Each answer is the title of a famous novel. A few of the titles are split into two clues - you should find those clearly marked.
Across
3 Think of the Phoenician, a possible drench, bleached prisons, or beach spindles (8,7)
Consider Phlebas ('Think of'=consider, Phlebas the Phoenician, three anagrams)
6 Three women (under training) - Russian tragedy (4,8)
Anna Karenina (Anna, Karen, Nina, under a train)
9 Before playing the numbers on an Air Serbia flight (9) (after 1 down)
Prejudice (Pre, airline code JU, Dice)
10 Fabric, for the (French) Nordic funeral (11,4) (after 23 across)
Huckleberry Finn (Huck, Le, "Bury Finn")
12 Liquid vessel sunk - in Hampshire? (9,4)
Watership Down
14 Ennobled for misplacing files (4,2,3,5)
Lord of the Flies
15 Impressive detective; an annoying producer of electronic music (4,4)
Moby Dick
17 A member of a Gallic mendicant religious order, spun unluckily - don't be silly (5) (before 4 down)
Sense (ROT13:FRAFR - abbrev:Friar, abbrev:France)
18 See a snotty cold; a dripping nose, it looks like. (1,4,4,1,4)
A Room With a View ("Rheum")
20 Terrifying German lunch assembled from parts: sausage'n'tankard (12)
Frankenstein (Frank 'n' Stein)
21 A number of Winston's wartime exploits (6,4) (second half, after 7 down)
Eightyfour
22 Agricultural earthquake in Filipino city (6,4)
Animal Farm (Anagram:MANILA, Farm)
23 After year zero, invests risk capital (10) (before 10 across)
Adventure (AD Venture)
Down
1 She's got a ticket to Ryde - starting at Portsmouth (5) (before 9 across)
Pride (P, "Ryde")
2 Anticipate the arrival of you, seen, with half a drum, floating downriver (3,10,2,3,6)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Advent, "Saw yer", Tom-tom)
4 Sensitiveness, aesthetic appreciativeness, capacity of emotion (11) (after 17 across)
Sensibility
5 Initially rebellious sheep undertake a silent infantry operation, inside a small enclosure, or so I'm induced to believe (10)
Persuasion (initials "rsuasio" within "pen")
7 A number of Winston's wartime exploits (8) (first half, before 21 across)
Nineteen
8 Little-known Beatles song (without straw) (4,3,7)
Jude the Obscure ("Hey Jude" without "hay", little-known = obscure)
11 Computerised socialite gazes at beverage, a monarch writes (2)
It ('It' girl, information technology, eye tea, Stephen King)
13 Mr President, you sailed beyond the sunset to the sheltered end of the oceans, I've heard? (7)
Ulysses (You Lee Seas, quote from Tennyson's Ulysses, Ulysses S Grant)
16 Oscar eats a food rich in iron, then dances to Chubby Checker (6,5)
Oliver Twist (O, Liver, Twist)
19 Makin' twice as many female pronouns, in Ireland (9)
Dubliners ("Doubling Hers = Doublin' 'ers")
21 A tenth of a centimetre of MDMA for the electric André-Marie - clueless? (4)
Emma (E, mm, Ampere, 'Clueless' movie has plot of Emma)
Do ask if you have any questions, either in the comments or ping me on chat with an '@AE'.
In the spirit of teamwork, partial answers are very welcome.
Answers providing constructive feedback on the puzzle itself - how hard it is, what could be improved - are also very welcome. This puzzle took me ages to compose, so please be kind! ;)
Update:
All answers now added. Thanks to all the solvers! :)
Answer
Just getting it started with a few (okay, so I've gotten more since writing that...):
- Makin' twice as many female pronouns, in Ireland (9)
The females pronoun is 'ers, from "hers", and Ireland points to Dublin (along with "doubling" for making twice as many), so it's:
Dubliners by James Joyce
- Oscar eats a food rich in iron, then dances to Chubby Checker (6,5)
O for Oscar, liver is rich in iron, and Chubby Checker is famous for the Twist, so it's:
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
- Liquid vessel sunk - in Hampshire? (9,4)
Liquid is water, vessel is ship, and when a ship sinks, it goes down. That adds up to the name of a hill in Hampshire:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
- Computerised socialite gazes at beverage, a monarch writes (2)
When you gaze at a beverage, you might eye tea. Being computerized you know all about Info Tech. Another term for monarch is king, so we have:
It by Stephen King
- A tenth of a centimetre of MDMA for the electric André-Marie - clueless? (4)
A tenth centimeter is a millimeter (MM), MDMA can go by either E or X, depending on where you are, and the electric André-Marie has to refer to Ampère, so we'll use the abbreviation A for amperes. And today I learned the the movie Clueless is loosely based on this novel, spelled with the abbreviations used in the rest of the clue:
Emma by Jane Austen.
- Three women (under training) - Russian tragedy (4,8)
Three female names: Anna, Karen, and Ina. A famous Russian tragedy fits this quite well, but I can't figure out why they're "under training". Either way, I can't see it being anything but:
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Anticipate the arrival of you, seen, with half a drum, floating downriver (3,10,2,3,6)
Anticipating the arrival of a person could be advent, combined with "yours" makes adventure. Half a drum (tomtom) is Tom, and when you're seen, I could say I saw yer. Floating downriver seems to point to the content of the book instead of the title, which is:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
- Agricultural earthquake in Filipino city (6,4)
Agriculture points to farm. The most well-known Filipino city is Manila. If an earthquake hit that word, it would certainly scramble things up, so let's look for anagrams. How about:
Animal Farm by George Orwell
- Ennobled for misplacing files (4,2,3,5)
Credit to Roger in comments: "Misplaced files" = FLIES. To be ennobled for that would be to be made:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Terrifying German lunch assembled from parts: sausage'n'tankard (12)
Credit to Roger in comments: A sausage is a frank, and a stone tankard is a stein. Put them together and you get a novel about a frightening monster assembled in Germany:
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
7 A number of Winston's wartime exploits (8) (first half, before 21 across)
21 A number of Winston's wartime exploits (6,4) (second half, after 7 down)
A book about (perpetual) wartime, with numbers as the title? Maybe one with Winston as the main character? It can only be:
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
I'll admit, at first wartime with Winston had me looking at Churchill. Nicely misdirected, sir ;)
23 After year zero, invests risk capital (10) (before 10 across)
10 Fabric, for the (French) Nordic funeral (11,4) (after 23 across)
After year zero is AD, and a venture could mean you're investing; that part is pretty straightforward. I got the second part of the title, but I'm shaky about the reasoning for the clues. Since we're talking Nordic funerals, I'm thinking of floating on a raft/boat. With Finland, that led to Finn, but I really don't know what the other has to do with it. I assume it's some sort of cloth/fabric, but my Google-fu is failing on that one. Either way, it's:
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Mr President, you sailed beyond the sunset to the sheltered end of the oceans, I've heard? (7)
The sheltered end of something is the lee side, and oceans are also seas. So it sounds like "you lee seas", and something to do with a president:
Ulysses by James Joyce
As far as feedback on the puzzle goes, the clues seem well done to me. Of course, I may be biased since I can only really judge the ones I've figured out. Either way, there seems a good mix of short/long, and there's just enough in the clues to make me want to figure them out without being completely frustrated.
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