Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards

Van Rensselaer, John King, Mrs., 1848-1925Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
428K words
Chapters
43

Tags

English Originals Games IconographyEntertainment HistoryEducational ToolGame HistoryPlaying CardsCollector GuideDivination TraditionCultural ArtifactCultural SymbolFolklore Studies

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards by Mrs. John King Van RensselaerAuthor: Van Rensselaer, John King, Mrs., 1848-1925,Language: English, Class: GV: Geography, Anthropology, Recreation: Recreation, Leisure, Release Date: Jun 15, 2013

Editor's review

This book is a cultural history of cards by Mrs. Van Rensselaer, examining fortune-telling cards, educational cards and ordinary playing cards within a single framework, with attention to the evolution of card imagery, symbolic meaning and contexts of use. Its value lies not in offering instruction in card play but in showing how cards carried functions of belief, knowledge and entertainment, providing collateral evidence for understanding early modern print culture, image circulation and everyday recreation. The author's style reflects the antiquarian and collecting interests of an earlier era, and the material is organized descriptively; it suits readers willing to read slowly and trace the threads themselves. It is best treated as a collection of essays and source material on cultural history rather than a systematic theoretical monograph; readers may take notes alongside the illustrations and card examples, or read it against works on card history, print history or the history of games. For those studying material culture and popular culture, the book offers many topics and details for further exploration.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and illustrations first, establishing a reading thread along the three categories of fortune-telling, educational and playing cards.
  2. When encountering specific card examples, note the date and use of the imagery for later cross-reference.
  3. Read alongside works on card history or print culture to supplement background knowledge.
  4. Excerpt chapters of interest; there is no need to finish the whole book in one sitting.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43

FAQ

Is this book mainly about card-game rules? No. The book focuses on the cultural uses and pictorial meanings of cards, discussing the history and functions of fortune-telling, educational and playing cards rather than teaching specific play or winning rules. Those who want to learn to play cards should look for rulebooks elsewhere.
Is the English original difficult for Chinese readers? The original is in English, written in an older academic-essay style with long sentences and references to historical figures and objects. A general command of English suffices to read it through, but a dictionary and background materials are recommended; do not labor over proper names word by word.
Does the book contain illustrations or card-face examples? Sources indicate that the book discusses card imagery and symbolism and is a cultural study related to images and text. The exact number and form of illustrations depend on the edition; readers should note descriptions of card examples and seek out corresponding images to aid understanding.
Is it suitable as an introductory book on card history? It can serve as supplementary reading. It is broad in coverage and engaging, but its structure is descriptive and lacks systematic organization. Beginners should first read a general history, then use this book to fill in specific details and cultural background.

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About the author

Van Rensselaer, John King, Mrs., 1848-1925 Author · American · 1848–1925

Mrs. John King Van Rensselaer (1848–1925), possibly born May King, was an American writer and a figure in New York society. Coming from a prominent New York family, she was immersed from an early age in the cultural atmosphere of high society, which laid the groundwork for her later writings on social history and card culture. Her representative work, Prophetical, Educational and Playing Cards, examines the multiple uses of cards in divination, instruction, and entertainment, and also touches on the historical origins of tarot cards. In addition, she wrote works on the social history of New York, recording from a firsthand perspective the manners and changes of nineteenth-century New York high society. Her writing is unhurried in tone and attentive to anecdotes and detail, offering some reference value for understanding card culture and New York social history. On the whole, her writing combines a collector's interest with a sense of historical documentation, leaving a distinctive mark in the field of popular cultural history. However, public information about the details of her life is limited and awaits further research.