Each Mirror Website Cryptogram Puzzle is a quotation, or a collection of related words. The quotation has been encrypted using a letter substitution code. Your objective is to work out the decoding table and determine the quotation.
For example, the first paragraph of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", which begins
It is a truth universally acknowledged that ...might have been encrypted as
PV PF X VBGVR GCPNZBFXAAD XTICMJAZHSZH VRXV ...
The decoding table would be (in part):
A=L, B=R, C=N, D=Y, F=S, G=U, H=D, I=K, J=W, M=O, N=V, P=I, R=H, S=G, T=C, V=T, X=A, Z=E
As you work on the puzzle, you guess parts of the decoding table. When you have a letter or letters guessed, you enter them into the form and use the "redisplay" button to see the quotation with your partial decoding in effect. You can change any guesses you have made.
When you have solved the puzzle by working out the complete decoding table, you will see the quotation with its original capitalization and will be told the author and work. There may be a hypertext link to the work if it is available online.
(1) A single letter is probably A or I. Given
PV PF X VBGVR GCPNZBFXAAD XTICMJAZHSZH VRXV ...one might guess that X=A.
(2) Look for common patterns. For instance, "PV PF" could be "IT IS" and "VRXV" begins and ends with the same letter so might be "THAT".
(3) You can use either upper or lower case letters in your decoding table. You might want to use upper case for letters you are sure of, and lower case for tentative assignments. For example, if you are sure that V=T and R=H and have a suspicion that B=R, then set B=r (lower case) in your decoding table, to see "VBGVR" partially decoded as "Tr-TH".
(4) Some quotations contain proper names or archaic spellings. If you are having trouble, the hints may help. If there are several hints, they are usually progressive -- that is, hint #1 will give you a little information, hint #2 will give a bit more, and so on.
Solving These Crypotograms Offline: A solver writes:
"Just in case you want to share this method with anyone. I've attached an example of how I convert your cryptogram to my style. I'll copy yours into MS Word, then REPLACE all paragraph marks with nothing. I then REPLACE all SPACEs with two SPACEs. Then I'll SELECT all text and EXPAND the character spacing by 2 points, making sure to kern the text. Lastly, I'll change the font size (I favor Times Roman caps) to whatever will fit on an regular sheet of paper, making sure that I've got at least double spacing between each line. I can make notes within the margins, and go about decyphering the puzzle at my leisure."
MIRROR WEBSITE CRYPTOGRAMS MENU
Mirror Website Cryptograms Index
Literary Cryptograms
William Cowper Cryptograms
Jane Austen's Persuasion Cryptograms
Plato's Phaedrus Cryptograms
Great Books Index
URL:
http://www.mirror.org/crypt/solving.html
Last revised February 16, 2004 by
Ken Roberts
e-mail ken2@mirror.org
Copyright (c) 1997-2004 by Ken Roberts