The Game of Alice in Wonderland

The Game of Alice in Wonderland, subtitled "The dream-child moving through a land of wonders strange and new in a friendly chat with bird or beast and half believes it true", is a bespoke card game published in 1882 by Selchow and Righter. It was the first card game to be published that was based on Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.

The Game of Alice in Wonderland
Original box cover, 1882
Players2–6
Setup time1 minute
Playing time20 to 30 minutes
Age range8 and up

Description

The Game of Alice in Wonderland uses a custom deck of 52 cards divided into three "suits": starred picture cards, plain picture cards, and numbered cards.

  • Star picture cards: 16 cards are numbered from 1 to 16; each card has a star and a picture based on John Tenniel's original illustrations in Alice in Wonderland. The top-ranked picture card is Alice, and the lowest-ranked picture card is the dodo.
  • Plain picture cards: Another 16 cards are identical to the first set but have no star.
  • 20 unillustrated cards are numbered from 1 to 20.[1]

Card ranking

The cards are ranked by suit and by number (16 being the highest rank):[2]

  • Star picture cards are the highest-ranked suit, and trump all plain picture cards and numbered cards.
  • Plain picture cards trump all numbered cards.

Setup

The cards are shuffled, and each player is dealt seven cards. When cards run out, another seven cards are dealt, and this continues until all cards in the deck have been played.

Gameplay

The first player leads any card, starred, plain or numbered. If the second player has its mate (a card of the same number, whether starred, plain or numbered), the mate must be played, and the higher-ranked cards defeat its mate. If the second player does not have its mate, the second player must follow with a card of the same suit if possible. Other players play according to the same rules. If two or more picture cards are in play and a player has the mates to both, the player must play the mate of the first picture card played.

Victory points

When the deck is exhausted and all cards have been played, players add up their victory points by examining the cards they have taken:[2]

  • For each pair: 10 points
  • Holding both Alice and the Pool of Tears: 20 points
  • Holding the largest number of cards: 10 points

The player with the most points is the winner

Publication history

The children's book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll was first published in both the UK and the US in 1865. Seventeen years later, in 1882, the American games company Selchow and Righter published what The Lewis Carroll Society of North America recognizes as the first game based on the book, The Game of Alice in Wonderland.

Recognition

Copies of the game are held in the special collections of:

References
  1. Eley, Rachel (2012-11-09). "Virtually Unknown Alice Card Game Rediscovered". The Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
  2. "The Game of Alice in Wonderland (1882)". boardgamegeek.com. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
  3. "Alice in Wonderland". Indiana University. Retrieved 2022-01-27.
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