Name The Actual Fiction Book Title: Can You Name The Title Based On Loosely Opposite Words?

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http://www.librarything.com/topic/155436

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New Puzzle:

Happy Castle

Bleak House
by Charles Dickens?

Yes.

Your turn, next.

NEXT:

The Curse

The Blessing ?

(title 'used by Smalley, N. Mitford )

Well done!

"The Beginning of Nothing: Pre-Modernism and the Sudden-appearance of the
Inhuman."
Total # of words: 11
"Antonym" of hyphenated Words 8--9 is just one,
9-letter word.

Is this title, a nonfiction book?

The End of Everything: Postmodernism and the Vanishing of the Human by Richard Appignanesi

Appignanesi's End of Everything". . . is correct,
@starbox.
Please set the "NEXT"

(A 4 word title)

The King's good-manners

The Queen's Faux-Pas ?

By whom?

"By whom, (is 'The Queen's Faux-Pas')?"

Couldn't find there to be any such title. Just a guess.
I made it appear in blue by a trick: leaving the
apostrophe-S unbracketed. As you probably know, "Search/Touchstones" doesn't like apostrophes, but will sometimes put a title in blue
(if there is one)*, when it is requested WITHOUT the apostrophe.

*In this case, I assume there ISN'T. What I mean is that
it's not as simple as to say: "Touchstones doesn't Do apostrophes."

The Queen of The Damned by Anne Rice ??? Can it be 5 words title not four.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - of the Queen (13 letters in missing word)

"d i s c o u r t e s i e s of the Queen" ?

Indiscretions of the Queen by Jean Plaidy ???

Note: Getting help from a search engine - bookfinder.com

This website is very useful it help to locate incomplete book titles; book titles; writers' names
and various book prices and bookstore names.

#20 is correct !!

New Puzzle:

How To( Commit Suicide)

Note: Two words (loosely opposites) = Four words

how, to ( retained in the actual title)

How to save a life by Sara Zarr ??

How to Save your Own Life
by Erica Jong ?

"= Four words" (22)

I'm not sure where we're supposed to begin counting
those "four". Making this guess, in case the count begins after "How to...".

>22 razzamajazz: Perhaps the shift key should have been used, giving "Two words + Four words"

Message 24: correct.

NEXT:

"The-Same
Urban-Environment"

(Each hyphenated pair is
one word, so the total "antonym" is 2 words.)

Another Country ?

Another Country by James Baldwin is correct,
@jbbarret.

PLease set the "NEXT".

Their Separate Enemy

Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens ?

Yes, over to you.

NEXT:

"Fiction-or-Mythology's Smallest Lone-Nut-Plans:
001 Unplanned-Narrations, Artificial, or Unsuspected"


The "antonym" of "Lone-Nut-Plans" is one word, a 4-syllable plural noun. Its contrast to "Lone-Nut-Plans" is discussed in some of the recent "JFK Assassination..." threads.
The "antonym of Word 4 has been converted to
digits --in reverse order from their "antonym".

>>>

Something like : The greatest real-life conspiracies: 100 conspiracy theories, real or suspected ??

". . . The greatest . . . real or suspected" (38) is close enough.
It's: "Historys* Greatest Conspiracies: 100 Conspiracy theories, Real or Supected"'

Please set the "NEXT"

*"Fiction-or-Mythology's" was
my rather awkward "antonym" of "History's". I use hyphens if my "antonym"
is a phrase where its "antonym" is just one word.

NEXT:

Gentleman minus a very-large-cat

Lady with a Peke ?

Lady with a - - - / - - - ???

Lady with the Tramp by Walt Disney ???

No...Russian author.... Roland ALMOST had it in #41

Lady with a white pekingese literal translation ???

No not Peke/ Pekingese. Just a general term for a really tiny canine . Russian writer known for his plays & short stories.

Lady With Lapdog by

Anton Chekhov??? A short story

other titles: The Lady with the Dog

The Lady with the Pet Dog

three variations in a title, same story?

Lapdog...yes!!!

I passed.

Secure Estrangements

Les Liaisons Dangereuses
/ * "Dangerous Liaisons" ?
by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos

*I think the title is left in French
even for English language editions.

Well done!

NEXT:
"The Routine
Momentous-Happening of the
Cat out-of the
Day-Space"

The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Night Time

by Mark Haddon ???

Haddonʻs "Curious Incident..." is right.
Please set the "NEXT".

Next:

Big Castle (On The) Mountain

Note: Title retains on , the

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder ??

Yes. Next

The Hellish only-child

The Heavenly Twin ?

The Quiet Twin by

Dan Vyleta ???

Roland's almost there ; The Heavenly Twins by sarah Grand - I should have put 'child' in the plural

>>>

NEXT:
" Hot Discomfort Non-agricultural-property"

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Gibbonsʻs C C F is right.
Please set the "NEXT".

NEXT:

Worthless Blessing

A Curse as Dark as Gold
by Elizabeth Bunce ?

No...2 word title...inspired somewhat by Stella Gibbons, who liked to 'pastiche' this author

Precious Bane
by Mary Webb ?

well done!

Canceling 73 because I forgot
that there is now a "Fiction Only" rule in this game.
(It was the (intended to be at least) NON-fiction: "The Vanished Library: a Wonder of the Ancient World").

NEXT: "North Walking"
-- a real, live 569 pp. novel; later, a classic (?) movie.

South Riding by Winifred Holtby ?

South Riding is right!

Please set the "NEXT".

NEXT:

Sparkling-clean Query (2 words)

Dusty Answer
by Rosamond Lehmann ?

absolutely!

NEXT:

"The Soul out-of the Bookstore-or-personal-Book-Collection"

Total: 5 words, the 4th of which is left as is.

The body in the library by Agatha Christie ??

The body in the library
is correct.

Please set the next.

NEXT:

The Straight-Line that didn't-contain her

The Crooked Man

by Mike Mignola ??? - Wild Guess

No...5 word title. The word 'that' remains the same

The Corner that
Held Them
by Sylvia Ashton Warner ?

well done!

NEXT:

"The Beijing-or-Warsaw Scalar"

The Moscow Vector by Robert Ludlum ?

Ludlumʻs tMV is right!

Please take over.

NEXT: Dissertation from an ascent into heaven

Briefing for a Descent into Hell by Doris Lessing??

You got it starbox. What is next?

NEXT: (easy one)
Missus Easton's sinful soft-drink

Mr. Westonʻs Good Wine
by T. F. Powys

"Wine > soft-drink" is a good
antonymizing. I lean more toward (admittedly awkward sometimes) phrases, and probably would have said:
"Wine>whiskey-or-beer" - -
the old ploy of alternatives where I canʻt think of an exact antonym.

well done!

NEXT:

"The Low Win-or-Show: a Tragedy of Enchantment"

Something like: The Divine....:A Comedy of ...???

The High Place : A Comedy of Disenchantment by James Branch Cabell ?

Cabellʻs t H P is right.

Please set the "Next".

A coarse and miserable joy

A Fine and Pleasant Misery
by Patrick McManus ?

You got it in one, Roland- NExt up

NEXT:

"Absent away-from the Destruction: Your
Months-or-Decades out-of the City-or-Nation
Whole-Undivided-Organization"
10-word title. Non-fiction

something like:
At the Rebuilding: My Years in the Villages of the Divided Territories ??

Not "At the Rebuilding..."

Thereʻs an adjective, the antonym of "Absent" before the "At the" phrase.
The "antonym" of "city-or-nation" occurs in U. S., but not in UK politics; itʻs a 5-letter* singular noun (here used as an adjective)
which in the U. S. is intermediate between City government and National government just as "Years", which you got correctly, is
a unit between months and
decades

*A curiosity of this word is that spelling it backwards in English produces the plural of its French equivalent.

Present at the Creation: my years in the State Department by Dean Acheson ??

Present at the Creation*...is correct!

Please set the "NEXT".

(The "English singular = French plural" anomaly is
"Etats" spelled backwards is "State".)

*It may have won an (unofficial) award for
"Most Pretentious Title of the Year".

It sounds like the last book on earth I would read! Mind you, when you're short of reading matter you'll give anything a go; I recall staying with someone in an almost book-free house, and ending up giving 'Teach Yourself Electricity' a go!

NEXT:

When everyone sings from mundane concepts

". . . last book on earth I would read!" (110)

Well, I havenʻt read it; I only meant the title, not the whole book, is terrible. Itʻs somewhere in my TBR pile. It would be buried rather deep among other volumes, if the
"pile" were a pile that physically existed.
I agree with you about, under the circumstances, giving even "Teach Yourself Electricity" a go.

Politicians' memoirs are boring to read unless you like politics.

> > > > >

NEXT:
Hello your (sic) repulsive

Goodbye to All That by

Robert Graves ???

Farewell my Lovely
by Raymond Chandler ?

Roland's got it!

NEXT:

"72 trucks-or-barrows empty of silk-or-wool"

drama; 5-word title. The "Antonym of "silk-or-wool" is a common 6-letter noun. The "of" preceding it is not antonymized.

"silk-or-wool" : "cotton" - loosely opposite word.

" The ___ ____ of cotton"

A play about black slavery in old American's days. ???

Not "The ____ ____
of Cotton", but "cotton" is the 5th word (antonym of
"silk-or-wool")

In The Land of Cotton by Michael R Bradley ??? or some other author or Martha A Taylor or Maryann Austin

Note: All novels -Background: Slavery in cotton field. All dramatic. Too ambiguous for a clue - "drama" when you talk about a drama, a play is most appropriate.

Not In the Land of Cotton.

The first "Word" is a numeral
which I have put in digit form here. Its antonym is the reversal of the digits: 72>27.

The second word, the "Antonym" of "trucks or barrows", is a 6-letter plural noun - - an alternative to
transporting the cotton in
a truck or barrow.
The antonym of "empty" is obvious.

21 Wagons full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams ??

118 > 123

Correct. (I was going to say "close enough", but I see that your "21..." is the way that
"Search" has the title.) Itʻs actually "27* Wagons full of Cotton".
Please set the "NEXT".

*27: the "antonym" of "72".
If searched by title, writing "27" out, "Search" has it
as "The Theatre of Tennessee Williams
Volume 6", and then has
"Twenty seven Wagons full..."
under "Contents".

Next:
Second-hand Adam's Cold Nature (5 words)

"Second-hand Adamʻs Cold Nature" will be a tough one,
if Iʻm relying on "Search", given their aversion to apostrophes (assuming that
the antonym of "Adamʻs" is
"Eveʻs"). Iʻve found several references to "New Eve" but
nothing that seems an antonym of "Cold Nature".

Perhaps 'the coldness' is more correct than 'cold nature'. New Eve is correct....

The Passion of New Eve - Angela Carter???

passion: coldness-loosely opposite.

Is it a 4 words title not 5 words?

Congratulations...your turn !

Anyone can submit a new puzzle. I passed.

Thanks, @razzamajazz.

NEXT: "Daughter of a
Larger Villain"

Son of a Smaller Hero by Mordecai Richler ?

Richlerʻs S o a S H is right.

Please set the "NEXT".

A built-up-area of celestial horrors

A Garden of Earthly Delights
by* Joyce Carol Oates ?

*Others have used the title, with a definite article, but in what appears to be non-fiction

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess???

Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess ???

Roland was right! I'm starting to run out of titles that can be 'translated' into antonyms...

NEXT:
"Pleasant-Dream Village-or-City: Non fictions"
3-word title; the "Antonym" of "village-or-city" is another of those that are
alternatives to the two mentioned, rather than exact opposites; this one is sort of "in between" the two.

Nightmare Town: Stories by Dashiell Hammett ?

Hammettʻs NT is correct.

Please set the "NEXT".

The best-behaved boy for-the first-time

The Naughtiest Girl Again
by Enid Blyton ?

well done!

NEXT:
"A Winter-Solstice Dayʻs
Waking-Experience"

A Midsummer Night's Dream by

William Shakespeare

Shakespeareʻs* a M s N D
is correct!

Please set the "NEXT".

*or, as some say: Oxfordʻs.

>>>>>>>>>>>

149, 150
/
Thanks for activating the thread, @razzamajazz.
The puzzle-setting was turned over to you in 149.

Anybody turn.

NEXT:

"A Ride off-of the Tame
Inner-area"
1 title of 6 words, all of them monosyllables.

A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren ??

Algrenʻs "a W o t W S"
is right!
Please set the "NEXT".

Next:

Moggy men-of-peace

*not sure if you're familiar with 'moggy' in USA? Have to google it if not!

Dog soldiers ??

157 sounds good. Better than "Pedigreed Warriors"
which I was going to look up in "Search"ʻs book pages (for titles containing
". . .Warriors").
I met, b t w, Robert Stone, the author of Dog Soldiers (157) at an authorsʻ conference in Honolulu, way back - - ca. 1980, at which my wife, not I, was there AS an author.

The Dogs of War by Frederick Forsyth ???

#157 Dog Soldiers was correct!

Over the land calm

Even though the hated* "Fiction Only" rule is implied by the title of the thread,
Iʻll guess:
Under the Sea-Wind
by Rachel Carson

*by me, anyway

You got it Roland-

and I have always thought of UTSW as somewhere between fiction and non-fiction- the first-person status of sea creatures gives it the feel of a story, although the intent is clearly to educate about environment and conditions.

I'm finding it surprisingly hard to find books appropriate for converting to opposite wording. Maybe I am taking "opposite" too literally.

"Maybe I am taking "opposite" too literally.

Many of my "opposites" have been, not strictly speaking antonyms, but phrases that
represent alternative(s) to, or rivals of,
the word that they are the
"antonyms" of.
E.g. "antonym" of "Moscow" is "Beijing or Warsaw".
This one was well enough understood; some, I admit,
have been too difficult.
"Years" > "Months or Decades"

Roland- you are up for the next challenge.

NEXT:

"Unhumorously Insufficiently"
2 word title. Both words are
adverbs, but only the first has the "-ly" ending.

Funnily Enough by John D Sheridan ??

"Funnily Enough" is correct!

Please set the "NEXT".

NEXT:

Anticipate Misery

This is a 4 word title; the antonym for anticipate is 3 words

An interesting search on this one, even though it didnʻt lead me to an applicable 4-word title.
If "joy" were the last word of the title, there is a good
3-word (or 9-word, if you count the subtitle) by C. S. Lewis: Surprised by Joy
Usually, I havenʻt been able to come up with key words that are near the END of the title. But in this case, asking for "...Joy" I found many
titles ending in "joy".

I think we'd better forget this one! I intended it to be Knut Hamsun's 'Look Back on Happiness' , which I recently downloaded, but I see that doesn't come up using touchstones, and book seems to be listed under its other title 'the Last Joy'.

Sorry about that!

Try again: this definitely does exist -

The badly hated

THE WELL BELOVED ?

On Look Back on Happiness, b t w, I couldnʻt find it either in a fast scanning of
Knut Hamsunʻs (over 200!)
titles that LT has listed. Since itʻs a translation, the word
"happiness" was not used in all editions. LboH, if put in blue, does lead to the known- to-LT edition - - with "joy" instead of "happiness" as the last word. (But I wouldnʻt have
figured it out as the answer, so thanks for changing it.)

The well beloved is correct!

Happy easter!

NEXT:
"The Samenesses of
Secular Failure-to-undergo"

5-word title; the hyphenated final word is the
"antonym" of a 10 letter single word: abstract noun.
Hint: The first word is NOT "Differences", but a near-synonym of it.

Happy Easter!

The Varieties of religious Experience by William James ??

Yes, tVoRE by the
greater (i m o) of the two James Boys
is correct.

Please set the "NEXT".

NEXT:

The Christmas Chicken

The Easter Egg
by Jan Brett ?

What else?!

NEXT:

"Cold, Spherical, and Sparsely-populated, why
You (pl.)
can-get-along-without an
Orange Keeping-the-status-quo"

16 word title, but shortened here to its first 10 words,
The "antonym" of "can-get-along without", the 7th word, is a common 4-letter word. The "antonym" of "Orange" is a color, not a food.

Hot, flat and Crowded: Why we need a green revolution by Thomas l Friedman ?

Friedmanʻs HF A C" is correct!

Please set the "NEXT".

Next:

The Falsity which directs-one-away from temporary mortality

The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life
by The Watchtower
and Bible Tract Society ?

well done!

NEXT:
"Guest without the small
Below-the-head-garment"

American; 5 words.
Most of this authorʻs many books star with the words: "The Case of..." (which is pretty hard to
antonymize). This is one of the few that doesnʻt start with "The Case of...".

To start with this puzzle is to the correct title of lawyer, Perry Mason series so popular on the local television back sometime in The Sixties. Erle Stanley Gardner, (1889-1970) wrote 85 books on Perry Mason's series - 85 titles.

The TV show is in vintage Black and White color, trying to search for the DVD format.

The Case Of The Singing Skirt is the closest title to the puzzle ???

Other Titles:

www.bpsc.bih.nic.in/Books.htm

"The singing Skirt" is the closest (187)
No, because a skirt IS a
below the head garment,
and we are looking for the ANTONYM of a "below the head garment" (which is one word, the 5th word, and is a 3-letter word (186).
But you are right about the author, Gardner, and the protagonist, Mason.

Are your clues "loosely" opposite words?

Maybe, not the relevant words used. there is no "three lettered" word quiet relating to a clothing.

"no ʻthree letteredʻ word...relating to a clothing." (189)
Yes, there are 2: __ A __ is the middle letter of both: One is C A P;
and the other is (the
answer): "__ A __"

Host with the Big Hat

Gardnerʻs HwtBH is right!

Please set the next.

Mea culpa- my first effort was essays, not fiction and therefore disqualified. Try this instead:
A slowly stablizing asteroid.

bump

The Moonstone

by Wikie Collins ????

Nope, not the moonstone- four words- generally considered YA fiction, though good for adults too.

Though its LT page gives a somewhat longer title than this, and itʻs not fiction, Iʻll risk asking:

A Quickly Changing Planet
by David Suzuki ?

Close- two words right (well one of them is the article) - general idea good- different author - and it is fiction.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L'Engle ??

You got it Starbox - on to you for the next .

NEXT:

Dully Extinguished

Sleeping Fires by George Gissing ???

On the right track...perhaps I should reverse word order to Extinguished Dully.

You might think of a famous English poem about a Tyger (too many clues!)

Burning Bright by Tracy Chavalier ???

a clue:

William Blake - The Tyger Tyger: as in tiger

Tyger,Tyger, burning bright .........

well done!

Any member can submit a new puzzle.

NEXT:

Antidote from schoolchild

>>>>

Answer: Poison for Teacher by Nancy Spain

(Had to stop and think about that one; I'd forgotten answer!)

Poison for teacher: (207>209)

I just didn't think of "teacher" as
an antonym for schoolchild --
only "adult", "graduate", etc.;
and was trying "to" as the antonym
of "from".
To whom are you passing it on?

Open to anyone...

NEXT

"The Poirotʻs -or-Holmesʻs Small Island: Japan-or-Russia in Eastern Bodies"

( 8-word title.
Word 1 is not antonymized;
The "antonym" of Word 2
is a one-syllable personal name in the possessive case, someone who might be considered a literary rival of
"Poirot-or-Holmes".)

The 8th (last) word of 212, the antonym (more or less) of "bodies", b t w, is a 5-letter plural noun,
but isnʻt "Souls".
The "antonym" of "Japan-or-Russia", b t w, is one word, a 5-letter place name

something to do with Europe? And spirits? I'm struggling with the detective name...challenging one here!

The detectiveʻs name is perhaps not a "household word" in the UK or Oceania;
definitely a household word, though, in the U.S. even among those who have never read a detective/mystery novel about him. This book,
b t w is non-fiction.
The only connection with Europe is that (mostly Western) European attitudes toward (the antonym of "Japan-or-Russia") are important in it.

>>>>

I think we all give up on this one! Put us out of our misery, Roland...

OK, I'll try an (I hope)
easier one:

"I CAN be taking-sides off-of
a stationary bus-or-plane."

(omitting the subtitle. "be" is left
without antonym. The "antonym"
of "CAN" is a contraction, and
is not in uc.)

THe answer to 212, b t w, is
The Chan's Great Continent:
China in Western Minds
(The antonym of Poirot-or-Holmes
was "Chan", sometimes spelt "ChaM", but
the title uses
it as a soubriquet of the emperor
not as part of a common name.)

You can't be neutral on a moving train by Howard Zinn ??

Zinnʻs "Canʻt be neutral..." is right!

Please set the next.

Next:

Plenty and Dearth: Mortality under the Ancient Foreign Back

"Poverty and Wealth: Life across the Modern Domestic Front" ?
-- not that I found this exact title!

Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home front by Sharon Astyk - but near enough!!
over to you...

>>>

"The Thrifty Offspring"

by a once well-known U. S. author, a Nobel Prize winner,
but this, written in the 1930s, is not one of his well-known titles.

The Prodigal Parents by Sinclair Lewis ??

The Prodigal Parents
is right!

Please set the "NEXT".