Solitaire

Solitaire, patience, or card solitaire refer to a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are intended for play by a single player, but there are varieties for two or more players.

]] Solitaire, patience, or card solitaire refer to a genre of card games whose common feature is that the aim is to arrange the cards in some systematic order or, in a few cases, to pair them off in order to discard them. Most are intended for play by a single player, but there are varieties for two or more players. ==History== Solitaire is probably of German or Scandinavian origin, the earliest records appearing in there in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The game became popular in France in the early 19th century, reaching Britain and America in the latter half. The earliest known description of a game of solitaire appeared in the 1783 edition of the German game anthology Das neue Königliche L'Hombre-Spiel, where it is called Patience and describes a game between two players playing alternately. Before this, there were no literary mentions of such games in large game compendia such as Charles Cotton's The Compleat Gamester (1674) and Abbé Bellecour's Academie des Jeux (1674). Books were also reported to appear in Sweden and Russia in the early 1800s and the earliest book of solitaires was published in Russia in 1826¹. More followed, especially in Sweden. There are additional references to solitaire in French literature. Solitaire was first mentioned in literature shortly after cartomantic layouts were developed circa 1765, suggesting a connection between the two. This theory is supported by the name of the game in Danish and Norwegian, kabal(e). An 1895 account describes a variant of the game exclusively used for cartomancy. The first collection of solitaires in the English language is often attributed to Lady Adelaide Cadogan through her Illustrated Games of Patience, published in about 1870¹ and reprinted several times. However, a lost book called Patience by 'Perseverance', a pseudonym for William Henry Cremer, was published in London in 1860¹ and is listed in bibliographies. The earliest American treatise is Patience: A Series of Games with Cards by Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney (1869), which was followed in 1870 by Patience: A Series of Thirty Games with Cards, and later Dick's Games of Patience (1883). More books on solitaire were written towards the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century. The most prolific and original author was Mary Whitmore Jones whose first book, Games of Patience for One or More Players, appeared in 1888 and was followed by four more volumes by 1900 and another two entitled New Games of Patience by 1911. Together her works contain around 250 different games. Other authors of books on solitaire included H. E. Jones (a.k.a. Cavendish), Angelo Lewis (a.k.a. Professor Hoffmann), Basil Dalton, Ernest Bergholt and "Tarbart". ==Overview== Solitaires are usually intended for a single player, although a small number have been designed for two and, in rare cases, three or even four players. They are games of skill or chance or a combination of the two. There are three classes of solitaire grouped by aim or object. Building sequences. The most common involves building cards in sequences, usually by suit. The cards of a shuffled pack are dealt into a prescribed layout on a tabletop. Cards are then moved and placed so as to eventually arrange them in ascending (e.g. Ace to King) or descending sequence. Occasionally both are aimed at in the same game. The card starting the required sequence is known as the foundation card or base card and the sequence or family is said to be built upon this card. In some cases, foundation cards are placed in position at the start; in others they are only laid down as they come to hand during the course of play. In some instances the cards of the sequence must be of the same suit as the foundation card; in others, suit is disregarded. Some games permit the temporary creation of auxiliary sequences (descending or ascending), i.e. groups of cards in succession but not yet ready to be played to the families or sequences on the foundations. Pairing. A second object of many solitaires is to pair cards and then discard them. If the player is able to throw out all the cards in this way, the game is out, i.e. won. Totalling. A third object is to discard any two cards whose combined value forms a particular total, say eleven or thirteen; the game is out if the player can get rid of all the cards this way. It will be obvious that the endeavour to arrange, pair, or combine the cards of a whole pack is a difficult task, varying in degree according to the rules of the particular game. The player must therefore be prepared for a good many failures, sometimes when they have all but reached the goal of success. Hence why the name 'patience games' has been given to recreations of this description. ==See also== List of patience and solitaire games Glossary of patience and solitaire terms Patience sorting, a computer algorithm named after the card game genre ==References== Cavendish (= Henry Jones) (1890). Patience. De La Rue. Craze, Richard. The Playing Card Kit. Simon & Schuster, 1995. Cremer, William Henry (1860). Patience by 'Perseverance. London: E. C. Spurin. Crépeau, Pierre. The Complete Book of Solitaire (a translation of Le Grand Livre des Patiences). Willowdale, Ontario: Firefly Books, 2001. ( ) Dalton, Basil (1948). The Complete Patience Book. John Baker. Harbin, Robert (1972). Waddington's Family Card Games. Pan, London. Hoffmann, Professor (= Angelo Lewis) (1920). Illustrated Book of Patience Games. Routledge. English translation of Blanccoeur. Kansil, Joli Quentin (ed). Bicycle Official Rules of Card Games. 1999. Lee, Sloane & Packard, Gabriel. 100 Best Solitaire Games: 100 Ways to Entertain Yourself with a Deck of Cards; New York, N. Y.: Cardoza Publishing, 2004. ( ) Marks, Arnold & Harrod, Jacqueline. Card Games Made Easy. Surrey, England: Clarion, 1997 ( ) Morehead, Albert and Geoffrey Mott-Smith (1950). The Complete Book of Patience. Faber & Faber. Morehead, Albert H. and Geoffrey Mott-Smith. The Complete Book of Solitaire and Patience Games. New York: Bantam Books, 1977 ( ) Morehead, Philip D. Hoyle's Rules of Games (3rd edition) 2001. . Parlett, David (1987). The Penguin Book of Card Games, Treasure Press, 1987. Parlett, David (2008). The Penguin Book of Card Games, London, New York: Penguin. Phillips, Hubert (1960). The Pan Book of Card Games. Pan, London. Whitmore Jones, Mary. Games of Patience, Series 1-5 (1899) – New Patience Games of Patience (1911), Upcott Gill, London. The Little Book of Solitaire, Running Press, 2002. ==External links== Lady Cadogan's Illustrated Games of Solitaire or Patience, by Adelaide Cadogan, 1914, from Project Gutenberg Games of patience for one or more players, second series, by Mary Whitmore Jones, about 1898, original book-scan from Archive.org David Parlett. Historic Card Games: Patience playing-card solitaires

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