The Queen of Spades

By Aleksandr Pushkin

"The Queen of Spades" is a short story that explores the sins of gambling and the bottomless greed of man. When an officer learns that there is a woman who holds the key to always winning at cards, he almost sells his soul to the Devil. The following actions reveal the secret to him, but at a horrifying price. The story is Pushkin's probing into human wickedness and how often our greatest desires spell our greatest downfall. A well-paced, supernatural story that keeps you hooked till the last page – and then winks at you for man's greed knows no end.-

• Language: English
• Publisher: SAGA Egmont
• Release date: Mar 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9788726502268

Aleksandr Pushkin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.[2] He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet[3][4][5][6] and the founder of modern Russian literature.[7][8] Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow.[9] His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. His maternal great-grandfather was Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson. He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem "Ode to Liberty", one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I. While under the strict surveillance of the Emperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov. His novel in verse, Eugene Onegin, was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife's alleged lover and her sister's husband Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment.

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Aleksandr Pushkin

The Queen of Spades

SAGA Egmont

The Queen of Spades

Translated by Mrs. Sutherland Edwards

Original title: Пиковая дама

Original language: Russian

Cover image: Shutterstock

Copyright © 1833, 2021 SAGA Egmont

This work is republished as a historical document. It contains contemporary use of language.

ISBN: 9788726502268

1st ebook edition

Format: EPUB 2.0

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Chapter I.

There was a card party at the rooms of Narumoff, a lieutenant in the Horse Guards. A long winter night had passed unnoticed, and it was five o'clock in the morning when supper was served. The winners sat down to table with an excellent appetite; the losers let their plates remain empty before them. Little by little, however, with the assistance of the champagne, the conversation became animated, and was shared by all.

How did you get on this evening, Surin? said the host to one of his friends.

"Oh, I lost, as usual. I really have no luck. I play mirandole. You know that I keep cool.

Nothing moves me; I never change my play, and yet I always lose."

Do you mean to say that all the evening you did not once back the red? Your firmness of character surprises me.

What do you think of Hermann? said one of the party, pointing to a young Engineer officer.

That fellow never made a bet or touched a card in his life, and yet he watches us playing until five in the morning.

It interests me, said Hermann; but I am not disposed to risk the necessary in view of the superfluous.

Hermann is a German, and economical; that is the whole of the secret, cried Tomski. But what is really astonishing is the Countess Anna Fedotovna!

How so? asked several voices.

Have you not remarked, said Tomski, that she never plays?

Yes, said Narumoff, a woman of eighty, who never touches a card; that is indeed something extraordinary!

You do not know why?

No; is there a reason for it?

"Just listen. My grandmother, you know, some sixty years ago, went to Paris, and became the rage there. People ran after her in the streets, and called her the 'Muscovite Venus.' Richelieu made love to her, and my grandmother makes out that, by her rigorous demeanour, she almost drove him to suicide. In those days women used to play at faro. One evening at the court she lost, on parole, to the Duke of Orleans, a very considerable sum. When she got home, my grandmother removed her beauty spots,