Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Queen Of Spades
    The Queen Of Spades
    The Queen Of Spades
    Ebook39 pages22 minutes

    The Queen Of Spades

    By H. Twitchell and Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateJan 1, 1947
    The Queen Of Spades

    Related to The Queen Of Spades

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      A Hampstead MYSTERY

      Oct 19, 2022

      A Hampstead MYSTERY
      9 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hotel ROMEO

      Oct 6, 2021

      Hotel ROMEO
      9 min read

    • Article

      When the HEART MELTS

      Feb 23, 2022

      When the HEART MELTS
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Countryman In London

      Mar 15, 2023

      FOR some months, the muscular Romanian lady who works at the car wash at the end of my street had been calling me ‘a very naughty boy’. It wasn’t anything like that: Marta only ever sponged the outside of my little Suzuki and occasionally hoovered th

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Gold Coast

      Sep 6, 2022

      The Gold Coast
      35 min read

    • Article

      Stranger Than Fiction

      Apr 12, 2024

      Stranger Than Fiction
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      I Love Liz Hurley, Topless Or Not

      Jun 2, 2021

      Catching sight of Elizabeth Hurley’s breasts on page 87 of the Spring issue of The Oldie reminded me of several things, as you might imagine. Chief among them, beyond the fact that this magazine never ceases to surprise me, was a sudden vivid recolle

      3 min read

    • Article

      When Lizzie met Maggie

      Dec 13, 2023

      The Grim Reaper has been having a high old time of late. I've barely had a moment to keep up with my diary, I have been so busy writing letters of condolence, attending funerals and giving addresses at memorial services. I was especially saddened by

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Dec 15, 2021

      The Old Un’s Notes
      5 min read

    • Article

      Hello, Grim Reaper

      Dec 15, 2021

      She was a babe. A fully paid-up, card-carrying babe. There was absolutely no doubt about it, and she was heading straight for me. She was almost sprinting towards me across the recently reimagined lobby of Claridge’s. She looked up, her scarlet-anoin

      3 min read

    • Article

      Typewriter

      Aug 2, 2021

      Chère Madame. Vous ne vous rappelleriez pas de moi, mais de ma part… Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap… She flicks the return bar – PING – and her fingers fall back into rhythm. Catherine’s French comes as naturally as the movement of her

      5 min read

    • Article

      Too BAD

      Aug 30, 2022

      Too BAD
      6 min read

    • Article

      Make A Stand

      Jan 17, 2024

      Make A Stand
      6 min read

    • Article

      The heartbeat OF PARIS

      Apr 10, 2024

      The heartbeat OF PARIS
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Brief Ghostly Encounter…

      Nov 30, 2020

      A Brief Ghostly Encounter…
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letter To A Stranger

      Dec 14, 2018

      Letter To A Stranger
      3 min read

    • Article

      I REMEMBER… Barry Humphries

      Mar 15, 2022

      I REMEMBER… Barry Humphries
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Library of Gromma

      Jul 10, 2023

      Zac was sweating and panting as he reached the top of the hill. The crooked beams of the library loomed over him. He dropped the buckets of water, swore at the few drops that spilled, and escaped the piercing morning sun in the shade of the library.

      22 min read

    • Article

      'A Terrible Country' Follows An Ex-pat Who Returns To Experience Life In Russia

      Jul 11, 2018

      Andrei Kaplan, narrator of A Terrible Country, is a 33-year-old Russian-born American teaching on-line Russian literature courses. Andrei’s older brother, caught up in shady Russian business deals that “temporarily” require him to flee to London, beg

      3 min read

    • Article

      La Otra Historia

      Jun 30, 2022

      La Otra Historia
      14 min read

    • Article

      The Traveler

      Oct 1, 2020

      The Traveler
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Ghosts Of Nativities Past

      Dec 2, 2020

      LAST weekend, Zam went to collect a second-hand fridge. The sellers weren’t expecting him until the following day, so he had to leave empty-handed, with the ratchet straps, the flatbed transit he’d borrowed and the young cousin he’d enlisted to help.

      2 min read

    Reviews for The Queen Of Spades

    4/5

    82 ratings8 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      One night, while playing cards, a group of idle young officers are entertained by the stories of their colleague Tomsky. He tells them a legend about his grandmother, the Countess X, who as a young woman lost a great deal of money at cards at Versailles. When her husband refused to pay her debts, she sought out the aid of her friend, the Count of Saint-Germain, who told her a secret technique by which, with only three cards, she could be sure of winning back her money. The officers are delighted by this story, but none more so than young Hermann. His financial caution has prevented him from ever joining in with the gambling, but if he could be sure of winning... why, he could set himself up for life! As time passes, the idea grows on Hermann and gradually he becomes obsessed with it. If only he could find a way to get into the Countess's presence! And then he spots the virtuous Lizaveta Ivanovna, the Countess's ward, sitting sewing in her window, and a cunning plan begins to take shape in his mind.This is another classic short story and, like Gogol's Nose (below), inspired an opera. Written in 1833, it's a delicious blend of unscrupulous ambition, avarice, immortality and eerie ghost story, and its message is clear: you get what you deserve. I hadn't read any Pushkin before and was delighted by his witty turn of phrase. For example, when asked why he doesn't play cards, Hermann explains that he is 'not in a position to risk the necessary in the hope of acquiring the superfluous'. And, when Lizaveta shyly asks Tomsky about Hermann, the young officer ebulliently replies: 'he has the profile of a Napoleon and the soul of a Mephistopheles. I think there must be at least three crimes on his conscience'. It was a real pleasure and I'll have to seek out some more of his work. Maybe one day, when I'm feeling brave, it'll be time for Eugene Onegin...
    • 4/5
      A fine and haunting short story. Card games and cheating fate.
    • 5/5
      A very funny and bittersweet short story.
    • 5/5
      Loved it - great ending. Karma !!!!
    • 4/5
      A short story form Pushkin about a gambler, the `winning cards` and a revenge beyond the grave.
    • 3/5
      Taking nothing away from Pushkin's fame as a founder of the Russian voice in literature, these "romances" of the era just aren't my thing. Also, two of the four stories here - not just one, as mentioned in the introduction - were left unfinished. The Queen of Spades is a good short story for its time. Too bad Pushkin was on such a short leash with the Czar and his coterie. Highly censored and could never really blossom.
    • 4/5
      An entertaining short story with twists and turns to hold your interest.Well I enjoyed this work, and appreciate that Pushkin can write so straightforwardly, I think many critics overate the significance of the work. While indeed it is a story of the travails of greed, I personally thought the work was quite simplistic.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed these stories, with Dubrovsky being my favorite.

    Book preview

    The Queen Of Spades - H. Twitchell

    Project Gutenberg's The Queen Of Spades, by Alexander Sergeievitch Poushkin

    This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

    almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or

    re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

    with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

    Title: The Queen Of Spades

           1901

    Author: Alexander Sergeievitch Poushkin

    Translator: H. Twitchell

    Release Date: October 17, 2007 [EBook #23058]

    Last Updated: February 7, 2013

    Language: English

    *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE QUEEN OF SPADES ***

    Produced by David Widger

    THE QUEEN OF SPADES

    By Alexander Sergeievitch Poushkin

    Translated by H. Twitchell

    Copyright, 1901, by The Current Literature Publishing Company

    AT the house of Naroumov, a cavalry officer, the long winter night had been passed in gambling. At five in the morning breakfast was served to the weary players. The winners ate with relish; the losers, on the contrary, pushed back their plates and sat brooding gloomily. Under the influence of the good wine, however, the conversation then became general.

    Well, Sourine? said the host inquiringly.

    Oh, I lost as usual. My luck is abominable. No matter how cool I keep, I never win.

    How is it, Herman, that you never touch a card? remarked one of the men, addressing a young officer of the Engineering Corps. Here you are with the rest of us at five o'clock in the morning, and you have neither played nor bet all night.

    Play interests me greatly, replied the person addressed, but I hardly care to sacrifice the necessaries of life for uncertain superfluities.

    Herman is a German, therefore economical; that explains it, said Tomsky. But the person I can't quite understand is my grandmother, the Countess Anna Fedorovna.

    Why? inquired a chorus of voices.

    I can't understand why my grandmother never gambles.

    I don't see anything very striking in the fact that a woman of eighty refuses to gamble, objected Naroumov.

    "Have you never

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1