Literary Cryptograms

by Louise B. Moll

I omi nuul mi vyghq. Or, as we'd say after you decoded This book is great! That's only one of the many deliciously puzzling codes you'll have to break if you want to get at the marvelous literary quotations they hide. You'll spend many delightful hours with a pencil and paper trying to figure out these cryptograms. As the author notes, slippers, a comfortable place to sit, and munchies are a prerequisite for getting started. A little patience helps, too! The authors represented here include Marcus Aurelius, Shakespeare, Francis Bacon, Swift, Austen, Thoreau, Tolstoy, Kipling, Twain, Wilde, and many more. Their wise, pithy, and often funny phrases, if you are capable of deciphering the devilish cryptograms, provide insights into love and friendship, gender differences, morality, jealousy, wealth and poverty, beauty, age, power, and death. How should you begin to untangle these codes? An introduction helps by offering clues to commonly used two- and three-letter words and word endings (such as ing, est and ied). Use these aids to eliminate possibilities, and soon telltale patterns will emerge. Remember that each cryptogram has a different code and that no letter ever stands for itself. Happy hunting!

128 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1998