or recurring, of course, but none that stand out to me as a central villain throughout. (And even if I could pick just one, I couldn’t begin to guess the word.)
Maybe Morrison? Haven’t read much of her.
Of course, I’m just mining off the American Nobels I know off the top of my head think of. There are no doubt more authors I am aware of but don’t know won the Nobel.Report
The only person to win the Nobel Prize and write about California (that I know of) was Steinbeck. I don’t know the work though.Report
California?Report
Oh, dear, you mean O’Neill don’t you?
The Emperor Jones.Report
Tuesday updates:
15. friends, Wharton, The House of Mirth (Tod)
I thought our resident Edith Wharton fan might get that one.
Still open 2, 10, 12, 16
Hints:
The answer to 2 is a proper name.
Saul is mostly on the right track for 10.
The speaker in 12 is Tristan Tzara and, as you’d expect from that old loon, what he wants is pretty surreal.
The villain described by 16 is not an urban legend. You could look that up on the web.Report
Hmmm… I would have said “Eureka!” to #2, and assumed the answer was Barkis/Dickens/DCopperfield. But because of the “magician” clue, I know that’s not right. (Barkis is a cab driver, yes?)Report
And David Copperfield is a magician 🙂Report
Oh f**k a duck. “David Copperfield” is the magician clue.
OK, that’s my guess.Report
I’m going to take a shot in the dark after your clue that the word for 12 is “smell.” But that’s a wild ass guess, and I have zip to go with it anyway.Report
And 16 makes me want to think the villain is Capt. Hook? But he can’t be, because Barrie was a Brit. (Wasn’t he? He writes like one.) And although I don’t know for sure, I would be surprised to learn he was a Nobel Laureate.
But man, the “hook hand” just feels so right with that clue.
Hmmmmm…..Report
It’s Faulkner.
(Don’t click that unless you want the answer.)
If you knew the word that modifies “water” in the quote, you’d probably guess correctly almost immediately, particularly with the hints.Report
I clicked. I couldn’t help myself.Report
Faulkner (including that “series”) is one of those things that I hated as a teenager, because his writing seemed so… drawn out, but love as an adult.
It probably doesn’t help that in English in high school they always have you read Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and then Faulkner. The contrast in their writing styles can’t possibly favor Faulkner when one is being forced to do the reading. I mean, Fitzgerald can be a bit wordy, but Faulkner can write three pages (one paragraph) on a falling leaf, while Heming way would be hard pressed to write more than, “The leaf fell. It landed.”Report
Chris,
any of the three is better than reading The Emperor Jones.
And I loathed “As I Lay Dying”… Faulkner’s description, when done well, is a joy to read.
But when he fails, he fails utterly — listen to this:
“The two indians crossed the plantation toward the slave quarters. Neat with
whitewash, of baked soft brick, the two rows of houses in which lived the slaves
belonging to the clan, faced one another across the mild shade of the lane marked and
scored with naked feet and with a few homemade toys mute in the dust. There was no
sign of life. “Report
Wait, you think “Red Leaves” is a failure?Report
Chris,
by no means (for one thing, I haven’t finished reading it yet!). But that sentence is confardled and contangled in the middle. It makes my brain hurt, and the red pen itch to rewrite it with better flow.
Just a bit later: “The first Indian’s name was Three Basket. He was perhaps sixty. They were both squat men, a little solid, burgherlike; paunchy, with big heads, big, broad, dust-colored
faces of a certain blurred serenity like carved heads on a ruined wall in Siam or Sumatra,
looming out of a mist. The sun had done it, the violent sun, the violent shade. Their hair
looked like sedge grass on burnt-over land. Clamped through one ear Three Basket wore
an enameled snuffbox. ”
That reads like a dream. Ornate, detailed — feels a bit baroque, but from my mouth that’s a compliment.Report
“Red Leaves” is almost a perfect short story, and in fact almost a perfect piece of English-language writing, period. That first paragraph you quote is entirely intentional.Report
“faced one another across the mild shade of the lane marked and scored with naked feet and with a few homemade toys mute in the dust” is just plain spectacular. That is writing.Report
Chris,
Yes, I do like that bit. it’s this part that makes my teeth grind: ” Neat with
whitewash, of baked soft brick, the two rows of houses in which lived the slaves
belonging to the clan, ”
First, you get two different subordinate clauses — both of which refer to the houses. “Two rows of houses” is fine, if a bit wordy. But then you get “in which lived the slaves belonging to the clan” grr… (yes, I am gnashing my teeth!).
Two rows of baked softbrick houses, whitewashed neat, inside which dwelled the clan’s slaves.
I’m not going to pretend that my rephrasing is fabulous, but it is a third shorter, and a good deal clearer.Report
If clean is what you want out of your literature, I’m afraid not even Hemingway is going to work for you. You might try novels written by Metro Section editors.Report
Chris,
Unless a writer is shooting for being deliberately obfuscatory(Brust!), clarity is a virtue.
(to be clear, it’s really the editor’s job just as much as the writer’s to catch problematic turns of phrase).
It’s harder to write long sentences that aren’t confusing, but when they’re well-done, they flow like a river.Report
“Series”? It’s three books that chronicle the rise and fall of a single character, whose titles parallel that character’s arc. Why the scare quotes?Report
Paarfi is not obfuscatory. His sentences are quite clear and always perfectly grammatical. They’re just really long. In the right mood, I can write pages and pages of it.Report
Mike, I wanted to call it a trilogy, but didn’t want to make the answer obvious since no one had actually mentioned it yet. It is, of course, a “series,” but in any other context I’d have called it a “trilogy.”Report
Mike,
I fear you are right. Brust’s style in those books, while self-consciously affected, isn’t obfuscatory. Perhaps a humorist or mystery author has managed to turn such an authorial sin into a crowning achievement? Not to pun, but to deliberately conceal the second meaning…Report
Who loved three things: the pasture which was sold to pay for Candace’s wedding and to send Quentin to Harvard, his sister Candace, firelight. Who lost none of them because he could not remember his sister but only the loss of her, and firelight was the same bright shape as going to sleep, and the pasture was even better sold than before because now he and TP could not only follow timeless along the fence the motions which it did not even matter to him were humanbeings swinging golfsticks, TP could lead them to clumps of grass or weeds where there would appear suddenly in TP’s hand small white spherules which competed with and even conquered what he did not even know was gravity and all the immutable laws when released from the hand toward plank floor or smokehouse wall or concrete sidewalk.
Yeah, that guy could write a little.Report
Merde!Report
One more:
2. Barkis, Dickens, David Copperfield (Tod)
Still open: 10, 12, 16
Wednesday hints:
10. The speaker is St. Francis of Assisi, though the person he’s speaking to refers to him as “San Francisco”. The latter is known as “The Pirate”.
12. It’s from a play, a very funny one. The person being spoken to is James Joyce.
16. As Chris said, it’s Faulkner. He only ever wrote one series of books, which is usually called “The XXX Trilogy”, and the sentence describes Mr. XXX.
If there are no further guesses by tomorrow, I’ll give the answers.Report
OK, I had to look up 12, because I thought I knew the answer, but didn’t realize the true answer had been (mis!)quoted in a play.
Gur bevtvany vf orggre. Fb, fb zhpu orggre.
Urapr zl zreqr! Ohg abj V xabj vg fubhyq unir orra fbzrguvat ryfr.Report
I didn’t know it was a quote, much less a misquote. So I thought your “merde” was your general opinion of the puzzle.Report
His Dada manifestos are awesome.Report
The whole manfiesto.Report
OK, the hint for 10 lets me know we’re talking bout Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flats. But I’m no closer to the word.
The hint for 12 makes me assume it’s the Stoppard one with the actor who has met the two you’ve mentioned and Lenin, but I’ll be damned if I can remember the title and of course it doesn’t help me with the word.
The hint for 16 lets would have let me know it’s the Snopes trilogy, but I already looked at Chris’s Google so it doesn’t count; plus, if I’m being honest it wouldn’t have gotten me the exact book or the word.
All of which is to say that I think I’m tapped out on this one.Report
The stragglers:
10: dirty, Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
(“He called you that?” “Well, I was, and he is not a saint to be telling lies.”)
12. urinate, Stoppard, Travesties
16. stagnant, Faulkner, The HamletReport