Playing Cards in Literature #1: The Virginians by William Makepeace Thackeray

Harper's Monthly Magazine, July 1858 (enlarge)

It's been said that The Virginians by Thackeray was the worst novel ever written by a great novelist. Some critics even went so far as to call it the worst novel ever written despite every page being thoroughly interesting, as it was incongruous and forever losing its narrative. I haven't read it but own an 1858 Harper's Monthly serialization of it which has some great illustrations including a witch and, of course, a disembodied hand holding aloft three playing cards as shown above. Since I probably think about the latter more than my own child or the woman that I love, I present it here to stop me from literally gnawing it out of the book.

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The witch illustration was just a mere collateral visage found along the way to more card playing illustrations, but am I wrong to think that the third illustration shown resembles The Fool of Tarot lore?

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The other two drawings are self-explanatory. The 19th century aristocracy was just as frivolous as our modern dullard is, all children excluded from such scorn.

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A Card Within a Card: 3 Jokers and Theirs

As ruminated upon in a previous post here are three more Jokers who are depicted wielding other cards within their own. The first one is openly presenting the Ace of Spades while concealing three others with a mere Diamond peeking out over one corner of the trumvirate. On the second Joker, from a Scandinavian deck, The King of Diamonds is figured prominently as the Joker leans upon it. His poppet Joker is also holding an Ace of Hearts. What it all means would depend on the manufacturer and artist, I suppose. The last specimen from Longfield Games features an Ace of Spades as the Joker stands upon a depiction of the world as a globe which seems almost 3/4 there but not quite whole. All interpretations of this and the preceding ones would be mere speculation and without knowing the artist and his source inspiration it would mainly be a stab into the void. Which is basically what this entire blog consists of.

Tart Rhymes

I came across this excellent booklet from The U. S. Playing Card Co. on Instagram and then tracked down its source to eBay where I took advantage of the generous photos on the listing and saved them in e-book form because it's the right thing to do for posterity's sake. The booklets contains a very short sequence of rhymes that make for one bizarre folktale that wouldn't cut it in today's cancel culture. Also displayed in the small booklet are some card packs produced by the company which is very helpful towards dating the cards for novices who don't have access to the company's historical records.

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