1880 Doublets, A Word-Puzzle

Description

Early Edition, Publishers' Original Binding

The second edition of this work, first published the year prior.

This book is 'a new puzzle' that was first introduced in Vanity Fair in 1879 by Carroll. This work forms a guide to the game, explaining the rules and method of scoring.

Carroll has also included an extensive glossary of many well-known English words of 3, 4, 5 or 6 letters that can be used as links in the game. Carroll adopted the name 'doublets' for this puzzle from a passage in Shakespeare's Macbeth. A better known name for this type of puzzle is 'Word Ladder' or 'Laddergrams'.

Carroll invented this game on Christmas day 1877 for Julia and Ethel Arnold who 'found nothing to do'. He first called it 'Word-Links' before changing the name for their publication in 'Vanity Fair'.

A noted feature of Carroll's 'Doublets' compared to later inceptions of the game is that the progressions are humorous such as 'Pig' to 'Sty', 'Poor' into 'Rich', 'Ape' to 'Man' and 'Flour to 'Bread'.

An early edition of this important work by the noted mathematician, inventor and author. Carroll devised a number of games, including an early prototype of what is now known as Scrabble.