At the Sign of the Sphinx by Carolyn Wells

Carolyn Wells's charade collection turns language into a game of wit, misdirection, and discovery. Each short poem offers a compact riddle built from puns, double meanings, sound play, and clever clues, asking readers to solve the "first," "last," and "whole" of each hidden answer. The verses range widely through history, myth, religion, literature, and daily life, drawing on kings and queens, soldiers and sailors, schoolboys and scholars, storms and seasons, gardens and inns, animals, clothing, tools, and household scenes. The charm of the collection lies in its brisk variety and elegant teasing. Shakespeare, Poe, biblical echoes, proverbs, and social customs appear alongside comic mini-scenes that transform ordinary subjects into small theatrical puzzles. Light, erudite, and delightfully exacting, these charades invite lateral thinking and reward close attention. Taken together, they form a lively celebration of memory, language, and the pleasure of decoding a poem's hidden meaning. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.