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The complete patience book
The Complete Patience Book [Mass Market Paperback] [Jan 01, 1969]
234 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1948
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 1, 2021
Basil Dalton’s delightful “Complete Patience Book” is a collection of his earlier individual books for one and two deck solitaire games as well as his book on Patience Problems and Puzzles which appeared in the forties.
I have both the 1967 Pan paperback and the 1964 hardback published by John Baker. Both are relatively inexpensive and the PB is very well produced. My copy, which I bought in 1967, is quite usable yet. The HB is excellent with somewhat larger pages. Both use a text completely reset from the older versions.
The books were written before the great multi-deck games and apps were prevalent. Clearly Dalton expects his reader to be using actual playing cards. This explains the great detail given to the exact order of the cards in his marvellous examples and puzzles.
He offers a number of interesting variations of some of the games. In “Emperor” for instance, he suggests a limited redeal which makes the game somewhat easier as well as rewarding careful playing strategy. Dalton advocates playback from foundations—an important strategy in games of skill. Sometimes, the player may be confronted with choices in which judgement can be of no use. Here he feels the player should have the right to examine the next card to be revealed before making a choice. I do not regard this as cheating. It is a way of enhancing the player’s use of judgement in a game of skill. It can already be done by the simple “undo” move in modern Patience games or by creating a snapshot to which the player may return later tot try a different choice. There are many helpful strategic tips for various games and the puzzles are very pleasant.
It is a wonderful book and with “The Complete Book of Patience” by Morehead and Mott-Smith and “The Penguin Book of Patience” by David Parlett is one of the finest available. It’s worth having all three.
I have both the 1967 Pan paperback and the 1964 hardback published by John Baker. Both are relatively inexpensive and the PB is very well produced. My copy, which I bought in 1967, is quite usable yet. The HB is excellent with somewhat larger pages. Both use a text completely reset from the older versions.
The books were written before the great multi-deck games and apps were prevalent. Clearly Dalton expects his reader to be using actual playing cards. This explains the great detail given to the exact order of the cards in his marvellous examples and puzzles.
He offers a number of interesting variations of some of the games. In “Emperor” for instance, he suggests a limited redeal which makes the game somewhat easier as well as rewarding careful playing strategy. Dalton advocates playback from foundations—an important strategy in games of skill. Sometimes, the player may be confronted with choices in which judgement can be of no use. Here he feels the player should have the right to examine the next card to be revealed before making a choice. I do not regard this as cheating. It is a way of enhancing the player’s use of judgement in a game of skill. It can already be done by the simple “undo” move in modern Patience games or by creating a snapshot to which the player may return later tot try a different choice. There are many helpful strategic tips for various games and the puzzles are very pleasant.
It is a wonderful book and with “The Complete Book of Patience” by Morehead and Mott-Smith and “The Penguin Book of Patience” by David Parlett is one of the finest available. It’s worth having all three.
April 21, 2017
Just great - one of my lifelong companions. This is all three of Dalton's Patience (/Solitaire) books combined. The first contains over 50 types of solitaire for a single pack of cards, and second around 60 types for a double pack, with both containing a bunch of specimen games for the more complicated (complete with solution). The third book sets up several dozen "problems" and pre-set games for the player to solve. This is one of those books that is such a product of its time (1940s-1960s) and all the more wonderful for it.
Get yourself some tea, a blanket, an old-fashioned sitcom and a pack of cards, and you'll be set.
Get yourself some tea, a blanket, an old-fashioned sitcom and a pack of cards, and you'll be set.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews