The Queen of Spades and Other Stories

The Queen of Spades and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction showcasing Alexander Pushkin`s application of Romantic sensibilities to uncompromising studies of human frailty. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Rosemary Edwards. `The Queen of Spades`, one of Pushkin`s most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady`s luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. `The Negro of Peter the Great`, a story based on the life Pushkin`s own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction - and criticism - of both French and Russian society, while `Dubrovsky` is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. `The Captain`s Daughter` tells of a young man sent to military service - based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin`s unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history. Together these four stories display the versatility and innovation that earned Pushkin his reputation as a master of prose and established him as the towering figure in Russian literature. Rosemary Edmonds`s translation is accompanied by an introduction examining Pushkin`s simplicity of style and the powerful influence he exerted on his country`s literature. Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was born in Moscow in 1799. Leaving school in 1817, he spent three years in St Petersburg working in the Foreign Office and writing erotic verse. His flirtations with pre-Decembrist movements and his revolutionary verses lead to his exile in 1820. After a stay in the Caucasus and Crimea he was sent to Bessarabia, where he began to write more seriously, beginning Eugene Onegin and Tsygany. In 1831 he retired to a family estate, married, and his literary output slackened. He was mortally wounded in a duel and died in January 1837. If you enjoyed The Queen of Spades, you might like Fyodor Dostoyevsky`s The Idiot, also available in Penguin Classics.