History Of Solitaire

Solitaire is a card game that is related to loneliness. Perhaps this is because the name of the game means alone. In reality, solitaire is a game that is far from being lonely. Today it is one of the most entertaining card games there is, and though is played alone, is one of the most popular games ever. It is a very interesting game to be played to while away your time, with extreme patience.

Solitaire is a card game that uses one or more standard decks of 52 cards, including the royal cards. There are numerous rules and restrictions to follow when playing solitaire. With so many variations of solitaire existing today, it proves to be difficult to know how many variations exist.

Though variations are being added to solitaire everyday, there is basically not much of a record on the origins of the game. This is why no one actually knows how and where the game originated. In fact, the origin of many card games is not known. Most historians and scholars conclude that solitaire is French in origin. This is because of references to the game in French literature.

In fact, most of the names of solitaire mentioned in literature were referred to by French words like La Nivernaise, La Belle Lucie, Le Cadran and Le loi Salique. As solitaire is a game requiring lots of patience, some people refer to the game by that name. To this day, most French people call the game patience.

There are other clues that tend to hint that solitaire has a French origin. There are solitaire variations called 'Napoleon's Square' and 'Napoleon at St. Helena' which indicate a reference to the famous French emperor, Napoleon Bonaparte. This French reference suggests a French connection and history to the game solitaire.

It is known that Napoleon loved playing the game solitaire, especially in exile. However, it is not known exactly if he had just enjoyed playing the game, or if he had invented these variations. Another well known player of the game of solitaire was President Franklin Roosevelt. He loved playing the game, spider solitaire.

There are also other references to solitaire games in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, the Brothers Karamazov, Lady Adelaide Cadogan's Illustrated Game of Patience, Dick & Fitzgerald's Dicks Games of Patience, Abbe Bellecour's Academie des jeux, E.D. Cheney's Patience, Annie B. Henshaw's Amusements for Invalids, Charles Cotton's The Complete Gamester and many other literary works.

Even with so many references to solitaire in literary works, it still proves to be impossible to prove the exact history of solitaire. Today, the word solitaire makes people think of the computer version of the game. However, there are still millions of people who tend to play the game the old fashioned way, using a standard pack of cards.

Solitaire is not thought of as a casino game and many gamblers have never played for money, but it is offered at some brick and mortar and a few online casinos that do offer the game. Normally playing solitaire is not really an exciting event but wagering money tends to add some interest to the game, especially for someone who thinks the game is boring.