The Queen of Spades and Other Stories
€0,00
First published in 1834, Alexander Pushkin’s The Queen of Spades is a masterpiece of Russian short fiction, blending psychological suspense, supernatural unease and a sharp portrait of aristocratic society. Its protagonist, Hermann, is a young officer consumed by the desire to master a secret that supposedly guarantees success at cards; his pursuit draws him into the orbit of an elderly countess and her enigmatic granddaughter, with consequences that blur the boundaries between calculation and madness. Around this haunting tale, the collection gathers stories that reveal Pushkin’s remarkable range, from historical drama and romantic adventure to irony, social observation and the uncanny.
Writing with extraordinary economy and clarity, Pushkin helped shape the modern Russian prose tradition, influencing generations of writers who followed him, including Gogol, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. In The Queen of Spades, a world of polished manners and gambling rooms becomes a place of obsession, chance and supernatural ambiguity, while the wider collection displays the wit and narrative versatility that distinguish Pushkin’s work. These stories remain compelling not only for their atmosphere and ingenuity, but for their insight into ambition, fate and the fragile border between reason and delusion.
From the book
“Two fixed ideas can no more exist together in the moral world than two bodies can occupy one and the same place in the physical world.”
— Alexander Pushkin, The Queen of Spades
On The Queen of Spades and Other Stories
“The Queen of Spades … is the height of the art of the fantastic.”
— Fyodor Dostoevsky, quoted in Justin Doherty’s essay on The Queen of Spades