The Queen of Spades

About the work

Hermann, a young military engineer, never plays cards but watches other people's games every night. One day he hears the story of an old countess who knows three cards that always win. The calculating Hermann decides to learn her secret at any cost. A short tale of passion, gambling and the fantastic breaking into St Petersburg life.

Contents

1. IChapter 1
2. IIChapter 2
3. IIIChapter 3
4. IVChapter 4
5. VChapter 5
6. VIChapter 6
7. VIIChapter 7. Заключение

How it was written

Pushkin wrote the story in the autumn of 1833 at Boldino. It was first published in 1834 in the magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya (A Library for Reading).

Context

Card games were an important part of St Petersburg society in the 1830s. The text is short and the sentences are precise and clear - a good first encounter with Pushkin's prose, though the dialogues contain some card-playing terms.

Interesting facts

• Pyotr Tchaikovsky based his opera The Queen of Spades (1890) on the story; the libretto was written by his brother Modest.
• Princess Natalya Golitsyna is considered the prototype of the old countess.