Like the origin of playing cards, the origin of solitaire is largely unknown as there are no historical records to support it. There is much conjecture and controversy over the history of Solitaire as to where it really started. However, the first written documentation of solitaire does not appear until the late 16th century and since then Solitaire has had a long history and at one point had a less than stellar reputation.
Around the 12th century, the game “Al-qirq” (the mill, in Arabic), which would later become the game of “Alquerque”, was the most widespread game until the end of the 12th century in Europe. Playing cards were first introduced to Italy in the 13th century. During that time they also became popular in Northern Europe. There is a card game called Tarok that was invented around that time and is still played to this day. It is also believed that solitaire games were first played with tarot cards, which would indicate that solitaire likely preceded traditional multiplayer card games.
The French engraving of the Princess de Soubise showing her playing a card game dates from 1697. Legend has it that Solitaire was invented by Pelisson, a French mathematician, to entertain Louis XIV, known as “Roi Soleil” (Sun King). ). Another legend says that an unlucky French nobleman, while imprisoned in the Bastille, devised the game using a fox and goose board (the fox and goose board has been used for a variety of board games in northern Europe since the Vikings). There is doubt about these legends, since Ovide wrote about the game and described it in his book “Ars Amatoria”.
The end of the 16th century was an active period for the invention of various card games. It was then that the ace first appeared high rather than low in the ranking of cards. Several new card games were invented during this time and new variations added, so this is likely a time when solitaire games were also invented and named.
The first known rules of the solitaire game were recorded during the Napoleonic era. The author of War and Peace, Tolstoy, enjoyed playing solitaire and mentioned it in a scene in his famous novel. Tolstoy sometimes used cards to make decisions for him in a somewhat superstitious way. Most of the early literature that mentions patience is of French origin. Even the very word ‘solitary’ is of French origin and means ‘patience’. The names of most early solitaire games are also French names, the best known being La Belle Lucie. When Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena in 1816, he used to play Patience to pass the time. Deported to the island lost in the ocean, he fully knew what confinement felt like; he also knew how letters could comfort a man condemned to loneliness. During his exile on Saint Helena, Napoleon Bonaparte played a game of patience in his spare time. Some solitaire games were named after him, such as Napoleon at St. Helena, Napoleon’s Square, etc. It is not known if Napoleon invented any of these solitaire games or someone else in that same time period.
Solitaire publications began to appear in the late 19th century. Lady Adelaide Cadogan is believed to have written the first book on solitaire rules and patience games called “Illustrated Games of Patience” just after the Civil War (1870) containing 25 games. It is still occasionally reprinted even today. However, other non-English compilations on solitaire may have been written before that. Before this, otherwise, there was no literature on solitaire, not even in such books as Charles Cotton’s The Compleat Gamester (1674), Abbé Bellecour’s Academie des Jeux (1674), and Bohn’s Handbook of Games (1850), all which are used as reference in card games. In England, “Cadogan” is a colloquial word for solitaire in the same way that “Hoyle” is for card games.
Lady Cadogan’s book spawned other collections by other writers such as EDChaney, Annie B. Henshaw, Dick and Fitzgerald, HE Jones (aka Cavendish), Angelo Lewis (aka Professor Hoffman), Basil Dalton, and Ernest Bergholt. ED Chaney wrote a book about solitaire games called “Patience” and Annie B. Henshaw wrote a book with an interesting title “Amusements for Invalids”. Several years later, Dick and Fitzgerald in New York published “Dick’s Games of Patience” in 1883, followed by a second edition published in 1898. The author, Henry Jones, wrote a fairly reliable book on solitaire called “Patience Games.” Another Jones, unrelated to Henry, Miss Mary Whitmore Jones wrote 5 volumes of solitaire books over a twenty year period around the 1890s. Several other publishers of various game books also added solitaire to their long lists of games in their titles. One of the most complete solitaire books was written by Albert Morehead and Geoffrey Mott-Smith. Its latest edition contains rules for over 225 solitaire games and was used at this writing.
Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” mentions a scene that took place in 1808 where the characters played a game of patience. Charles Dickens “Great Expectations” mentions alone in his account. In Evelyn Waugh’s “A Handful of Dust,” a character plays patience while waiting for news of a death to reach London.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel [The Brothers Karamazov], the character Grushenka played a solitaire game called “Fools”, a Russian equivalent of “Idiot’s Delight”, to overcome times of crisis. Franklin D. Roosevelt played a very popular solitaire game, spider solitaire. Somerset Maugham’s “The Gentleman in the Parlor” mentions Spider solitaire and cites playing solitaire as “a creepy disposition”. In John Steinbeck’s novel Of [Mice and Men], the protagonist George Milton often plays Solitaire on the road and on the farm. In “Peter Duck,” one of the books in Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, Captain Flint stays busy playing Miss Milligan.
In the 1962 film “The Manchurian Candidate,” Raymond Shaw is forced to perform specific actions through a brainwashing trigger, often involving a game of traditional solitaire and finding the queen of diamonds. In the Finnish TV series “Hovimäki”, Aunt Victoria is very fond of playing solitaire.
Various solitaire games have gained fame through literature and other avenues. Some solitaire games were invented in unexpected places. A notable inventor of solitaire games was Bill Beers. He was in a madhouse when he invented a variation of Cribbage Solitaire. Prisoners had plenty of time to play solitaire, but they couldn’t use traditional cards because they could be used as a sharp weapon. They were forced to use thicker tiles for cards that were bulky and unwieldy.
A famous casino is responsible for the invention of a very popular solitaire game. Mr. Canfield, a casino owner in Saratoga, invented a game where one bought a deck of cards for $52 and got $5 for each card played to the foundations. He earned an average of $25 per game, however, each game required a spell dealer to watch the player, so the win was not as high as one might think. The actual name of this popular game was Klondike, but the name Canfield has stuck and is used almost as commonly as the word patience. Due to its difficulty to win, the time required to play, and the lack of options along the way, Klondike has lost some popularity to other popular solitaire games. Today, most people refer to Klondike simply as Solitaire.
Both solitaires and the reasons why people enjoy playing these card tiles have, of course, changed since the old days of solitaires. In the contemporary world, sometimes we need a break from the daily hustle and bustle and tedious routine. Solving solitaire is not just a distraction to kill time; It is also a safe way to relax after work. Long winter nights, helped Jack London’s characters entertain their leisure. A great musician, Nicolo Paganini was also in favor of solving solitaires; the most beloved solitaire of his was later called by his name.
A good solitaire not only helps you relax and kill time; it’s great mental gymnastics too. This is why solitaires attracted mathematicians like Martin Gardner and Donald Knut. As his contemporaries attest, Prince Metternich, an eminent diplomat of the 19th century, used to sit and reflect on lonely entanglements before beginning the most difficult negotiations.
Today, most people refer to the Klondike simply as “Solitary.” Due to its difficulty to win, the time required to play, and the lack of options along the way, Klondike has lost some popularity to other popular solitaire games.
When we think of solitaire games today, many people would immediately think of the digital versions for computers, for example solitaire for Mac and solitaire games for PC, however, there are still millions of people who play the “old way” with a standard deck of cards, perhaps much like the deck of cards Napoleon played with nearly 200 years ago.