The Queen of Spades and Other Stories

A unique collection containing the best short stories by one of the greatest Russian writers. Now part of our new series of the complete works of Pushkin.

This collection of Pushkin's shorter fiction contains a number of lesser-known works by Pushkin which are not easily available in English, including the novel Dubrovsky and the stories Egyptian Nights and Peter the Great's Negro.

This collection of Pushkin’s stories begins with ‘The Queen of Spades’, perhaps the most celebrated short story in Russian literature. The young Hermann, while watching some friends gambling, hears a rumour of how an officer’s grandmother is always able to predict the three winning cards in a game. He becomes obsessed with the woman and her seemingly mystical powers, and seeks to extract the secret from her at any cost.

This volume, part of a new series of the complete works of Pushkin in English, also includes ‘Dubrovsky’, the story of a man’s desire to avenge himself after his land is unjustly taken from him by an aristocrat; ‘The Negro of Peter the Great’, a tale inspired by Pushkin’s maternal grandfather; and the unfinished story ‘Egyptian Nights’, a meditation on poetry and the poet. Together, they represent some of the most striking and enduring pieces of Pushkin’s prose fiction.