The Dorabella Cipher
Since around 1897, this cipher has remained unsolved until now. Unlike most or all of the "solutions" you may find for this cipher, this is likely to remain the only solution that uses a normal mono-alphabetic substitution key. Other solutions typically rely on repeating letters in the key to create an arbitrary solution in an attempt to make it appear to be sort of normal English. The problem is Elgar didn't always write normal English. He often wrote in what is known as "Elgar speak". That is why it has remained unsolved for so long. The plaintext isn't exactly normal English.
Before you become critical of this solution, I would ask that you fully research the background surrounding the cipher and learn to properly decrypt at least mono alphabetic substitution ciphers. Over 1.5 million trials, including hill climbing, simulated annealing and genetic search algorithms, have failed to reveal any other signifficant plaintext. You can find about a 50-70% solution just using standard pencil and paper techniques. Any teenager or older is more than capable of finding this solution independently if taught the basics of cryptanalysis and given a copy of my hill climber program.
Numerous critics have quickly rejected this solution but their qualifications don't stand up to the standard above. The typical response is "I don't think" or "I don't feel" without actual facts. Those that do meet the above qualifications are not so quick to judge and will often ask intelligent reasonable questions. The cipher was once used as a test at Bletchley Park and when you see how it decrypts you will also understand why it was used a test.
The PDF file has most of the details of the solution. The various other files will be listed here as needed.
Other files you may be interested in will be found in the CryptoProject section. The shotgun hill climber has it's own section.
Fonts:
Elgar.ttf
This is a true type font that will allow messages using the 24 symbols of Elgar's substitution cipher.
Texts:
Various text files related to the solution
Dorabella-Solution.pdf
The initial solution file. This was put together rather quickly. For historic reasons, I did save the aproximate time and date when I found the solution. Those were reconstructed from the respective directory and file dates.
Dorabella-SolutionPt2.pdf
Because of some doubt, some more test runs were made including using another scoring file. No new results to be reported. This has the final solution and has been kept updated.
DorabellaSol.pdf DorabellaSol.txt
These files are almost the same. They contain a very brief copy of the cipher, the key, plaintext and the best guess to the actual message.
Transcripts.pdf
This is a collection of various transcripts I've found including my own. Once the proper key is applied, all but the Tim Roberts transcription reveals most of the correct plaintext in spite of the transcription errors.
Contact: shadowwolf63 at gmail, this github account or my tumbler account. I can do voice chat through Skype. Discord, Team Speak, Ventrilo and mumble upon request. Anything else will require special arrangments.