A. 怒りの葡萄　B. 王子と乞食　C. 誰がために鐘は鳴る　D. 白鯨

E. 響きと怒り　F. 緋文字

It seems clear that A Fan is the most well-read of our contestants, or at least the most interested in showing it off.  We can’t tell you what led him to call on some of the more obscure works of the authors in question, but we can do two things: the first is to recommend Twain’s “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.”  The second is to point out that, among his eclectic guesses, there was one that did appear on the list: Grapes of Wrath.  Unfortunately, he put it in the wrong place.  The Steinbeck tale comes up first at A, where it was correctly identified by Theoman, who is perhaps more of a bibliophile than he himself believed.  One last consolation for A Fan: perhaps he can take some solace in the fact that he is more in tune with the authors than with their works; the titles are wrong but the writers are right on his guesses for C and E.

Theoman is on a roll, and he’s beginning to show his swagger.  Note the brusqueness of his “guess”: “B is The Prince and the Pauper.”  Not “I think,” not “B could be,” it is.  And he’s right, which means he’s two-for-two this week, and how many other KYPC regulars can boast that kind of success? (I don’t know; maybe you folks are keeping track better than me).  Shirley had two guesses as well, but her record this week was a little less impressive.  She wanted to find what A Fan called the recognized great American novel, and, in her defense, I wanted to include it, but books with names in the title don’t work well for this game, so Twain’s river-rafting epic sat this one out.  She should be glad, however, that the featured Hemingway work was For Whom the Bell Tolls, which shows up not at B but at C.  Shirley was correct in saying that B and C were Hemingway and Twain, just not quite in that order.

And then we had a last-minute entry by Dragon, who probably does all her shopping on Christmas Eve.  She came in seeking forgiveness, though she chose a strange way of showing it by making her guess a tale of vengeance.  “Now wait,” you all say (yes, I can hear you), “You said no titles with names in them!”  I did say that, or rather, I implied it.  But I did also point out that one of these works has a slightly different title in Japan.  And this is it.  The characters in D mean “white” and “whale,” and I don’t think I have to explain which book that is.  So, in the spirit of Christmas, I have no choice but to forgive Dragon for whatever the heck it is she’s so sorry about.

Our outcasts this week are E and F, which are Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, respectively.  One of them I read in high school and thought it was boring, and the other of which I have only heard is boring.  Hey, there are a lot of books out there.  They can’t all be winners.

Much as you may not want to think about it, we’re running out of time before Christmas.  Need help with gift ideas?  Check out this list of things my true love gave to me.  I’m telling you, she just won’t stop!  Seriously, it’s been almost two weeks, and she just keeps handing these things over.  More and more and more of them!  Maybe you can figure out what they are, and why she seems to be suffering from such an acute attack of Christmas spirit.  (Just to let you know, they’re not listed in order.  At least, not the order you would expect them to be in).

A. 雁　B. 雉鳩　C. 卿　D. 黒歌鳥　E. 鼓手　F. 小間使い　G. 淑女

H. 白鳥　I. 笛吹　J. 雌鶏　K. 山鶉　L. 指輪