Customer Reviews

A History of Card Games

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There are many books that tell you how to play card games, but this is the only book that tells you where the games come from. See Contract Bridge evolve from Trump & Ruff. Watch Rummy games explode into the 20th century. Learn the true history of the Joker. Always clear and well written, anyone who enjoys games should read this book. Actually, people who don't like games should read this book more!

This book describes the history and evolution of card games. If that sounds "dry," rest assured that this book is anything but. It offers fascinating, highly-readable accounts of how different families of card games have evolved. It also provides simple game-play descriptions.

In this book, you will:

(1) Find totally different games to play
(2) Find related games to your favorites you might try
(3) Understand the basics and principles underlying card play
(4) Enjoy some fascinating history

BTW, this book is the softbound version of the book entitled "Oxford Guide to Card Games."

Most books on card games tend to focus on rules and rules alone. If there are any references to the history of card games, they tend to propagate one of the popular false myths (myth #1: crusaders brought the cards to Europe, myth #2: gypsies brought the cards to Europe, myth #3: Marco Polo brought the cards to Europe). David Parlett comes to rescue, however: his book focuses on the history and development of the card games in Western Europe, starting from their introduction in 1370s.

Parlett describes plenty of games and traces their development and evolution. Most of the book covers trick-taking games, which is of course obvious to a book covering European games. His history seems valid and well-researched and he has a knack of describing games well. While this isn't a rule book, many games are described well enough that an experienced card player can play them.

There aren't that many good books on the topic - this one's the only one I've read. If you're at all interested in the topic, this one's highly recommended.

One of the things that I was attracted to in Amazon's description of this book is the claim that it is "illustrated." I have seen books that are illustrated and believe that to mean there are pictures. Considering this is a book that is suppose to describe card games and it's history, how can the entire book be without any pictures whatsoever? I am a graphic designer and consider illustration to be important to any historical referencing. No matter how good others may think of this book, I am now tainted because of how it was advertised and what it actually is.

I'd suggest anyone wanting to get a much more interesting description of the history of card games to buy, "Playing cards" by W. Gurney Benham. It may be hard to find but it is an easy read, full of historical information and truly illustrated with playing cards from over 500 years of history.