Before becoming an icon on our screens, solitaire was first a matter of table, of cards spread out and put away in the silence of an afternoon. We tend to believe that this game was born with computers, so closely is it associated with them. Yet, it is quite the opposite. Solitaire has been around for more than two centuries, and its history, filled with exiled kings, fortune tellers, and plush salons, deserves a moment of our attention. Let's trace back its origins.
The origins of solitaire remain somewhat unclear, as is often the case with popular games that are passed down orally for a long time before being written down. What we do know is that the earliest written traces date back to the late 18th century, somewhere in northern Europe, in the Baltic countries, Germany, and Scandinavia. The very first known mention appears in a German publication from 1783. Therefore, the game is much older than its ultra-modern reputation suggests.
Over the years, the game has been known by different names in various countries, and each of these names tells a little story. In England, Germany, or Poland, it is still referred to as patience today, a transparent allusion to the virtue required by the game. In Scandinavia, it was called cabale, a word that carries a sense of mystery. And in France? The established term is réussite, which literally means success, a favorable outcome. A nice way to name the objective: to restore order to the chaos of the cards. As for the word solitaire, it has ultimately become widespread to emphasize what defines the very nature of the game: it is played alone.
Here is the most unexpected chapter. Several game historians believe that solitaire owes part of its rise to cartomancy, the art of predicting the future by interpreting cards. At the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th, during the height of the French revolutionary turmoil, card divination experienced a spectacular surge in popularity. Laying out cards in a specific order, searching for meaning, watching for the success or failure of the combination... it is understandable that the line between gaming and fortune-telling could have been quite thin. Solitaire would thus have grown in the wake of card readers.
No story of solitaire would be complete without mentioning Napoleon. Legend has it that the Emperor, exiled on the island of Saint Helena after his fall, spent long hours playing solitaire to pass the time. The anecdote is so persistent that several variants of the game still bear his name, such as Napoleon at Saint Helena. Historians, however, urge caution, as solid evidence is lacking, and it may well be that the legend has embellished reality a bit. But it doesn't matter; it has permanently associated the game with this image of the quintessential solitary figure, a man alone facing his destiny.
It was truly in the 19th century that solitaire became established in customs. The first collections of rules appeared, variants were codified, and new ones were constantly invented. The game became a popular pastime in salons, an elegant way to occupy one's hands and mind, alone or in small groups. In an era without screens or electronic distractions, the evening's success had something ritualistic, almost meditative about it. People played to clear their minds, even then.
If the classic solitaire, Klondike, has its roots in the 19th century, the large family of patience games has never ceased to grow over time. The 20th century saw the birth of two of its most famous members, those that now reign on almost all of our computers. This proves that this game of patience, far from being frozen in the past, has continued to reinvent itself from generation to generation.
Spider, first, appears in game collections from the early century. It is played with two decks of cards and gets its name from the eight legs of the spider, a nod to the eight suits that must be reconstructed to win. Long reserved for discerning enthusiasts due to its difficulty, it eventually carved out a nice place among the great classics of the genre.
FreeCell, next, has an astonishingly recent history. Its version as we know it was conceived in 1978 by an American student, Paul Alfille, on an educational computer system of the time. By choosing to make all the cards visible from the start, he unknowingly invented the most strategic solitaire there is, one where chance plays virtually no role. It's hard to be more modern for a game whose ancestors were played by candlelight.
We often forget that these variants first lived on paper, in patiently copied rule books, before finding a second life on screen. Between the game table of the 18th century and today's phone app, a long chain of enthusiasts has kept the game alive, without ever breaking the thread.
Yet these games patiently waited for their moment, passed from collection to collection, from player to player, without ever truly reaching the masses. They lacked a loudspeaker commensurate with their potential. That loudspeaker would be the personal computer, and the major turning point would occur in the early 1990s.
The great turning point has a specific date: 1990. That year, Microsoft slipped a version of Klondike Solitaire into its Windows 3.0 system. The little game, programmed a few years earlier by an intern, was not there by chance; it was meant to help users get accustomed to the mouse and its famous drag-and-drop feature. The effect exceeded all expectations. Hundreds of millions of people discovered Solitaire on their desktop computers, often during breaks, and the old patience game from the 18th century became one of the most used software programs on the planet. A completely unexpected second youth.
Nota Bene: While the word "réussite" remains perfectly correct in French, it is indeed the term "Solitaire," inherited from American usage, that has become common in everyday language and on our screens. Two words for the same pleasure: that of patiently sorting one's cards.
From the game tables of Northern Europe to screens around the world, solitaire has transcended the centuries without ever going out of style. This is undoubtedly its greatest feat: remaining true to itself while embracing each era. Today, it takes just a click to reconnect with this long tradition and play solitaire online for free. And if this little dive into the past has inspired you to explore its many variations, our guide on choosing the right solitaire for you will help you find your way. Patience, too, has not aged a bit, and this is perhaps its most beautiful secret—a simple pleasure that disregards trends and times.
Author Loïc on 08 April 2025
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