Crossword Genius

Uncover articles on a French novel (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

unsheathe

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'uncover articles' is the definition.
'unsheathe' can be an answer for 'uncover' (thesaurus). I'm not sure about the 'articles' bit.

'on a french novel' is the wordplay.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'a french' becomes 'un' ('a' in French).
'novel' becomes 'sheathe' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'un' next to 'sheathe' is 'UNSHEATHE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for unsheathe that I've seen before include "Remove from cover like sword" , "Take out of scabbard" , "Draw from a scabbard" , "Draw (a sword)" , "Uncover (a sword)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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