THP - Fortunes and Misfortunes - SOLVED.

[Gomez]

A reading recommendation. Two word answer.

Note: As the first stage has so many cryptics, I'll be marking them off as solved as they go to make it easier to keep track of where you all are.

Note 2: All cryptics now solved. Please skip ahead to post 16.

1) These rough shuffles fool no-one! (3, 7) Solved - Zag
2) Speechlessly stupid (4) Solved - Thok
3) Tiny fraction of time (6) Solved - Zag
4) Shout, sounds empty (6) Solved - Thok
5) Badly stunted pupil (7) Solved - Thok
6) Lois comes in drunk to perform on her own (7)Solved - Zag
7) Perform else! Mr Nicholson. (5) Solved - Vagrant
8) Knight and slippery fish together will genuflect (5) Solved - Zag
9) Ron returned to encounter giant rodent (8) Solved - Suspence
10) Convict badly rips on Her Majesty (8) Solved - Vagrant
11) Bad portal holds small measurement in time (8) Solved - Suspence
12) Legless Jock, in university, is a bit large, and in a very good mood (7) Solved - Zag
13) I see him show his personality very quietly (7) Solved - Suspence
14) Obscure man, with gravity, passes sentence (5) Solved - Suspence
15) I spy my vile half-sibling (7) Solved - 3iff
16) Initially aunts, uncles dote on mixed-up niece and see her perform (8) Solved - Thok
17) Confused regent requires ice for some 'get up and go' (9)Solved - Zag
18) Sadly removed finger from button (9) Solved - Suspence
19) Learn from this confused cheater (7) Solved - Thok
20) Singer badly torches and decapitates Sir (9) Solved - Zag
21) I leap just under my peers, initially (4) Solved - ralphmerridew
22) Intoxicated forehead marks one as intelligent (8) Solved - 3iff
23) Rat and eel gather forever round unknown value (7) Solved - Suspence
24) Crushed the garlic and fell asleep (9) Solved - Zag

[Thok]

2) Speechlessly stupid (4) DUMB
4) Shout, sounds empty (6) HOLLER? (sounds like hollow)
5) Badly stunted pupil (7) STUDENT
16) Initially aunts, uncles dote on mixed-up niece and see her perform (8) AUDIENCE (a,u,d + ience)
19) Learn from this confused cheater (7) TEACHER

[ralphmerridew]

21) JUMP.
(21 Jump Street, or just a coincidence?)

[Gomez*]

Jump is correct, although the 21 Jump Street connection is just a co-oncidence I'm afraid.

[Zag]

3. Tiny fraction of time (6) Minute
6. Lois comes in drunk to perform on her own (7) Soloist (Lois inside sot)
8) Knight and slippery fish together will genuflect (5) Kneel
12) Legless Jock, in university, is a bit large, and in a very good mood (7) Jocular
17. Confused regent requires ice for some 'get up and go' (9) Energetic
20. Singer badly torches and decapitates Sir (9) Chorister (Got it from wordplay and had to confirm it's a real word.)
24. Crushed the garlic and fell asleep (9) Lethargic

Edit: Yay! I got to contribute before it was solved.

[Suspence]

14) Obscure man, with gravity, passes sentence (5) - JUDGE (JUDE "The Obscure" + G)
18) Sadly removed finger from button (9) - DEPRESSED - I was actually working on a cryptic for DEPRESSED yesterday, for a puzzle I'm in the midst of.
23) Rat and eel gather forever round unknown value (7) - ETERNAL (RAT + EEL + N anagram)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Zag]

1) These rough shuffles fool no-one! (3, 7) See Through (I spent a while trying to anagram serough.)

[Suspence]

11) Bad portal holds small measurement in time (8) TEMPORAL (PORTAL + EM anagram)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Suspence]

Just to sum up what is left:

7) Perform else! Mr Nicholson. (5)
9) Ron returned to encounter giant rodent (8)
10) Convict badly rips on Her Majesty (8)
13) I see him show his personality very quietly (7)
15) I spy my vile half-sibling (7)

I think that might be it.
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Vagrant]

10) Convict badly rips on Her Majesty (8) PRIS + ON + ER

[Suspence]

13) I see him show his personality very quietly (7) - WHISPER
9) Ron returned to encounter giant rodent (8) - ENORMOUS? (RON returned = NOR, in MOUSE angram)
_________________
I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature.

[Vagrant]

7) Perform else! Mr Nicholson. (5) ACT + OR

[3iff]

15) I spy my vile half-sibling (7) visible (vile+sib)

[Gomez]

Excellent work so far guys. The only one left is:

22) Intoxicated forehead marks one as intelligent (8)

Then you're ready for the second stage. As a little hint: The answer for the above clue is a colloquialism and a compound word, usually applied to certain types of literature and cinema, and it's not an anagram of forehead.

[3iff]

22) Intoxicated forehead marks one as intelligent (8) HIGHBROW

[Gomez]

Yes! Well done 3iff. The full list is below. I've split them into two groups to make the next stage a little more straightforward. I've been thinking about it this morning and, in retrospect, am concerned that I might have made it a little too obscure otherwise. The two groups are as follows, and the order of words within each group is irrelevant.

Group 1

1) AUDIENCE
2) JOCULAR
3) PRISONER
4) JUMP
5) CHORISTER
6) TEACHER
7) DUMB
8) ENERGETIC
9) ENORMOUS
10) VISIBLE
11) TEMPORAL
12) WHISPER

Group 2

1) SEE-THROUGH
2) MINUTE
3) HOLLER
4) STUDENT
5) SOLOIST
6) ACTOR
7) KNEEL
8) JUDGE
9) HIGHBROW
10) DEPRESSED
11) ETERNAL
12) LETHARGIC

[3iff]

Possibly groups again...a recent popular theme.

2 * 12, 3 * 8 or 4 * 6 as variations.

I see prisoner/judge, temporal/minute, dumb/whisper, chorister/soloist, energetic/lethargic as possibles...but may have mismatched things (again).

[3iff]

Pairs...

SEE-THROUGH VISIBLE
SOLOIST CHORISTER
ACTOR AUDIENCE
KNEEL JUMP
ENORMOUS MINUTE
PRISONER JUDGE
WHISPER HOLLER
ENERGETIC LETHARGIC
DEPRESSED JOCULAR
TEACHER STUDENT
HIGHBROW DUMB
ETERNAL TEMPORAL

[Gomez]

Excellent work 3iff. You've got every pair correct. However, the order of words in each pair is important...

[3iff]

Just saw post 16....so did the pairing without any guidance...somehow.

I know the order is important.

Tried listing the words using group 1 as the template but taking first letters from either/both words leaves me with a list of horrible letters and not enough vowels. Could be twelve letters or all 24 as the answer...unless there's another grouping to be done.

Also tried first/last letters, doubled letters, alpha order of either group...still nothing.

[novice]

Group 1 first

1) AUDIENCE - ACTOR
2) JOCULAR - DEPRESSED
3) PRISONER - JUDGE
4) JUMP - KNEEL
5) CHORISTER - SOLOIST
6) TEACHER - STUDENT
7) DUMB - HIGHBROW
8) ENERGETIC - LETHARGIC
9) ENORMOUS - MINUTE
10) VISIBLE - SEE-THROUGH
11) TEMPORAL - ETERNAL
12) WHISPER - HOLLER

Group 2 first

1) SEE-THROUGH - VISIBLE
2) MINUTE - ENOURMOUS
3) HOLLER - WHISPER
4) STUDENT - TEACHER
5) SOLOIST - CHORISTER
6) ACTOR - AUDIENCE
7) KNEEL - JUMP
8) JUDGE - PRISONER
9) HIGHBROW - DUMB
10) DEPRESSED - JOCULAR
11) ETERNAL - TEMPORAL
12) LETHARGIC - ENERGETIC

[Gomez]

[Scurra]

[Vagrant]

Hmmm

AA MILNE
JD SALINGER
PJ O'ROURKE
JK ROWLING
CS LEWIS
TS ELIOT
DH LAWRENCE
EL ? KONIGSBURG/DOCTOROW
EM FORSTER
VS ? PRITCHETT/NAIPAUL
TE ? LAWRENCE/HULME
WH ? AUDEN/DAVIES

? are the ones that I looked up because nothing immediately sprang to mind and I don't really know which of them would be most well-known. I think there are enough well-known ones that this feels like the next right step.

[Vagrant]

Some of the ones I didn't look up have lesser-known alternatives as well.
_________________
Some people are like slinkies. They don't serve any real purpose but it still brings a smile to your face when you push them down the stairs.

[Scurra]

Doh, Well for me, VS is the only one where I immediately thought of two.
WS Auden, TE Lawrence (of Arabia) and EL Doctorow seemed to be the most likely candidates to me.

Indeed, it must be Naipaul because the answer is MOLL FLANDERS (the full title of which is The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders.)

Excellent puzzle. A very clever way of combining the title with the authors. (I have written at least one puzzle myself using the initials idea but not as elegantly as this.)
_________________
_{still Quiz Olympiad champion. Must get a life.
New definitions: COFFEE - someone who is coughed upon}

[Gomez]

Nice one Scurra, Vagrant and everybody else. Moll Flanders is indeed correct. Hope you all enjoyed it. And thanks for the compliment Scurra

[3iff]

I almost did it backwards by googling the puzzle title. Moll Flanders came up but I couldn't link that to the letter order that I had. I'd never have linked the letters to authors...not an area of expertise for me.