THE QUEEN OF SPADES AND OTHER STORIES Oxford World´s Classi

The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the
world's greatest short stories. In this classic literary
representation of gambling, Alexander Pushkin explores the nature
of obsession. Hints of the occult and gothic alternate with scenes
of St Petersburg high-society in the story of the passionate
Hermann's quest to master chance and make his fortune at the
card-table. Underlying the taut plot is an ironical treatment of
the romantic dreamer and social outcast. This volume contains three
other major works of Pushkin's fiction, moving from the witty
parodies of sentimentalism and high melodrama in The Tales of
Belkin to an early experiment with recreating the past in Peter the
Great's Blackamoor. It concludes with the novel-length masterpiece
The Captain's Daughter, which combines historical fiction in the
manner of Sir Walter Scott with the colour and devices of the
Russian fairy-tale in a narrative of rebellion and romance. These
new translations, as well as being meticulously faithful to the
original, do full justice to the elegance and fluency of Pushkin's
prose. The Introduction provides insightful readings of the stories
and places them in their European literary context. A chronology of
the Pugachov Uprising illuminates the events in The Captain's
Daughter.