Sinusitis

Read Dubrovsky in a summary chapter by chapter. Pushkin “Dubrovsky” – read online

Pushkin's masterfully constructed story: Gothic horror, the incarnation of Napoleon and a parable about how greed and monomania enslave a person.

comments: Lev Oborin

What is this book about?

The young engineer Hermann learns that his friend’s grandmother, the old countess, knows the secret of three cards that can bring a win. The Countess's secret haunts him, making him forget about romantic feelings, caution and humanity.

When was it written?

The first sketches for the story date back to 1832. Throughout 1833, Pushkin returned to “The Queen of Spades” and finished it, probably in the autumn in Boldin - this was the “second Boldino autumn”, during which he wrote “The Bronze Horseman”, “Angelo”, part of “Songs of the Western Slavs” , “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish”, “The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Knights”, several poems, ends “The History of Pugachev”.

Alexander Pushkin. Reproduction of a portrait of Orest Kiprensky. 1827

Culture Club/Getty Images

How is it written?

“Precision and brevity are the first virtues of prose. It requires thoughts and thoughts - without them, brilliant expressions serve no purpose,” wrote Pushkin. “The Queen of Spades” is a short story written in a very clear, slightly ironic language “in the third person”: the first publisher of the story, Osip Senkovsky, called it an ideal example of secular narratives 1 Vinogradov V.V. Style of “The Queen of Spades” // Vinogradov V.V. Selected works: On the language of artistic prose. M.: Nauka, 1980. P. 236. ⁠ . Psychological observations here are brought out into the open (we guess what is happening to the characters by their behavior and facial expressions), but at the same time, Pushkin, as an “omniscient author,” penetrates into the thoughts of his main character, Hermann, and shows what is happening through his eyes. At the same time, the author’s omniscience, as philologist Sergei Bocharov notes, ends “where the story enters fantasy,” into the realm mysterious 2 Bocharov S. G. Pushkin’s Poetics. M.: Nauka, 1974. P. 200-201. ⁠ .

“The Queen of Spades” is very dynamic, full of action, expressed in energetic verbs. Despite its brevity, it is full of symbols and echoes. There is not a single random detail here, “semantic diversity has been brought to limit" 3 Vinogradov V.V. Style of “The Queen of Spades” // Vinogradov V.V. Selected works: On the language of artistic prose. M.: Nauka, 1980. P. 176. ⁠ . Although there is no narrator in The Queen of Spades (in the draft editions Pushkin began to write in the first person), one feels that the narration is being narrated by a person who knows the circle of players well and is almost personally acquainted with the characters.

What influenced her?

European Gothic prose, especially the works of E. T. A. Hoffmann. "Red and Black" by Stendhal. Foreign stories about gamblers (such as “The Dutch Merchant”) and historical anecdotes of the “gallant” 18th century. Mystical stories that circulated among players, and Pushkin’s personal gambling experience. Russian everyday prose of the 18th-19th centuries.

My “Queen of Spades” is in great fashion. Players punt on three, seven and ace

Alexander Pushkin

The story was probably intended for the almanac Troychatka, jointly with Gogol and Vladimir Odoevsky, but this almanac was never published. Pushkin published “The Queen of Spades” in the second volume of the journal “Library for Reading” for 1834. Biblioteka, founded shortly before, quickly became the most popular magazine in Russia, primarily thanks to eminent authors attracted by unprecedentedly large fees. In the same year, Pushkin included “The Queen of Spades” in his collection of stories.

Publishing house "Neva". Berlin, 1922

Publishing house "Neva". Berlin, 1921

How was she received?

The story was a success in a society that was receptive to both an acute secular plot and a description of its own life. Card terms that are incomprehensible to us today were the alphabet for the Russian world, and literary games with them were easily read. Pushkin himself wrote in his diary: “My “Queen of Spades” is in great fashion. Players are betting on threes, sevens and aces.” Contemporary criticism of Pushkin noted the influence of Hoffmann’s works on The Queen of Spades, which Pushkin was really keen on. Vissarion Belinsky believed that “The Queen of Spades” is not a story, but rather a story, since for a story the content is “too exclusive and random,” but at the same time he called this “story” “the height of skill.”

“The Queen of Spades” fused together the motifs of rock and card games, expressed in the Russian noble consciousness. After Pushkin’s story, the idea of life as a game and of the game as an opportunity to change life in the most fatal way was established in “card” texts: “Masquerade” and “Shtoss” by Lermontov, “The Gambler” by Dostoevsky. Soon after its publication, “The Queen of Spades” was reworked for the theater: A. A. Shakhovskoy made it into a very mediocre play, “Chrisomania, or Passion for Money.” “The Queen of Spades” was translated into French by Prosper Mérimée, and in 1850, on the basis of this translation, Fromental Halévy’s opera was created, and 40 years later, a much more famous opera appeared - “The Queen of Spades” by Tchaikovsky, which very seriously deviated from Pushkin’s plot. The story has been filmed and staged several times. Many works on Pushkin studies are devoted to her, including fundamental ones by A. L. Slonimsky, V. V. Vinogradov, Yu. M. Lotman.

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

Did the old countess have a prototype?

In his diary, Pushkin wrote: “At court they found similarities between the old Countess and the prince. N.P. and they don’t seem to be angry.” This “they don’t seem to be angry” hints that the court guessed correctly. It was about Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, “a maid of honor at the court of four emperors.” She was born in 1744 (although some sources indicate 1741) - thus, the 87-year-old age of the old countess indicates that the action of “The Queen of Spades” takes place in the modern era for readers. In her youth, Golitsyna - nee Chernysheva (note the connection of this surname with the black suit of the Queen of Spades) - was indeed very beautiful, and her husband, Prince Vladimir Golitsyn, was indeed a man of weak character and was subordinate to his wife. She enjoyed great respect at the Russian court. According to the memoirs of prose writer Vladimir Sollogub: “The emperors expressed almost filial love to her. In the city she ruled with some kind of unconditional power recognized by all. After being introduced to the court, each young girl was taken to bow to her; the guards officer, who had just put on his epaulettes, appeared to her as to the commander-in-chief.” And although in her old age she was no longer called the “Moscow Venus”, but the “mustachioed princess,” this did not detract from the admiration for her: Natalya Petrovna embodied the ideal of a high-society lady.

In The Queen of Spades, the Parisian success of the old Countess Anna Fedotovna dates back to the late 1760s and early 1770s, and mentions of the Duke de Richelieu and the Count of Saint-Germain give Tomsky's story about his grandmother historical authenticity. The real Golitsyna actually lived with her family in Paris and was nicknamed the “Moscow Venus,” but later - in the first half of the 1780s; Richelieu was then already a very old man, and Saint-Germain had only a short time to live, and he lived in Germany - thus, it is impossible to put an equal sign between the old countess and Princess Golitsyna.

The anecdote about the three cards known to Golitsyn from Saint Germain is not Pushkin’s invention: this story was told to him by a friend, a gambler and a thief - the grandnephew of the princess Sergei Golitsyn-Firs, whom the old woman once helped to recoup. After the publication of Pushkin’s story, the house of Princess Golitsyna on Malaya Morskaya Street began to be called “the house of the Queen of Spades” - and is still called that way. The irony of fate is that Golitsyna outlived Pushkin. She died on December 20, 1837, aged 93.

According to the memoirs of Pushkin’s friend Pavel Nashchokin, Pushkin admitted that he told the old countess some features of another high-society lady of the 18th century - Natalya Kirillovna Zagryazhskaya. She was related to Pushkin's wife Natalya Goncharova, and Pushkin maintained good relations with her. She also lived to a ripe old age and died in the same year, 1837, having outlived Pushkin.

Vladimir Borovikovsky. Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna. 1790s. Russian Museum. Pushkin's contemporaries saw similarities between Golitsyna and the Countess from The Queen of Spades

Wikimedia Commons

Natalya Zagryazhskaya. Lithograph by Alexander Mosharsky from a painting by Pyotr Sokolov. 1835–1839. State Hermitage Museum. Some features of the old countess were copied by Pushkin from Zagryazhskaya

Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

Who is Count Saint-Germain?

Count Saint-Germain, from whom the countess receives the secret of the three cards, is a real historical person. He was one of the most mysterious European figures of the 18th century: occultist, alchemist, composer, heartthrob, diplomat at the court of Louis XV; among other things, he carried out difficult assignments during the Seven Years' War. His real name is unknown; it is not even known whether he was actually a count (he himself said that his father was the Transylvanian prince Ferenc II Rakoczi). During his travels, Saint Germain traveled almost the entire European ecumene of that time. Many legends are associated with his travels and black magic. Among his acquaintances and rivals were other famous adventurers of the 18th century - Casanova and Cagliostro (the former is mentioned in “The Queen of Spades” by Tomsky; the plot of the story is connected with the latter, according to Leonid Grossman: Cagliostro was also told that he guessed the winning numbers in the court lottery 4 Grossman L.P. Sketches about Pushkin. M., Pg.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1923. P. 68. ⁠ ).

The figure of Saint Germain is an effective way to add weight and mystery to an anecdote; it is possible that the halo of fame as an alchemist who boasted of his ability to obtain gold and diamonds has a decisive influence on Hermann. For us, however, it is important that Germain and Hermann are variants of the same name: the deceased adventurer turns out to be Hermann’s double predecessor; one gives the countess a secret, the second takes it away for his own misfortune. There may be a love subtext to this duality: as we remember, Hermann conjures the old woman with the feelings of his wife, mother, mistress (and before that, the wild thought of becoming her lover even comes to his mind); The story does not say anything about the countess’s love affair with Saint-Germain, but the morals of the “gallant age” could well have suggested this (in fact, the libretto of Tchaikovsky’s opera contains a direct hint of this). When Hermann, leaving the dead countess, imagines how sixty years ago, along these same steps “in an embroidered caftan, combed à l'oiseau royal, clutching his triangular hat to his heart, a young lucky man, long since decayed in the grave, crept,” he describes an exemplary gentleman of the 18th century - perhaps unconsciously remembering Saint Germain. Some commentators on The Queen of Spades interpret the contrast between Hermann and Saint Germain in a Freudian vein: in different works the Count turns out to be either Hermann’s symbolic father or his rival 5 Cornwell N. “You’ve heard of the Count Saint-Germain...” - in Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” and Far Beyond // New Zealand Slavonic Journal. 2002. P. 49-50. ⁠ .

The patron saint of the Count of Saint-Germain should be Saint Herman of Paris; An abbey in Paris is named after this saint, and a fashionable suburb, the abode of the old Parisian nobility, which, of course, was visited by the old Countess Anna Fedotovna, is named after the abbey. This connotation enhances the contrast between the Count of Saint-Germain and the poor engineer Hermann: their duality has a parodic undertone.

Portrait of the Count of Saint-Germain. In The Queen of Spades, Saint Germain reveals to Countess Anna Fedotovna the secret of three cards.

Bibliothèque publique et universitaire, Neuchâtel

Why is there a double "n" in Hermann's name?

In German there are variants Herrmann, Hermann, Herman. The second spelling is considered older and more basic specifically for the German name, although this name comes from the Latin word with one n (germanus - “brother”). There is a version that Pushkin’s Hermann is not a first name, but a surname (all other officers from Hermann’s circle are named by their last names), however, in Pushkin’s drafts there is also a spelling with one “n”, and the phrase in the final text “his name is Hermann” is unambiguous indicates that we have a name in front of us. According to philologist Irina Koshchienko, Pushkin deliberately separates the name of his hero from its Latin prototype: “his German had no relatives, not even a related souls" 6 Koshchienko I.V. On the interpretation of the epigraphs of A.S. Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Bulletin of Pskov State University. Series “Social Sciences and Humanities”. 2016. No. 4. P. 86. ⁠ . In Tchaikovsky's opera, Hermann again became Hermann.

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

What does Hermann's engineering profession mean and how old is he?

Hermann is a military engineer with a modest rank, hardly above lieutenant; he is either an officer of the Main Engineering School or a student of officer classes at the Institute of Railways messages 7 Alekseev M.P. Pushkin: Comparative historical studies. L.: Nauka, 1984. pp. 84-88. ⁠ . Adherence to exact sciences and calculation enhances the stereotypically German traits of his character - which, however, are contrasted by others: Hermann is highly capable of romantic exaltation. Although Hermann belongs to a group of young people, he is not exactly young: he may be considered as a groom.

Why is Hermann compared to Napoleon and Mephistopheles?

“He has the profile of Napoleon, and the soul of Mephistopheles. “I think that he has at least three atrocities on his conscience,” this is how Tomsky recommends his friend, and this characterization is ambivalent: Hermann appears not as a bad person, but as an interesting and mysterious person, as befits a romantic hero.

Literary scholars have more than once explained the connection between the image of Hermann and Napoleon and Mephistopheles: for example, Grigory Gukovsky wrote about the “all-consuming thirst for approval” characteristic of both Napoleon and Hermann 8 Gukovsky G. A. Pushkin and the problems of realistic style. M.: GIHL, 1957. P. 343. ⁠ , and Boris Meilakh - about “a cynical attitude towards life, towards everything sacred for a person”, which makes Hermann akin to a demon Goethe 9 Meilakh B. S. Pushkin and his era. M.: GIHL, 1958. P. 634. ⁠ . Napoleon's appearance is especially clearly manifested in Hermann after his tragic visit to the old countess - and Lizaveta Ivanovna, struck by him, helps Hermann escape. But in addition to appearance, Tomsky notices a deep similarity - right down to the “three atrocities” from the first part of Faust.

Actually, this is not a story, but an anecdote: for a story, the content of “The Queen of Spades” is too exclusive and random
Vissarion Belinsky

Napoleon is, of course, the main prototype of the romantic “negative” figure, and his spirit did not let go of European literature long after his death - let us recall, for example, Napoleonic torment of Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment. Such a dark hero is associated in the mind with otherworldly forces of evil - Napoleon was repeatedly likened to the Antichrist. Like Napoleon, Hermann is ready to do anything for his goal; like Napoleon, he defies fate, begins with brilliant victories, but then suffers a crushing defeat. In Pushkin’s work, Napoleon occupies a special place: just remember the poems “To the Sea” and “The motionless guard was dozing on the royal threshold...” - in the latter, by the way, the ghost of Napoleon appears, which gives the Pushkin scholar Viktor Listov a reason to see in this poem pretext ⁠ "The Queen of Spades". Napoleon is also imitated by another hero important to Pushkin - Julien Sorel from Stendhal's "The Red and the Black", who treats life as a long game with high stakes - and in the end loser 10 Vinogradov V.V. Style of “The Queen of Spades” // Vinogradov V.V. Selected works: On the language of artistic prose. M.: Nauka, 1980. P. 199; Volpert L.I. The theme of playing with fate in the works of Pushkin and Stendhal: “Red and Black” and “The Queen of Spades” // Boldin Readings. Gorky: Volgo-Vyatka Book Publishing House, 1986. pp. 105-114. ⁠ .

Goethe's Mephistopheles is another charming villain who fails (the second part of Faust was published only two years before The Queen of Spades). One can note the similarity of Hermann not only with Mephistopheles, but also with Faust. As Listov notes, the treasured sequence of cards is a secret that is given for a reason: the countess’s condition is to put no more than one card per day, never play again and marry Lizaveta Ivanovna. “Hermann will have to enter into an inheritance burdened with debt,” says Listov. —<…>Roughly speaking, this is selling your soul to the devil for winnings at cards. And, in fact, in Hermann’s very initial conversation with the Countess, he himself hints at this knowledge: if the secret is aggravated by the sale of the soul, then I’m ready for it, he says. And this is the condition - the sale of the Soul.”

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

How does Pushkin play up Hermann's German origin?

The similarity with the heroes of Faust, of course, has to do with Hermann’s German origin. His portrait emphasizes traits that seem to be the opposite of the behavior of a romantic hero: restraint, German prudence; all this is enhanced by his engineering specialty. In the rough drafts, Pushkin “Germanized” Hermann’s character even more; in the final version, Byronic passions, “inflexibility of desires” and “the disorder of unbridled imagination” are hidden under stereotypical German traits. The devilish composure of Hermann, capable of calmly waiting at night for a rendezvous with the countess and at the same time remembering the entire furnishings of her house, gives way to an explosion of emotions during a conversation with the old woman. According to Alexander Slonimsky, the author of a subtle article on the composition of The Queen of Spades, it is the contradiction in Hermann’s nature - the accuracy of the “German” against the passion of the romantic hero - that leads to a failure in the verified game 11 Slonimsky A.L. About the composition of “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin collection in memory of prof. S. A. Vengerova. Pushkinist IV / Ed. V.V. Yakovleva. M., Pg.: Gosizdat, 1922. P.178. ⁠ : Hermann gets upset and pulls out the wrong card.

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

What do the heroes of “The Queen of Spades” play? Is it possible to understand the story without knowing the intricacies of the card game?

The world of gamblers was well known to Pushkin, although he usually played unsuccessfully and incurred large debts. It is characteristic that Pushkin’s first prose sketch, Nadenka (1819), opens with a scene of a night card game, very similar to what will happen in The Queen of Spades. “The passion for the game is the strongest of passions,” he told his friend Alexei Vulf. This passion almost ruined him during a game with the famous gambler Vasily Ogon-Doganovsky: Pushkin lost him a huge amount - 24,800 rubles - and paid for several years. In Pushkin studies there have been suggestions that Pushkin conveyed Doganovsky’s features to Chekalinsky from “Peak ladies" 12 Oksman Yu. G. “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin A. S. Complete works: in 6 volumes. T. 6: Guide to Pushkin. M., L.: GIHL, 1931. P. 279.; Parchevsky G. F. Pushkin and maps. St. Petersburg: Russian Visa, 1996. pp. 89-92. ⁠ .

The game Hermann plays with Chekalinsky is called Pharaoh; in Pushkin's time it was also called bank and shtoss. This is a game of chance (winning here depends on chance) and elementary. This is how the author of the book “Pushkin and Maps” Georgy describes it Parchevsky 13 Parchevsky G. F. Pushkin and maps. St. Petersburg: Russian Visa, 1996. pp. 6-7. ⁠ :

“Most often the game was played in the house of the owner-banker (banker). He holds the bank, that is, he bets a certain amount of money intended for the drawing. The punter, who plays (ponts) against, bets his amount on the card. Each player has his own deck of cards. The banker throws the cards in the order in which they are located in his deck. If the card placed by the punter falls on the right side, then the banker wins, if on the left, the punter wins. In this case, the suit is not taken into account.”

Hermann's mistake, accordingly, is that, having bet on an ace, from the very beginning he pulled a queen from his deck instead of an ace. By coincidence, the ace and queen ended up side by side in Chekalinsky’s deck and lay on the table at the same time.

The simplicity and excitement of Pharaoh made it perhaps the most popular card game in European secular society at least since the end of the 17th century. Its popularity did not wane: both young men in Chekalinsky’s house and, sixty years earlier, the old countess played pharaoh. Pushkin’s contemporaries who read “The Queen of Spades”, of course, understood what it meant to “play with mirandole” (play carefully, without increasing the bets), “bend the passwords” (double the bets), “win sonic” (win immediately, on the first card ).

Pushkin, who gave us almost all forms of art, wrote “The Queen of Spades” - the height of fantastic art
Fyodor Dostoevsky

The pharaoh motif is realized in The Queen of Spades not only at the gambling table. Writer Anatoly Korolev notes: having entered the countess's house, Hermann sees two portraits - of her and her late husband, which can be correlated with the lady and the king. Choosing where to go - to Lizaveta’s room or to the countess’s office, Hermann turns right, into the office; the right side of the table in Pharaoh is unlucky for the punter, and Hermann, by refusing Lizaveta’s love, predetermines his fate. “The card on the green cloth of the table (that’s where the green spruce forest on the floor of the church comes from) and the coffin on the hearse are one and the same thing, the layout of the loss on the pharaoh’s gambling table.” Chekalinsky’s phrase “Your lady has been killed,” completely ordinary in gambling argot, for Hermann, of course, also means the death of the old countess.

In an article about the Queen of Spades, Yuri Lotman considers the game of pharaoh as a text divided into episodes (waists, that is, games) and phrases (loss of individual kart) 14 Lotman Yu. M. “The Queen of Spades” and the theme of cards and card games in Russian literature of the early 19th century // Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin. St. Petersburg: Art-SPB, 1995. pp. 786-814, 798-799. ⁠ ; Elements of the plot resonate with this text. But this is not the only function of the game motives in “The Queen of Spades”: they fit “The Queen of Spades” into the “card” context of Russian prose of the early 19th century. Lotman recalls that a fatalistic attitude towards life, likening it to a card game, is characteristic of the romantic consciousness (in Tchaikovsky’s “Queen of Spades” this attitude is expressed by Hermann’s aphoristic line: “What is our life? - A game!”); and, conversely, gambling was thought of as a manifestation of chance, fate, governing human life 15 Lotman Yu. M. “The Queen of Spades” and the theme of cards and card games in Russian literature of the early 19th century // Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin. St. Petersburg: Art-SPB, 1995. pp. 793-797. ⁠ . “It would be a one-sided simplification,” writes Lotman, to see in this worldview “only a negative beginning”: the case is fascinating, it deautomatizes life - this explains the sudden passion of the rational Hermann for the card game and conflicts with his irrepressible thirst for profit. At the same time, the pharaoh, where everything depends on chance, is in itself automatic, because it is built on meaningless actions.

Playing cards. Russia, 1815

What is the symbolism of the three treasured cards and the Queen of Spades?

Pushkin's combination of cards is easy to remember. Firstly, from the very beginning it is known that there are three of them (an important, sacred number). Secondly, when their secret is revealed, they are given in a laconic ascending sequence: three, seven, ace. Thirdly, Pushkin prepares for this combination. Let us remember that Hermann initially tries to resist the thought of the countess’s secret: “Calculation, moderation and hard work: these are my three true cards, this is what will triple, seventeen my capital and give me peace and independence!” Let us pay attention: “it will triple, it will seventeen” - Hermann involuntarily guesses the three and seven 16 Bocharov S. G. Pushkin’s Poetics. M.: Nauka, 1974. P. 187. ⁠ ; Moreover, according to S. Davydov, at the junction of the words “triple, seventeen” there is a “tus” hidden (ace) 17 Davydov S. The Ace in “The Queen of Spades” // Slavic Review. 1999. Vol. 58.No. 2. Special Issue: Aleksandr Pushkin 1799-1999. P. 314. ⁠ . This is one of the many symbolic coincidences that permeate the story.

Having learned the countess's secret, Hermann begins to rave about three, seven and ace:

“When he saw a young girl, he said: “How slim she is!.. A real three of hearts.” They asked him: “What time is it?”, he answered: “It’s five minutes to seven.” Every pot-bellied man reminded him of an ace. Three, seven, ace - haunted him in his dreams, taking on all possible forms: the three bloomed in front of him in the form of a lush grandiflora, the seven seemed like a Gothic gate, the ace like a huge spider.”

The exoticism of this nonsense (grandiflora - that is, a flower with large petals, a Gothic gate, a spider) is another way to firmly remember the treasured combination. There are others: A. Slonimsky puts forward controversial 18 Lezhnev A. Z. Pushkin’s prose: experience of style research. M.: Goslitizdat, 1937. pp. 184-196. ⁠ the hypothesis that “the special significance of Hermann’s concentrated thoughts about the three cards is expressed in the rhythmicity speech" 19 Slonimsky A.L. About the composition of “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin collection in memory of prof. S. A. Vengerova. Pushkinist IV / Ed. V.V. Yakovleva. M., Pg.: Gosizdat, 1922. P. 176. ⁠ : When thinking about “three, seven, ace,” he constantly falls into tense dactylic trimeter. According to Loren Layton, in the description of the countess’s house the combinations of sounds “three”, “seven”, “one” are constantly repeated. (ace) 20 Leighton L. G. Gematria in “The Queen of Spades”: A Decembrist Puzzle // Slavic and East European Journal. 1976. Vol. 21.No. 4. P. 455-456. ⁠ . In short, this combination is impossible to forget; the more striking Hermann's mistake seems.

His “profile” is like Napoleon’s, that’s true, but about the “soul of Mephistopheles” - Tomsky flattered both him and himself: Hermann is far from Mephistopheles
Vladislav Khodasevich

The symbolism of the cards in different fortune-telling systems varied, but the predictions in most fortune-telling books are deliberately arranged so that, if desired, they can be adapted to existing circumstances - including the plot of “The Queen of Spades.” Thus, in the Russian fortune-telling book of 1812, the three of hearts promises happiness and revenge on the villain, the seven of hearts - “Both of these depend on you” and “Beware that something important does not come out of a trifle”, the ace of hearts - “Fate sends you a faithful friend , do not run away from him; he will save you from your worst misfortune” (Hermann deceives Lisa and does not seek an alliance with her). Ace of clubs - “The job is done, repentance is too late, don’t think about success”, Three of clubs - “Beware of evil and insidious actions.” Three of Diamonds - “The commitment you have with someone you know is very dangerous.” Three of spades - “With the cruelty of your heart you will make yourself sad,” seven of spades - “Don’t expect to receive it, because you are the cause.” Finally, the Queen of Spades, among other things, tells the fortuneteller: “Be prepared for an unpleasant event for you.” The same book provides a table of card meanings, where the Queen of Spades means “evil woman.” But along with this, favorable predictions are also indicated for the same cards: the same Queen of Spades can also mean “For your constancy you will be rewarded with complete pleasure.” All this suggests that in card fortune-telling the real meaning is the case - which is difficult for Hermann to reconcile with.

The Queen of Spades in the story is associated with the old countess, and the association is set from the very beginning: “At that time the ladies played pharaoh,” says Tomsky; one of these ladies was his grandmother. Hermann, who came to the countess’s funeral, thinks that she is winking at him from the coffin; he sees the same face on the fateful map. “He screwed himself up by choosing a queen instead of an ace as his destiny,” recalls Sergei Bocharov 21 Bocharov S. G. Pushkin’s Poetics. M.: Nauka, 1974. P. 190. ⁠ . The epigraph from the “newest fortune-telling book” - “The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence” - may hint at the afterlife revenge of the deceased. The queen of spades in various fortune telling symbolizes duality: any queen means a beneficial feminine principle, but the suit of spades is usually interpreted as unfavorable, ominous. In contemporary texts about cards to Pushkin, the queen of spades was often called an old woman or widow 22 Vinogradov V.V. Style of “The Queen of Spades” // Vinogradov V.V. Selected works: On the language of artistic prose. M.: Nauka, 1980. pp. 193-194. ⁠ .

Fragments of the book “The Sorcerer or the New and Complete Universal Oracle: Part 1-2.” St. Petersburg, 1812

Russian State Library

Does the old countess really appear to Hermann - or is this a hallucination?

Both options are possible, and each has its own supporters 23 Gurevich A. M. Author’s position in “The Queen of Spades” // News of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Literature and Language Series. 2011. T. 70. No. 1. P. 37.; Muravyova O. S. Fiction in Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin: Research and materials. L.: Science. Leningr. department, 1978. T. 8. P. 62-63. ⁠ . Several details may indicate that the appearance of the old woman is a hallucination of Hermann. First of all, this is the initial mania of his behavior (he eagerly listens to Tomsky’s anecdote, is deprived of sleep, is even ready to become the lover of an 87-year-old old woman, almost without hesitation prefers the opportunity to find out the secret of three cards to Lisa’s love) and the outcome of his fate is madness; Hermann may have been prone to hallucinations. In addition, on the eve of his vision, he, upset by his participation in the death of the countess, drinks wine, which “fires his imagination.”

However, “The Queen of Spades” is firmly embedded in the tradition of Gothic prose, where such ghostly phenomena are part of reality. Uncertainty in this matter is the main focus of “The Queen of Spades”: Pushkin’s narrative is absolutely realistic - and at the same time tells about unusual things, so that the mystical meeting does not look foreign; “Pushkin does not confirm the secret anywhere, but he does not disavows" 24 Mann Yu. V. Evolution of Gogol’s fiction // On the history of Russian romanticism. M.: 1973. S. 219-258. ⁠ . This ambivalence was noted by Dostoevsky: “And you believe that Hermann really had a vision, and one that was precisely consistent with his worldview, and yet, at the end of the story, that is, after reading it, you do not know how to decide: did this vision come from nature? Hermann, or is he really one of those who came into contact with another world, evil spirits hostile to humanity.” We have before us the technique of the “unreliable narrator”; One of the most famous examples of it in world literature is another ghost story, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

It is worth noting that the fantastic nature of “The Queen of Spades” was completely denied by the majority of Soviet researchers, in particular G. Gukovsky, N. Stepanov, M. Alekseev. On the contrary, Western and post-Soviet literary scholars (N. Rosen, A. Kojak, F. Raskolnikov) devoted serious work to the mystical and fantastic aspects of the story.

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

How does The Queen of Spades relate to Gothic literature?

The question of the fantastic nature of The Queen of Spades inevitably leads to Hoffmann. The 1820s and 30s were the time when Russian prose writers were seriously interested in Hoffmann. Pushkin carefully read Hoffmann in French translations. The image of the poor engineer Hermann can be correlated with the student Balthasar from “Little Tsakhes” or the monk Medard from “Elixirs of Satan” (a novel in which the plot of the game of pharaoh appears); finally, the disastrous charm of a card game that can drive you crazy is the theme of Hoffmann’s short story “The Gambler’s Happiness.” It is characteristic that Hermann first calls the story of the three cards a fairy tale - giving a completely Hoffmannian genre definition. However, as A. Gurevich points out, the heroes drawn by otherworldly forces into macabre vicissitudes in Hoffmann are initially innocent - in Pushkin, in Hermann, from the very beginning there is a certain spiritual wormhole that makes him vulnerable 25 Gurevich A. M. Author’s position in “The Queen of Spades” // News of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Literature and Language Series. 2011. T. 70. No. 1. P. 38. ⁠ . In “The Queen of Spades,” Pushkin is already critical of the romantic structure of the biography of Hoffmann’s heroes: “Pushkin not only portrays Hermann’s insanity as spiritual death, but, by means of parody, cuts off any possibility of evaluating insanity as a path to the heavenly world or to truth" 26 Rosenshield G. Choosing the Right Card: Madness, Gambling, and the Imagination in Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” // PMLA. 1994. Vol. 109. No. 5. P. 998. ⁠ .

Hoffmann is one of the most notable representatives of Gothic literature (although his work goes beyond its boundaries), but there were others who were extremely popular in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century: for example, Anna Radcliffe Anna Radcliffe (1764-1823) - author of “The Mysteries of Udolpho”, “The Italian”, “Romance in the Woods” - absolute bestsellers in Europe at the beginning of the 19th century. Having started writing to occupy her spare time, Radcliffe published books for seven years, then abruptly quit her literary studies, frightened by popularity. Her chilling novels caused a wave of imitations and influenced Walter Scott and Edgar Allan Poe. ⁠ , under whose name the original works of Russian imitators were even published, and Horace Walpole Horace Walpole (1717-1797) - English writer. The author of the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto, a mystical story about how the owner of an Italian castle finds his son crushed by a giant knight's helmet. Walpole was inspired by the fantastic plots of the medieval chivalric romance; his own texts evoked a feeling of anxiety and horror in the readers of that time. Walpole's Strawberry Hill estate, the construction of which inspired him to create the novel, has become a place of pilgrimage for fans of the genre. ⁠ , whose famous Strawberry Hill estate in England, built in the style of a Gothic castle, never ceased to receive visitors - Boris Golitsyn, the son of Princess Natalya Petrovna, who is considered the prototype of the old countess from "Spade ladies" 27 Vatsuro V. E. Gothic novel in Russia. M.: New Literary Review, 2002. P. 26. ⁠ . There is a possibility that pretext The source text that influenced the creation of the work or served as the background for its creation. ⁠ “The Queen of Spades” was a novel by the Swedish romantic Claes Livijn, “The Queen of Spades: A Novel in Letters from a Lunatic Asylum” (1826), the hero of which ends up in an insane asylum after betting ten times on the Queen of Spades.

The 1830s are a time when interest in Gothic is fading, and Pushkin refers to it not without irony: for example, mentioning the “Gothic gate” or surrounding Hermann’s visit to the countess with a gloomy environment - bad night weather, mysterious darkness. However, The Queen of Spades' popularity is partly due to the fact that it was seen as an experience in a well-known genre. He was also in demand due to the interest in mysticism characteristic of the Russian nobility 1830s 28 Muravyova O. S. Fiction in Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin: Research and materials. L.: Science. Leningr. department, 1978. T. 8. P. 64. ⁠ ; Thus, the mention of “hidden galvanism”, under the influence of which the old countess seems to be rocking in a chair, hints at “galvanic forces” - electrical phenomena still mysterious for the society of the 1830s; Associated with this same layer of scientific and mystical associations is the mention "Mesmerian magnetism" Mesmerism (animal magnetism) is a pseudoscientific theory of the German physician Friedrich Mesmer that influenced medicine in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. According to this theory, the bodies of living beings have magnetism and, thanks to this, are able to establish telepathic communication with each other. Mesmer is considered the father of hypnosis: it was not magnets that produced the miraculous effect on patients, but the doctor’s power of suggestion. ⁠ - a phenomenon from the time of the Countess's triumph in Paris. Another aspect of the Gothic novel is its darkness, its dramatic mortality. When the old countess asks to send her some novels, “where the hero does not oppress either father or mother and where there are no drowned bodies,” she hints at the French novels of the “nightmare genre” that inherit the Gothic genre - the works of Victor Hugo, Eugene Sue, Jules Janin (the translation of the novel “The Dead Donkey and the Guillotined Woman” was a scandalous novelty in 1831) and other “frantic romantics”. It is remarkable that the countess had never even heard of the fact that there are Russian novels in the world.

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

How is the speech of the heroes of “The Queen of Spades” structured?

Researchers drew attention to the fact that in the speech of the heroes of “The Queen of Spades” - in comparison with “real life” - there are inconsistencies. Thus, Tomsky, telling an anecdote about his grandmother, frames it as a real work of art, with internal direct speech and colorful details: “Having arrived

home, grandmother, peeling off the flies from her face and untying her hoops, announced to her grandfather about her loss and ordered pay" 29 Gershenzon O. M. The Wisdom of Pushkin. M.: Publishing House of Writers in Moscow, 1919. P. 111; Bocharov S. G. Pushkin’s Poetics. M.: Nauka, 1974. P. 192-193. ⁠ ; Viktor Vinogradov notes that “the forms of expression inherent in Tomsky’s story are integral to the style of the author" 30 Vinogradov V.V. Pushkin’s style. M.: Goslitizdat, 1941. P. 204-205. ⁠ . Dreamy Lizaveta writes letters to Hermann and gives instructions on how to get out of the house, in a completely clear, even dry style. The sensible Hermann first writes love letters to Lizaveta, copied from German novels, then becomes infected with passion for real; Having appeared at the Countess's, he humbly asks her, sublimely begs, rationally exhorts, and finally, rudely intimidates - these transitions from one emotional state to another indicate not his changeability, but that he intends to obtain the secret by any means. The Countess herself resorts to “folk-lordly” speech (“What’s the matter with you, my mother? Have you lost your voice, or what?”), but at the fateful moment “her only phrase... is free from the “genre” that so thickly colors her whole image at another time: “It was a joke,” she finally said, “I swear to you!” it was a joke! Likewise, the white woman who comes to Hermann at night to reveal a secret to him also does not speak in the colorful language of her former life. ladies" 31 Bocharov S. G. Pushkin’s Poetics. M.: Nauka, 1974. P. 203. ⁠ . Thus, here we can talk about two speech characteristics - “mask” and genuine. The duality of the speech characteristics of the characters reinforces the motive of duality, which is paramount in general in the entire story.

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Pyotr Chardynin. 1910

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Yakov Protazanov. 1916

“The Queen of Spades” (“La Dame de pique”). Directed by Fedor Otsep. France, 1937

"The Queen of Spades" Directed by Thorold Dickinson. Great Britain, 1949

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Roman Tikhomirov. 1960

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Igor Maslennikov. 1982

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Pyotr Chardynin. 1910

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Yakov Protazanov. 1916

“The Queen of Spades” (“La Dame de pique”). Directed by Fedor Otsep. France, 1937

"The Queen of Spades" Directed by Thorold Dickinson. Great Britain, 1949

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Roman Tikhomirov. 1960

"Queen of Spades". Directed by Igor Maslennikov. 1982

What is the role of epigraphs in The Queen of Spades?

Epigraphs not only anticipate the content of the chapters, but also indicate the author's position, which is not directly manifested in the story. Their obvious irony makes this position ambiguous - and thus invites the reader to judge for himself the content and meaning of The Queen of Spades.

The epigraph to the entire story - “The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence” - refers to a certain “newest fortune-telling book.” This everyday prediction does not obligate anyone, but the idea of mystery in it is immediately compared with the idea of trouble. Pushkin does not name a specific book, thereby seeming to indicate that exact data is not important here: we have a reference to fortune telling as such.

The first chapter is introduced by a poem:

And on rainy days
They were going
Often;
They bent - God forgive them! —
From fifty
One hundred
And they won
And they unsubscribed
Chalk.
So, on rainy days,
They were studying
Business.

Pushkin composed this poem in 1828 and sent it in a letter to Peter Vyazemsky. His rare metric refers to two songs of the Decembrists and companions in the almanac “Polar Star” - Kondraty Ryleev and Alexander Bestuzhev: “Oh, where are those islands” and “Tell me, speak.” In the first version, instead of “God forgive them,” there was “their mother,” which, of course, is impossible in print. This poem, so to speak, introduces the course: it contains card terms and realities (“bend from fifty to a hundred” - that is, double the bets), it sets a somewhat ironic attitude towards the gambling world.

The second chapter is preceded by “small talk”, based on a joke by Denis Davydov: “II paraît que monsieur est décidément pour les suivantes. - Que voulez-vous, madame? Elles sont plus fraîches" (“You seem to strongly prefer maids. - What to do? They are fresher”). As O. Muravyova notes, this epigraph relates to the narrative “only conditionally. Hermann really “preferred” to play out the affair with Lisa rather than with herself old woman" 32 ⁠ ; the dismissive and at the same time playful tone, the tone of flirtation of this epigraph hints at the frivolity of the intended romance.

I must pay you the next 24,800 rubles within 4 years. I am in no way able, due to bad turnover, to suddenly pay 25 thousand
Alexander Pushkin to Vasily Ogon-Doganovsky

The epigraph to the third chapter is from the “correspondence”: “Vous m'écrivez, mon ange, des lettres de quatre pages plus vite que je ne puis les lire” (“You write to me, my angel, letters of four pages, faster than I have time to read them”): the story is approaching a climax, which is delayed by the description of Lisa’s lively love correspondence with Hermann (started, as we remember, by a cliché from a German novel). Apparently he calls Hermann “Angel” Lisa 33 Koshchienko I.V. On the interpretation of the epigraphs of A.S. Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Bulletin of Pskov State University. Series “Social Sciences and Humanities”. 2016. No. 4. P. 90. ⁠ ; in the fourth chapter she will face severe disappointment, which is hinted at by another epigraph - again from the “correspondence”: “Homme sans mœurs et sans religion!” (“A man who has no moral rules and nothing is sacred!”) To convincingly imitate correspondence, even the date is stamped, although in fact the phrase comes from Voltaire’s poem “Dialogue between a Parisian and a Russian.” Let us note that after the Decembrists, this is the second reference to free-thinking, uncensored sources.

The epigraph to the fifth chapter is a fictional quote from the Swedish philosopher and mystic Emmanuel Swedenborg: “That night the deceased Baroness von V*** came to me. She was all in white and said to me: “Hello, Mr. Councilor!” Researchers note the particular irony of this epigraph: “the comic discrepancy between the mysterious appearance of the deceased and the insignificance of her words" 34 Slonimsky A.L. About the composition of “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin collection in memory of prof. S. A. Vengerova. Pushkinist IV / Ed. V.V. Yakovleva. M.; Pg.: Gosizdat, 1922. P. 175. ⁠ contrasts with the important message of the Countess's ghost. “The result is not a rethinking, but an ambiguity: the irony of the epigraph and the seriousness of the narrative do not cancel each other friend" 35 Muravyova O. S. Fiction in Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin: Research and materials. L.: Science. Leningr. department, 1978. T. 8. P. 67. ⁠ .

Finally, the epigraph to the sixth chapter is an anecdotal dialogue between two players, different in social status: “— Atande! - How dare you tell me atanda? “Your Excellency, I said atande, sir!” “Atande” (with emphasis on the second syllable) is a proposal not to place any more bets; “Your Excellency” cannot stand the fact that a subordinate addresses him with an order - even in a game. This epigraph can be interpreted as a harbinger of Hermann’s defeat before the authorities century 38 Vinogradov V.V. Pushkin’s style. M.: Goslitizdat, 1941. P. 179. ⁠ , in comedy they are present even earlier (for example, in “The Brigadier” by Fonvizin). Moralizing and humorous tendencies in the depiction of card games persist in Russian literature even after “The Queen of Spades” (suffice it to recall Gogol’s “Players”, written in 1842, and card reminiscences in “The Inspector General”) - but Pushkin’s story forever shifted the focus, linking Russian literary tradition is a card game with themes of doom and omens. This connection was characteristic of the romantic consciousness, and “The Queen of Spades” gave it expression. Pushkin was followed by little-known authors (for example, Baron Fyodor Korff, who in 1838 published the story “An Excerpt from the Biography of Khomkin,” the main character of which “experiencing clouding of consciousness, sees cards everywhere instead of objects and people" 39 Vinogradov V.V. Pushkin’s style. M.: Goslitizdat, 1941. P.192. ⁠ , and paramount. Playing with fate and gambling are parallel in Lermontov’s “Masquerade,” where Arbenin, in response to the question “Are you a man or a demon?” replies: “Me? - Player! (that is, neither one nor the other, but something borderline). Lermontov's unfinished story "Stoss" tells the story of the same game played in "The Queen of Spades": its main character, the artist Lugin, is played by a mysterious old man, a ghost luring him into a trap.

The pharaoh's connection with fate reappears in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace: Dolokhov plays the role of the fatal hero, beating Nikolai Rostov by forty-seven thousand; the dynamics of the game, completely captivating the imagination, were as familiar to Tolstoy as to Pushkin. And, of course, The Queen of Spades had a major influence on the main Russian novel about gambling - Dostoevsky's The Gambler.

Vasily Shukhaev. Illustration for “The Queen of Spades”. 1922

Russian State Library

How did The Queen of Spades influence Dostoevsky?

“The Queen of Spades” was one of Dostoevsky’s favorite Pushkin works. He called it “the height of fantastic art,” and his texts contain many echoes of it. First of all, of course, it is necessary to say about “The Gambler” (1866): this is a novel that Dostoevsky wrote hastily, having lost all his money at roulette. The motive of passion for the game is the leading one here; “roulette is characterized as a means of salvation; with its help, miracle" 40 Lotman Yu. M. “The Queen of Spades” and the theme of cards and card games in Russian literature of the early 19th century // Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin. St. Petersburg: Art-SPB, 1995. P. 813. ⁠ . As in The Queen of Spades, the plot here is anchored by anecdote and scandal (in the exaggerated manner of Dostoevsky). Moreover, there is its own “old woman ex machina” - Antonida Vasilievna, who suddenly returns from the threshold of death, changes the situation in the Zagoryansky family and infects the main character - teacher Alexei - with a gambling passion. Alexey himself, like Hermann, makes a fatal - but, according to Dostoevsky, reversible - choice in favor of profit rather than love. (Of course, the image of Polina from “The Gambler” is much more complex than the image of Lisa from “The Queen of Spades”; let us remember, however, that in “The Queen of Spades” there is also Polina, Tomsky’s capricious bride). For Dostoevsky, roulette is “a primarily Russian game”: the Russian character is characterized by the desire for sudden, undeserved happiness, opposed to the “German method of accumulation through honest labor.” In this regard, one can retrospectively interpret Hermann’s story as a struggle of “national ideas.”

Mikhail Bakhtin wrote about the influence of “The Queen of Spades” on “Crime and Punishment” in “Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics”: he sees the pretext of Raskolnikov’s dream (where he again kills the old money-lender) in Pushkin’s description of Hermann’s meetings with the dead countess - an ominous wink at the funeral and recognizing an old woman in the Queen of Spades. Bakhtin considered Pushkin's story in the context of his theory carnival 41 Bakhtin M. M. Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics // Bakhtin M. M. Collected works: In 7 volumes. T. 6. M.: Languages of Slavic culture, 2002. P. 189-190. ⁠ . Several works are devoted to the connection between “The Queen of Spades” and “Demons”: for example, the similarity of the images of Hermann and Stavrogina 42 Nikolaeva E. G. Elements of the code of Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” in the works of Dostoevsky. Author's abstract. diss....cand. Philol. Sci. Tomsk, 2007. P. 4. ⁠ . As in “The Queen of Spades,” “The Possessed” features a girl named Lisa who is treated poorly by the main character. hero 43 Nikolaeva E. G. “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky: a few notes on the connection of the novel with “The Queen of Spades” by A. S. Pushkin // Bulletin of KemSU. 2012. No. 4 (52). P. 75. ⁠ ; It is worth noting that after Karamzin’s “Poor Liza”, characters with that name in Russian literature are surrounded by a “semantic halo” misfortune 44 Golovchenko G. A. The image of the girl Lisa as one of the cross-cutting images of classical Russian literature // Language. Literature. Culture. 2013. No. 6. P. 89-104. ⁠ . Researchers believe that the triad of heroes “Lisa - Hermann - the old countess” influenced the emergence of triads in Dostoevsky: “Sonya - Raskolnikov - the old money-lender” in “Crime and punishment" 45 Lotman Yu. M. “The Queen of Spades” and the theme of cards and card games in Russian literature of the early 19th century // Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin. St. Petersburg: Art-SPB, 1995. P. 803. ⁠ , "Stavrogina - Stepan Verkhovensky - Dasha" in

Yes, and significantly. The director of the Imperial Theaters, Ivan Vsevolozhsky, who commissioned Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, proposed moving the action to the 18th century - this immediately removes the generational issues that are important for the story. The appeal to the culture of the 18th century, however, turned out to be very productive for Tchaikovsky, who initially refused “The Queen of Spades”, considering it unscenic; Thanks to Vsevolozhsky’s idea, the author of the libretto for the opera, Tchaikovsky’s brother Modest, included in it poems by Derzhavin, early texts by Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, corresponding to the stage era.

In the opera, Herman (in Tchaikovsky with one “n”) is really in love with Liza - no longer the countess’s poor pupil, but her rich heiress - and plays to be her equal. The Tchaikovsky brothers pay much more attention to Liza than Pushkin: she has a fiancé, Prince Yeletsky, but for the sake of love for Herman she is ready to give up everything. The madness of Herman, who is raving about the game, drives her to suicide: she throws herself into the Winter Canal - this plot device refers to Karamzin’s “Poor Liza” and, therefore, to the era of sentimentalism, to the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Herman, betting on three, seven and ace, punts against Prince Yeletsky and loses - after which he commits suicide; “at the last minute a bright image of Lisa appears in his mind. The choir of those present sings: “Lord! Forgive him! And rest his rebellious and tormented soul.”

bibliography

Alekseev M.P. Pushkin: Comparative historical studies. L.: Nauka, 1984.
Bakhtin M. M. Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics // Bakhtin M. M. Collected works: In 7 volumes. T. 6. M.: Languages of Slavic culture, 2002. P. 5–300.
Bocharov S. G. Pushkin’s Poetics. M.: Nauka, 1974.
Vatsuro V. E. Gothic novel in Russia. M.: New Literary Review, 2002.

Vinogradov V.V. Style of “The Queen of Spades” // Vinogradov V.V. Selected works: On the language of artistic prose. M.: Nauka, 1980. pp. 176–239.
Vinogradov V.V. Pushkin’s style. M.: Goslitizdat, 1941.
Virolainen M. N. Irony in Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Problems of Pushkin Studies: Collection of scientific works. L.: LGPI im. A. I. Herzen, 1975. pp. 169–175.
Volpert L.I. The theme of playing with fate in the works of Pushkin and Stendhal: “Red and Black” and “The Queen of Spades” // Boldin Readings. Gorky: Volgo-Vyatka Book Publishing House, 1986. pp. 105–114.
Gershenzon O. M. The Wisdom of Pushkin. M.: Publishing House of Writers in Moscow, 1919.
Golovchenko G. A. The image of the girl Lisa as one of the cross-cutting images of classical Russian literature // Language. Literature. Culture. 2013. No. 6. P. 89–104.
Grossman L.P. Sketches about Pushkin. M., Pg.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1923.
Gukovsky G. A. Pushkin and the problems of realistic style. M.: GIHL, 1957.
Gurevich A. M. Author’s position in “The Queen of Spades” // News of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Literature and Language Series. 2011. T. 70. No. 1. P. 37–43.
Koshchienko I.V. On the interpretation of the epigraphs of A.S. Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Bulletin of Pskov State University. Series “Social Sciences and Humanities”. 2016. No. 4. pp. 85–98.
Lezhnev A. Z. Pushkin’s prose: experience of style research. M.: Goslitizdat, 1937.
Lotman Yu. M. “The Queen of Spades” and the theme of cards and card games in Russian literature of the early 19th century // Lotman Yu. M. Pushkin. St. Petersburg: Art-SPB, 1995. pp. 786–814.
Mann Yu. V. Evolution of Gogol’s fiction // On the history of Russian romanticism. M.: 1973. S. 219-258.
Meilakh B. S. Pushkin and his era. M.: GIHL, 1958.
Muravyova O. S. Fiction in Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin: Research and materials. L.: Science. Leningr. department, 1978. T. 8. P. 62–69.
Nikolaeva E. G. “Demons” by F. M. Dostoevsky: a few notes on the connection of the novel with “The Queen of Spades” by A. S. Pushkin // Bulletin of KemSU. 2012. No. 4 (52). pp. 75–78.
Nikolaeva E. G. Elements of the code of Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades” in the works of Dostoevsky. Author's abstract. diss....cand. Philol. Sci. Tomsk, 2007.
Oksman Yu. G. “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin A. S. Complete works: in 6 volumes. T. 6: Guide to Pushkin. M., Leningrad: GIHL, 1931. P. 279.
Parchevsky G. F. Pushkin and maps. St. Petersburg: Russian Visa, 1996.
Slonimsky A.L. About the composition of “The Queen of Spades” // Pushkin collection in memory of prof. S. A. Vengerova. Pushkinist IV / Ed. V.V. Yakovleva. M., Pg.: Gosizdat, 1922. P. 171–180.
Cornwell N. “You’ve heard of the Count Saint-Germain...” - in Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” and Far Beyond // New Zealand Slavonic Journal. 2002. pp. 49–66.
Davydov S. The Ace in “The Queen of Spades” // Slavic Review. 1999. Vol. 58.No. 2. Special Issue: Aleksandr Pushkin 1799–1999. pp. 309–328.
Emerson C. “The Queen of Spades” and the Open End // Puškin Today / ed. by David Bethea. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Pp. 31–37.
Leighton L.G. Gematria in “The Queen of Spades”: A Decembrist Puzzle // Slavic and East European Journal. 1976. Vol. 21.No. 4.Pp. 455–469.
Kodjak A. “The Queen of Spades” in the Context of the Faust Legend // Alexander Pushkin. A Symposium on the 175th Anniversary of His Birth / ed. by A. Kodjak and K. Taranovsky. N.Y.: New York University Press, 1976. Pp. 87–118.
Raskolnikoff F. Irrational in “The Queen of Spades” // Revue des études slaves. 1987. Vol. 59.No. 1.Pp. 247–261.
Rosenshield G. Choosing the Right Card: Madness, Gambling, and the Imagination in Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades” // PMLA. 1994. Vol. 109. No. 5. Pp. 995–1008.

Full list of references

The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence.

Newest fortune telling book

I

And on rainy days

They were going

They bent - God forgive them! -

From fifty

And they won

And they unsubscribed

So, on rainy days,

They were studying

One day we were playing cards with horse guard Narumov. The long winter night passed unnoticed; We sat down to dinner at five o'clock in the morning. Those who were the winners ate with great appetite; the others, absent-mindedly, sat in front of their empty instruments. But the champagne appeared, the conversation became livelier, and everyone took part in it.

-What did you do, Surin? - asked the owner.

- Lost, as usual. I must admit that I am unhappy: I play with myrandole, I never get excited, nothing can confuse me, but I keep losing!

“And you’ve never been tempted?” never put it on rue?.. Your firmness is amazing to me.

- What is Hermann like? - said one of the guests, pointing to the young engineer, - he hasn’t picked up cards in his life, he hasn’t forgotten a single password in his life, and until five o’clock he sits with us and watches our game!

“The game occupies me greatly,” said Hermann, “but I am not able to sacrifice what is necessary in the hope of acquiring what is superfluous.”

– Hermann is German: he is calculating, that’s all! - Tomsky noted. – And if anyone is unclear to me, it’s my grandmother, Countess Anna Fedotovna.

- How? What? - the guests shouted.

“I can’t understand,” continued Tomsky, “how my grandmother doesn’t show off!”

“What’s so surprising,” said Narumov, “that an eighty-year-old woman doesn’t show off?”

- So you don’t know anything about her?

- No! right, nothing!

- Oh, so listen:

You need to know that my grandmother, about sixty years ago, went to Paris and was in great fashion there. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite; Richelieu trailed after her, and the grandmother assures that he almost shot himself because of her cruelty.

At that time, ladies played pharaoh. Once at court, she lost something very much to the Duke of Orleans at his word. Arriving home, the grandmother, peeling off the flies from her face and untying her hoops, announced to her grandfather that she had lost and ordered him to pay.

My late grandfather, as far as I remember, was my grandmother's butler. He feared her like fire; however, upon hearing about such a terrible loss, he lost his temper, brought the bills, proved to her that in six months they had spent half a million, that they had neither a village near Moscow nor Saratov near Paris, and completely refused payment. The grandmother slapped him in the face and went to bed alone, as a sign of her disfavor.

The next day she ordered to call her husband, hoping that the home punishment had an effect on him, but she found him unshakable. For the first time in her life, she reached the point of reasoning and explanation with him; I thought to reassure him, condescendingly proving that debt is different and that there is a difference between a prince and a coachman. - Where! grandfather rebelled. No, yes and only! Grandma didn't know what to do.

She was briefly acquainted with a very remarkable man. You have heard about Count Saint-Germain, about whom they tell so many wonderful things. You know that he pretended to be the Eternal Jew, the inventor of the elixir of life and the philosopher's stone, and so on. They laughed at him as a charlatan, and Casanova in his Notes says that he was a spy; however, Saint-Germain, despite his mystery, had a very respectable appearance and was a very amiable person in society. Grandmother still loves him deeply and gets angry if people talk about him with disrespect. Grandmother knew that Saint Germain could have a lot of money. She decided to resort to him. She wrote him a note and asked him to come to her immediately.

The old eccentric appeared immediately and found him in terrible grief. She described to him in the darkest colors the barbarity of her husband and finally said that she placed all her hope in his friendship and courtesy.

Saint Germain thought about it.

“I can serve you with this amount,” he said, “but I know that you will not be calm until you pay me, and I would not want to introduce you into new troubles. There is another remedy: you can win back.” “But, dear Count,” answered the grandmother, “I tell you that we have no money at all.” “Money is not needed here,” Saint-Germain objected: “if you please listen to me.” Then he revealed to her a secret, for which any of us would give dearly...

Young players have doubled their attention. Tomsky lit his pipe, took a drag and continued.

That same evening the grandmother appeared at Versailles, au jeu de la Reine. Duke of Orleans metal; Grandmother slightly apologized for not bringing her debt, weaved a little story to justify it and began to pontificate against him. She chose three cards, played them one after another: all three won her Sonic, and the grandmother won back completely.

- Chance! - said one of the guests.

- Fairy tale! – Hermann noted.

– Maybe powder cards? – picked up the third.

“I don’t think so,” Tomsky answered importantly.

- How! - said Narumov, - you have a grandmother who guesses three cards in a row, and you still haven’t learned her cabalistics from her?

- Yes, the hell with it! - Tomsky answered - she had four sons, including my father: all four were desperate gamblers, and she did not reveal her secret to any of them; although it would not be bad for them and even for me. But this is what my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich, told me, and what he assured me of on his honor. The late Chaplitsky, the same one who died in poverty, having squandered millions, once in his youth lost - Zorich remembers - about three hundred thousand. He was desperate. Grandmother, who was always strict with the pranks of young people, somehow took pity on Chaplitsky. She gave him three cards so that he would play them one after another, and took his word of honor never to play again. Chaplitsky came to his winner: they sat down to play. Chaplitsky bet fifty thousand on the first card and won Sonic; I forgot my passwords, my passwords, I won back and still won...

However, it's time to sleep: it's already a quarter to six.

In fact, it was already dawn: the young people finished their glasses and left.

The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence. Newest fortune telling book

Chapter 1

And on stormy days they often gathered; They bent - God forgive them! - From fifty to a hundred, And they won, And they wrote it down with Chalk, So, on rainy days, They got busy with business.

What have you done, Surin? - asked the owner.

Lost, as usual. I must admit that I am unhappy: I play with myrandole, I never get excited, nothing can confuse me, but I keep losing!

And have you never been tempted? never put it on the root?.. Your hardness is amazing to me.

And what about Hermann! - said one of the guests, pointing to the young engineer, - he hasn’t picked up cards in his life, he hasn’t forgotten a single password in his life, and until five o’clock he sits with us and watches our game!

The game occupies me greatly,” said Hermann, “but I am not able to sacrifice what is necessary in the hope of acquiring what is superfluous.”

Hermann is German: he is calculating, that’s all! - Tomsky noted. “And if anyone is unclear to me, it’s my grandmother, Countess Anna Fedotovna.”

How? What? - the guests shouted.

“I can’t understand,” Tomsky continued, “how my grandmother doesn’t show off!

“What’s so surprising,” said Narumov, “that an eighty-year old woman doesn’t show off?”

So you don't know anything about her?

No! right, nothing!

Oh, so listen:

You need to know that my grandmother, about sixty years ago, went to Paris and was in great fashion there. People ran after her to see la Venus moscovite (*); Richelieu trailed after her, and the grandmother assures that he almost shot himself because of her cruelty.

Saint Germain thought about it.

“I can serve you with this amount,” he said, “but I know that you will not be calm until you pay me off, and I would not want to introduce you into new troubles. There is another way: you can recoup.” “But, dear Count,” answered the grandmother, “I’m telling you that we have no money at all.” “Money is not needed here,” objected Saint-Germain: “if you please listen to me.” " Then he revealed to her a secret for which any of us would give dearly...

Young players have doubled their attention. Tomsky lit his pipe, took a drag and continued.

That same evening the grandmother appeared at Versailles, au jeu de la Reine (*). Duke of Orleans metal; Grandmother slightly apologized for not bringing her debt, weaved a little story to justify it and began to pontificate against him. She chose three cards, played them one after another: all three won her Sonic, and the grandmother won back completely.

Happening! - said one of the guests.

Fairy tale! - Hermann noted.

Maybe powder cards? - picked up the third.

“I don’t think so,” Tomsky answered importantly.

How! - said Narumov, - you have a grandmother who guesses three cards in a row, and you still haven’t learned her cabalistics from her?

Yes, the hell with it! - answered Tomsky - she had four sons, including my father: all four were desperate gamblers, and she did not reveal her secret to any of them; although it would not be bad for them and even for me.

But this is what my uncle, Count Ivan Ilyich, told me, and what he assured me of on honor. The late Chaplitsky, the same one who died in poverty, having squandered millions, once in his youth lost - Zorich remembers - about three hundred thousand. He was desperate. Grandmother, who was always strict with the pranks of young people, somehow took pity on Chaplitsky. She gave him three cards so that he would play them one after another, and took his word of honor never to play again. Chaplitsky came to his winner: they sat down to play. Chaplitsky bet fifty thousand on the first card and won Sonic; I forgot the passwords, passwords, no, - I won back and still won...

However, it's time to sleep: it's already a quarter to six.

In fact, it was already dawn: the young people finished their glasses and left.

Chapter II

Il paraît que monsieur est décidément pour les suivantes. - Que voulez-vous, madame? Elles sont plus fraîches. (*) Small talk.

The old Countess *** was sitting in her dressing room in front of the mirror. Three girls surrounded her. One was holding a jar of rouge, another a box of hairpins, the third a tall cap with fiery-colored ribbons. The Countess did not have the slightest pretension to beauty, which had long since faded, but she retained all the habits of her youth, strictly followed the fashions of the seventies, and dressed just as long, just as diligently, as she had done sixty years ago. At the window, a young lady, her pupil, was sitting at the hoop.

“Hello, grand maman (*),” said the young officer as he entered. - Bon jour, mademoiselle Lise. (*) Grand’maman (*), I come to you with a request.

What is it, Paul (*)?

Let me introduce one of my friends and bring him to your place on Friday for the ball.

Bring him to me straight to the ball, and then introduce him to me. Did you visit *** yesterday?

Why! it was a lot of fun; They danced until five o'clock. How good Yeletskaya was!

And, my dear! What's good about it? Was this what her grandmother, Princess Daria Petrovna, was like?.. By the way: I guess she’s already very old, Princess Daria Petrovna?

How, have you aged? - Tomsky answered absentmindedly: - She died about seven years ago.

The young lady raised her head and made a sign to the young man. He remembered that the death of her peers was hidden from the old countess, and he bit his lip. But the countess heard the news, new to her, with great indifference.

She died! - she said: - but I didn’t even know! Together we were granted maid of honor, and when we introduced ourselves, the Empress...

And the countess told her grandson her joke for the hundredth time.

Well, Paul (*), she said later: “now help me get up.” Lizanka, where is my snuff box?

And the countess and her girls went behind the screens to finish their toilet. Tomsky stayed with the young lady.

Who do you want to introduce? - Lizaveta Ivanovna asked quietly.

Narumova. Do you know him?

No! Is he a military man or a civilian?

Military.

Engineer?

No! cavalryman Why did you think he was an engineer?

The young lady laughed and did not answer a word.

Paul (*) ! - the countess shouted from behind the screens: - send me some new novel, but please, not one of the current ones.

How is it, grand’maman (*)?

That is, a novel where the hero would not crush either his father or mother, and where there would be no drowned bodies. I'm terribly afraid of drowning!

There are no such novels today. Don't you want Russians?

Are there really Russian novels?.. Come, father, please come!

Sorry, grand'maman (*): I'm in a hurry... Sorry, Lizaveta Ivanovna! Why did you think that Narumov was an engineer?

And Tomsky left the restroom.

Lizaveta Ivanovna was left alone: she left work and began to look out the window. Soon a young officer appeared on one side of the street from behind a coal house. A blush covered her cheeks: she began to work again, and bent her head just above the canvas. At this time the Countess entered, fully dressed.

“Order, Lizanka,” she said, “to lay the carriage, and we’ll go for a walk.”

Lizanka stood up from the hoop and began to clean up her work.

What are you doing, my mother! Deaf or something! - the countess shouted. - Tell them to lay the carriage as soon as possible.

Now! - the young lady answered quietly and ran into the hallway.

The servant entered and handed the countess books from Prince Pavel Alexandrovich.

Fine! “Thank you,” said the Countess. - Lizanka, Lizanka! where are you running to?

Dress.

The young lady took the book and read a few lines.

Louder! - said the countess. - What's wrong with you, my mother? Did you sleep with your voice, or what?.. Wait: move the bench closer to me... well! -

Lizaveta Ivanovna read two more pages. The Countess yawned.

Throw away this book, - she said: - what nonsense! Send this to Prince Pavel and tell him to thank him... But what about the carriage?

The carriage is ready,” said Lizaveta Ivanovna, looking at the street.

Why aren't you dressed? - said the countess: - we always have to wait for you! This, mother, is unbearable.

Lisa ran to her room. Less than two minutes later, the Countess began ringing with all her might. Three girls ran through one door, and the valet through another.

Why can't you get through? - the countess told them. - Tell Lizaveta Ivanovna that I’m waiting for her.

Lizaveta Ivanovna came in wearing a hood and a hat.

Finally, my mother! - said the countess. - What kind of outfits! Why is this? . who to seduce?.. What's the weather like? - It seems like the wind.

No, sir, your Excellency! very quiet, sir! - answered the valet.

You always talk at random! Open the window. That's right: wind! and very cold! Put aside the carriage! Lizanka, we won’t go, there was no point in dressing up.

And here is my life! - thought Lizaveta Ivanovna.

Indeed, Lizaveta Ivanovna was a very unhappy creature. Someone else’s bread is bitter, says Dante, and the steps of someone else’s porch are heavy, and who knows the bitterness of dependence if not the poor pupil of a noble old woman? Countess ***, of course, did not have an evil soul; but she was willful, like a woman spoiled by the world, stingy and immersed in cold selfishness, like all old people who have fallen out of love in their age and are alien to the present. She took part in all the vanities of the big world, dragged herself to balls, where she sat in the corner, flushed and dressed in ancient fashion, like an ugly and necessary decoration of the ballroom; Arriving guests approached her with low bows, as if according to an established ritual, and then no one took care of her. She hosted the whole city, observing strict etiquette and not recognizing anyone by sight. Her numerous servants, having grown fat and gray in her anteroom and maid's room, did what they wanted, vying with each other to rob the dying old woman. Lizaveta Ivanovna was a domestic martyr. She spilled tea and was reprimanded for wasting too much sugar; she read novels aloud, and was to blame for all the author’s mistakes; she accompanied the countess on her walks, and was responsible for the weather and the pavement. She was given a salary that was never paid; and yet they demanded that she dress like everyone else, that is, like very few others. In the world she played the most pathetic role. Everyone knew her, and no one noticed; at balls she danced only when she did not have enough vis-à-vis (*), and the ladies took her arm every time they needed to go to the restroom to fix something in their outfit. She was proud, keenly aware of her position, and looked around her, eagerly awaiting a deliverer; but the young people, calculating in their flighty vanity, did not deign to pay her attention, although Lizaveta Ivanovna was a hundred times sweeter than the arrogant and cold brides around whom they hovered. How many times, quietly leaving the boring and luxurious living room, she went to cry in her poor room, where there were screens covered with wallpaper, a chest of drawers, a mirror and a painted bed, and where a tallow candle burned darkly in a copper candlestick!

Once - this happened two days after the evening described at the beginning of this story, and a week before the scene on which we stopped - one day Lizaveta Ivanovna, sitting under the window at her embroidery hoop, accidentally looked out onto the street and saw a young engineer standing motionless and with his eyes fixed on her window. She lowered her head and went back to work; Five minutes later I looked again - the young officer was standing in the same place. Not having the habit of flirting with passing officers, she stopped looking at the street and sewed for about two hours without raising her head. They served dinner. She stood up, began to put away her hoop, and, accidentally looking at the street, saw the officer again. This seemed rather strange to her. After lunch, she went to the window with a feeling of some anxiety, but the officer was no longer there - and she forgot about him...

Two days later, going out with the countess to get into the carriage, she saw him again. He stood at the very entrance, covering his face with a beaver collar: his black eyes sparkled from under his hat. Lizaveta Ivanovna was frightened, without knowing why, and got into the carriage with inexplicable trepidation.

Returning home, she ran to the window - the officer stood in the same place, fixing his eyes on her: she walked away, tormented by curiosity and excited by a feeling that was completely new to her.

From that time on, not a day passed without a young man, at a certain hour, appearing under the windows of their house. Unconditional relations were established between him and her. Sitting in her place at work, she felt him approaching; she raised her head and looked at him longer and longer every day. The young man seemed to be grateful to her for this: she saw with the sharp eyes of youth how a quick blush covered his pale cheeks every time their gazes met. A week later she smiled at him...

When Tomsky asked permission to introduce his friend to the countess, the poor girl’s heart began to beat. But having learned that Narumov was not an engineer, but a horse guardsman, she regretted that she had expressed her secret to the flighty Tomsky with an indiscreet question.

Hermann was the son of a Russified German, who left him a small capital. Firmly convinced of the need to strengthen his independence, Hermann did not even touch interest, lived on his salary alone, and did not allow himself the slightest whim. However, he was secretive and ambitious, and his comrades rarely had the opportunity to laugh at his excessive frugality. He had strong passions and a fiery imagination, but firmness saved him from the ordinary delusions of youth. So, for example, being a gambler at heart, he never took cards in his hands, because he calculated that his condition did not allow him (as he said) to sacrifice what was necessary in the hope of acquiring what was superfluous - and meanwhile, he sat whole nights at the card tables, and followed with feverish trepidation the various turns of the game.

The anecdote about the three cards had a strong effect on his imagination, and did not leave his head the whole night. “What if,” he thought the next evening, wandering around St. Petersburg: what if the old countess reveals her secret to me! - or assign me these three correct cards! Why not try your happiness?.. Introduce yourself to her, win her favor, perhaps become her lover, but all this takes time - and she is eighty-seven years old, she could die in a week, in two days! .. And the joke itself?.. Can you believe it?.. No! calculation, moderation and hard work: these are my three true cards, this is what will triple, seventeen my capital, and give me peace and independence! -

Reasoning in this way, he found himself in one of the main streets of St. Petersburg, in front of a house of ancient architecture. The street was lined with carriages; one after another, the carriages rolled towards the illuminated entrance. The slender leg of a young beauty, the rattling jackboot, the striped stocking and the diplomatic shoe were constantly stretched out of the carriages. Fur coats and cloaks flashed past the stately doorman. Hermann stopped.

Whose house is this? - he asked the corner guard.

Countess ***,” answered the guard.

Hermann trembled. An amazing anecdote again presented itself to his imagination. He began to walk around the house, thinking about its owner and her wonderful ability. He returned late to his humble corner; He could not fall asleep for a long time, and when sleep took possession of him, he dreamed of cards, a green table, piles of banknotes and piles of ducats. He played card after card, bent the corners decisively, won constantly, and raked in gold and put banknotes in his pocket. Waking up already late, he sighed about the loss of his fantastic wealth, went to wander around the city again, and again found himself in front of the house of Countess ***. An unknown force seemed to attract him to him. He stopped and began to look at the windows. In one he saw a black-haired head, probably bent over a book or at work. The head rose. Hermann saw a fresh face and black eyes. This minute decided his fate.

Chapter III

Vous m'écrivez, mon ange, des lettres de quatre pages plus vite que je ne puis les lire. (*) Correspondence.

Only Lizaveta Ivanovna had time to take off her hood and hat when the countess sent for her and ordered the carriage to be brought again. They went to sit down. At the same time that two footmen lifted the old woman and pushed her through the door, Lizaveta Ivanovna saw her engineer at the very wheel; he grabbed her hand; She could not recover from her fright; the young man disappeared: the letter remained in her hand. She hid it behind her glove and didn’t hear or see anything the whole way. The Countess used to ask every minute in the carriage: who met us? - what is the name of this bridge? - What does it say on the sign? This time Lizaveta Ivanovna answered at random and inappropriately, and angered the countess.

What happened to you, my mother! Did you get tetanus, or what? You either don’t hear me or don’t understand me?.. Thank God, I’m not lisping, and I’m not out of my mind yet!

Lizaveta Ivanovna did not listen to her. Returning home, she ran to her room and took out a letter from behind her glove: it was unsealed. Lizaveta Ivanovna read it. The letter contained a declaration of love: it was tender, respectful and taken word for word from a German novel. But Lizaveta Ivanovna did not speak German and was very pleased with it.

However, the letter she received worried her extremely. For the first time she entered into secret, close relations with a young man. His impudence horrified her. She reproached herself for careless behavior, and did not know what to do: should she stop sitting at the window and, by inattention, cool the young officer’s desire for further persecution? - Should I send him a letter? - Should I answer coldly and decisively? She had no one to consult with, she had neither a friend nor a mentor. Lizaveta Ivanovna decided to answer.

She sat down at the desk, took a pen and paper, and thought. Several times she began her letter and tore it up: sometimes the expressions seemed to her too condescending, sometimes too cruel. Finally she managed to write a few lines with which she was satisfied. “I am sure,” she wrote, “that you have honest intentions, and that you did not want to offend me by a rash act; but our acquaintance should not begin in this way. I return your letter to you, and I hope that in the future I will not have reason to complain about undeserved disrespect.”

The next day, seeing Hermann walking, Lizaveta Ivanovna stood up from behind the hoop, went out into the hall, opened the window, and threw the letter onto the street, hoping for the agility of the young officer. Hermann ran up, picked it up, and entered the candy store. Having torn off the seal, he found his letter and Lizaveta Ivanovna’s answer. He expected this, and returned home, very busy with his intrigue.

Three days after that, Lizaveta Ivanovna’s young, quick-eyed mamzel brought a note from a fashion store. Lizaveta Ivanovna opened it with concern, anticipating monetary demands, and suddenly recognized Hermann’s hand.

“You, darling, are mistaken,” she said: “this note is not for me.”

No, definitely for you! - answered the brave girl, without hiding a sly smile. - Please read it!

Lizaveta Ivanovna scanned the note. Hermann demanded a meeting.

Can't be! - said Lizaveta Ivanovna, frightened by both the haste of the demands and the method he used. - This is written correctly not for me! - And tore the letter into small pieces.

If the letter was not addressed to you, why did you tear it up? - said Mamzel: - I would return it to the one who sent it.

Please, darling! - said Lizaveta Ivanovna, flushing at her remark: - don’t bring notes to me in advance. And tell the one who sent you that he should be ashamed...

But Hermann did not calm down. Lizaveta Ivanovna received letters from him every day, now in one way or another. They were no longer translated from German. Hermann wrote them, inspired by passion, and spoke in a language characteristic of him: they expressed both the inflexibility of his desires and the disorder of his unbridled imagination. Lizaveta Ivanovna no longer thought of sending them away: she reveled in them; She began to answer them, and her notes became longer and more tender hour by hour. Finally, she threw the following letter to him through the window:

- “Today is the ball at the *** envoy. The Countess will be there. We'll stay until two o'clock. Here's your chance to see me alone. As soon as the countess leaves, her people will probably disperse, the doorman will remain in the entryway, but he usually goes to his closet. Come at half past eleven. Go straight to the stairs. If you find someone in the hallway, you will ask if the countess is at home. They will tell you no, and there is nothing to do. You will have to turn back. But you probably won't meet anyone. The girls are sitting at home, all in one room. From the hall, go left, go straight all the way to the countess's bedroom. In the bedroom behind the screens you will see two small doors: on the right to the office, where the countess never enters; on the left to the corridor, and then a narrow twisted staircase: it leads to my room.”

Hermann trembled like a tiger, waiting for the appointed time. At ten o'clock in the evening he was already standing in front of the countess's house. The weather was terrible: the wind howled, wet snow fell in flakes; the lanterns glowed dimly; the streets were empty. From time to time Vanka stretched out on his skinny nag, looking out for a belated rider. - Hermann stood in only his frock coat, feeling neither wind nor snow. Finally the countess's carriage was delivered. Hermann saw how the lackeys carried out a hunched old woman, wrapped in a sable fur coat, and how after her, in a cold cloak, with her head adorned with fresh flowers, her pupil flashed. The doors slammed shut. The carriage rolled heavily through the loose snow. The doorman locked the doors. The windows went dark. Hermann began to walk around the empty house: he went to the lantern, looked at his watch - it was twenty minutes past eleven. He remained under the lantern, fixing his eyes on the hour hand and waiting for the remaining minutes. Exactly at half past twelve Hermann stepped onto the countess's porch and entered the brightly lit entryway. There was no doorman. Hermann ran up the stairs, opened the doors to the hallway, and saw a servant sleeping under a lamp in an old, stained armchair. With a light and firm step, Hermann walked past him. The hall and living room were dark. The lamp dimly illuminated them from the hallway. Hermann entered the bedroom. In front of the ark, filled with ancient images, a golden lamp glowed. Faded damask armchairs and sofas with down pillows, with faded gilding, stood in sad symmetry near the walls covered with Chinese wallpaper. On the wall hung two portraits painted in Paris by m-me Lebrun (*). One of them depicted a man of about forty, ruddy and plump, in a light green uniform and with a star; the other - a young beauty with an aquiline nose, combed temples and a rose in her powdered hair. Porcelain shepherdesses, table clocks made by the famous Leroy (*), boxes, roulettes, fans and various ladies' toys, invented at the end of the last century together with the Montgolfier balloon and Mesmerian magnetism, stuck out in all corners. Hermann went behind the screen. Behind them stood a small iron bed; on the right was the door leading to the office; on the left, the other into the corridor. Hermann opened it and saw a narrow, twisted staircase that led to the poor pupil’s room... But he turned back and entered the dark office.

Time passed slowly. Everything was quiet. Twelve struck in the living room; in all the rooms the clocks, one after another, rang twelve - everything fell silent again. Hermann stood leaning against the cold stove. He was calm; his heart beat evenly, like that of a man who had decided to do something dangerous, but necessary. The clock struck one and two o'clock in the morning, and he heard the distant knock of a carriage. Involuntary excitement took possession of him. The carriage drove up and stopped. He heard the sound of the running board being lowered. There was a fuss in the house. People ran, voices were heard and the house lit up. Three old maids ran into the bedroom, and the countess, barely alive, entered and sank into the Voltaire chairs. Hermann looked through the crack: Lizaveta Ivanovna passed by him. Hermann heard her hurried steps along the steps of her stairs. Something akin to remorse echoed in his heart and fell silent again. He was petrified.

The Countess began to undress in front of the mirror. They broke off her cap, decorated with roses; They took off the powdered wig from her gray and closely cropped head. Pins rained down around her. A yellow dress embroidered with silver fell to her swollen feet. Hermann witnessed the disgusting mysteries of her toilet: finally, the Countess remained in her sleeping jacket and nightcap: in this outfit, more characteristic of her old age, she seemed less terrible and ugly.

Like all old people in general, the countess suffered from insomnia. Having undressed, she sat down by the window in a Voltaire chair and sent the maids away. The candles were taken out, the room was again illuminated by one lamp. The Countess sat all yellow, moving her drooping lips, swaying left and right. Her dull eyes depicted a complete absence of thought; looking at her, one would think that the swaying of the terrible old woman occurred not from her will, but from the action of hidden galvanism.

Suddenly this dead face changed inexplicably. The lips stopped moving, the eyes perked up: an unfamiliar man stood in front of the countess.

Don't be scared, for God's sake, don't be scared! - he said in a clear and quiet voice. - I have no intention of harming you; I have come to beg you for one favor.

The old woman looked at him silently and did not seem to hear him. Hermann imagined that she was deaf, and leaning close to her ear, he repeated the same thing to her. The old woman remained silent as before.

“You can,” Hermann continued, “make up the happiness of my life, and it won’t cost you anything: I know that you can guess three cards in a row...

Hermann stopped. The Countess seemed to understand what was required of her; she seemed to be searching for words for her answer.

“It was a joke,” she finally said, “I swear to you!” it was a joke!

“This is nothing to joke about,” Hermann objected angrily. - Remember Chaplitsky, whom you helped to win back.

The Countess was apparently embarrassed. Her features depicted a strong movement of the soul, but she soon fell into her former insensibility.

“Can you,” continued Hermann, “assign me these three correct cards?”

The Countess was silent; Hermann continued:

For whom should you keep your secret? For grandchildren? They are rich without that; They don’t even know the value of money. Your three cards won't help Mot. He who does not know how to take care of his father's inheritance will still die in poverty, despite any demonic efforts. I'm not a spendthrift; I know the value of money. Your three cards will not be lost to me. Well!..

He stopped and waited with trepidation for her answer. The Countess was silent; Hermann knelt down.

If ever,” he said, “your heart knew the feeling of love, if you remember its delight, if you ever smiled when your newborn son cried, if anything human ever beat in your chest, then I beg you with the feelings of your wife , lovers, mothers, - everything that is sacred in life - do not refuse me my request! - tell me your secret! - what do you want in it?.. Perhaps it is associated with terrible sin, with the destruction of eternal bliss, with a devilish pact... Think: you are old; You don’t have long to live - I’m ready to take your sin upon my soul. Just tell me your secret. Think that a person's happiness is in your hands; that not only me, but my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will bless your memory and honor it as a shrine...

The old woman did not answer a word.

Hermann stood up.

Old witch! - he said, gritting his teeth: - so I’ll make you answer...

With that word, he took a pistol out of his pocket.

At the sight of the pistol the Countess had a strong feeling for the second time. She nodded her head and raised her hand, as if shielding herself from the shot... Then she rolled backwards... and remained motionless.

Stop being childish,” Hermann said, taking her hand. - I’m asking for the last time: do you want to assign me your three cards? - yes or no?

The Countess did not answer. Hermann saw that she died.

Chapter IV

7 Mai 18** Homme sans mœurs et sans religion! (*) Correspondence.

Lizaveta Ivanovna was sitting in her room, still in her ball gown, immersed in deep thoughts. Arriving home, she hurried to send away the sleepy girl, who was reluctantly offering her her service, - she said that she would undress herself, and with trepidation she entered her room, hoping to find Hermann there, and wishing not to find him. At first glance she was convinced of his absence, and thanked fate for the obstacle that had prevented their meeting. She sat down without undressing and began to recall all the circumstances that had carried her so far in such a short time. Less than three weeks had passed since she first saw the young man through the window - and she was already in correspondence with him - and he managed to demand a night date from her! She knew his name only because some of his letters were signed by him; I never spoke to him, I never heard his voice, I never heard about him... until this very evening. Strange thing! That very evening, at the ball, Tomsky, sulking at the young princess Polina ***, who, contrary to usual, was not flirting with him, wanted to take revenge, showing indifference: he called Lizaveta Ivanovna, and danced an endless mazurka with her. All the time he joked about her passion for engineering officers, assured that he knew much more than she could have imagined, and some of his jokes were so well directed that Lizaveta Ivanovna thought several times that her secret was known to him.

From whom do you know all this? - she asked, laughing.

From a friend of a person you know,” Tomsky answered: “a very wonderful person!”

Who is this wonderful person?

His name is Hermann.

Lizaveta Ivanovna did not answer, but her arms and legs froze...

This Hermann,” continued Tomsky, “is a truly romantic face: he has the profile of Napoleon, and the soul of Mephistopheles. I think he has at least three crimes on his conscience. How pale you have become!

My head hurts... What did Hermann, or whatever you call him, tell you?..

Hermann is very dissatisfied with his friend: he says that if he were in his place, he would have acted completely differently... I even believe that Hermann himself has designs on you, at least he very much listens to the loving exclamations of his friend.

Where did he see me?

In church, maybe - for a walk!.. God knows! maybe in your room, while you sleep: it will make you...

Three ladies approached them with questions - oubli ou regret? (*) - they interrupted the conversation, which was becoming painfully curious for Lizaveta Ivanovna.

The lady chosen by Tomsky was Princess *** herself. She managed to explain herself to him by running an extra circle and spinning around in front of her chair one more time. - Tomsky, returning to his place, no longer thought about Hermann or Lizaveta Ivanovna. She certainly wanted to resume the interrupted conversation; but the mazurka ended, and soon after the old countess left.

Tomsky’s words were nothing more than mazurochka chatter, but they sank deeply into the soul of the young dreamer. The portrait sketched by Tomsky was similar to the image she had drawn up herself, and, thanks to the latest novels, this already vulgar face frightened and captivated her imagination. She sat with her bare arms folded in a cross, her head, still adorned with flowers, bowed on her open chest... Suddenly the door opened and Hermann entered. She trembled...

Where have you been? - she asked in a frightened whisper.

“In the old countess’s bedroom,” Hermann answered: “I’m leaving her now.” The Countess died.

My God!.. what are you saying?..

And it seems,” Hermann continued, “I am the cause of her death.”

Lizaveta Ivanovna looked at him, and Tomsky’s words resounded in her soul: this man has at least three crimes in his soul! Hermann sat down on the window next to her and told everything. Lizaveta Ivanovna listened to him with horror. So these passionate letters, these fiery demands, this daring, persistent pursuit, all this was not love! Money - that’s what his soul yearned for! It was not she who could satisfy his desires and make him happy! The poor pupil was nothing more than the blind assistant of the robber, the murderer of her old benefactress!.. She cried bitterly in her late, painful repentance. Hermann looked at her in silence: his heart was also tormented, but neither the tears of the poor girl nor the amazing beauty of her sorrow disturbed his stern soul. He felt no remorse at the thought of the dead old woman. One thing terrified him: the irretrievable loss of a secret from which he expected enrichment.

You are a monster! - Lizaveta Ivanovna finally said.

“I didn’t want her to die,” Hermann answered: “My gun is not loaded.”

They fell silent.

Morning was coming. Lizaveta Ivanovna extinguished the dying candle: a pale light illuminated her room. She wiped her tear-stained eyes and raised them to Hermann: he was sitting on the window, arms folded and frowning menacingly. In this position, he surprisingly resembled a portrait of Napoleon. This similarity struck even Lizaveta Ivanovna.

How do you get out of the house? - Lizaveta Ivanovna finally said. “I thought I’d take you up the secret staircase, but I have to go past the bedroom, and I’m afraid.”

Tell me how to find this hidden staircase; I'll go out.

Lizaveta Ivanovna stood up, took a key from the chest of drawers, handed it to Hermann and gave him detailed instructions. Hermann shook her cold, unresponsive hand, kissed her bowed head, and left.

He went down the winding staircase and entered the countess's bedroom again. The dead old woman sat petrified; her face expressed deep calm. Hermann stopped in front of her and looked at her for a long time, as if wanting to ascertain the terrible truth; Finally he entered the office, felt the door behind the wallpaper, and began to go down the dark stairs, agitated by strange feelings. Along this very staircase, he thought, maybe sixty years ago, into this very bedroom, at the same hour, in an embroidered caftan, combed à l'oiseau royal (*), clutching his triangular hat to his heart, a young lucky man, long ago already decayed in the grave, and the heart of his elderly mistress stopped beating today...

Under the stairs, Hermann found a door, which he unlocked with the same key, and found himself in a through corridor that led him out into the street.

Chapter V

That night the deceased Baroness von V*** appeared to me. She was all in white and said to me: “Hello, Mr. Advisor!” Swedenborg.

Three days after the fateful night, at nine o’clock in the morning, Hermann went to the *** monastery, where the funeral service for the body of the deceased countess was to be held. Without feeling repentance, he could not, however, completely drown out the voice of his conscience, which kept telling him: you are the murderer of the old woman! Having little true faith, he had many prejudices. He believed that the dead countess could have a harmful influence on his life - and decided to attend her funeral to ask her forgiveness.

The church was full. Hermann could force his way through the crowd of people. The coffin stood on a rich hearse under a velvet canopy. The deceased lay in it with her hands folded on her chest, wearing a lace cap and a white satin dress. Her household stood around: servants in black caftans with coat of arms ribbons on their shoulders, and with candles in their hands; relatives in deep mourning - children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Nobody cried; there would be tears - une affectation (*). The Countess was so old that her death could not strike anyone, and that her relatives had long looked at her as if she had become obsolete. The young bishop delivered the funeral eulogy. In simple and touching terms, he presented the peaceful dormition of the righteous woman, for whom many years had been a quiet, touching preparation for her Christian death. “The angel of death found her,” said the speaker, “watchful in good thoughts and in anticipation of the midnight bridegroom.” The service was performed with sad decorum. The relatives were the first to go to say goodbye to the body. Then the numerous guests moved, who had come to bow to the one who had been a participant in their vain amusements for so long. After them, everyone is home. Finally, an old noble lady, the same age as the deceased, approached. Two young girls led her by the arms. She was unable to bow down to the ground, and alone shed a few tears, kissing her mistress’s cold hand. After her, Hermann decided to approach the coffin. He bowed to the ground and lay for several minutes on the cold floor strewn with spruce trees. Finally he stood up, as pale as the dead woman herself, climbed onto the steps of the hearse and bent down... At that moment it seemed to him that the dead woman looked at him mockingly, squinting with one eye. Hermann, hastily leaning back, stumbled and fell backwards on the ground. They picked him up. At the same time, Lizaveta Ivanovna was carried out, fainting, to the porch. This episode disturbed for several minutes the solemnity of the gloomy ritual. A dull murmur arose among the visitors, and the thin chamberlain, a close relative of the deceased, whispered in the ear of the Englishman standing next to him that the young officer was her natural son, to which the Englishman answered coldly: Oh?

Hermann was extremely upset all day. While dining in a secluded tavern, he, contrary to his custom, drank a lot, in the hope of drowning out his inner excitement. But the wine fired his imagination even more. Returning home, he threw himself on the bed without undressing and fell fast asleep.

He woke up at night: the moon illuminated his room. He looked at his watch: it was a quarter to three. His sleep passed; he sat down on the bed and thought about the funeral of the old countess.

At this time, someone from the street looked at him through the window and immediately walked away. Hermann did not pay any attention to this. A minute later he heard the door in the front room being unlocked. Hermann thought that his orderly, drunk as usual, was returning from a night walk. But he heard an unfamiliar gait: someone was walking, quietly shuffling their shoes. The door opened and a woman in a white dress entered. Hermann mistook her for his old nurse, and wondered what could have brought her to such a time. But the white woman, gliding, suddenly found herself in front of him - and Hermann recognized the countess!

“I came to you against my will,” she said in a firm voice, “but I was ordered to fulfill your request.” Three, seven and ace will win you in a row - but so that you don’t bet more than one card per day, and so that you don’t play for the rest of your life. I forgive you my death, so that you marry my pupil Lizaveta Ivanovna...

With that word, she quietly turned, walked to the door, and disappeared, shuffling with her shoes. Hermann heard the door slam in the hallway and saw that someone was looking out the window at him again.

For a long time Hermann could not come to his senses. He went into another room. His orderly was sleeping on the floor; Hermann forcibly woke him up. The orderly was drunk as usual: it was impossible to get any sense out of him. The door to the hallway was locked. Hermann returned to his room, lit a candle, and wrote down his vision.

Chapter VI

Two immovable ideas cannot exist together in moral nature, just as two bodies cannot occupy the same place in the physical world. Three, seven, ace - soon obscured the image of the dead old woman in Hermann's imagination. Three, seven, ace - did not leave his head and moved on his lips. Seeing a young girl, he said: “How slim she is!.. A real three of red.” They asked him what time it was, he answered: “It’s five minutes to seven.” - Every pot-bellied man reminded him of an ace. Three, seven, ace - haunted him in a dream, taking on all possible forms: the three bloomed in front of him in the form of a lush grandiflora, the seven seemed like a Gothic gate, the ace like a huge spider. All his thoughts merged into one - to take advantage of a secret that cost him dearly. He began to think about retirement and travel. He wanted to force the treasure from the enchanted fortune in the open houses of Paris. The incident spared him the trouble.

In Moscow, a society of rich gamblers was formed, under the chairmanship of the famous Chekalinsky, who spent his entire century playing cards and once made millions, winning bills and losing pure money. His long-term experience earned him the trust of his comrades, and his open house, good cook, affection and cheerfulness gained the respect of the public. He arrived in St. Petersburg. Young people flocked to him, forgetting balls for cards and preferring the temptations of the pharaoh to the seductions of red tape. Narumov brought Hermann to him.

They passed a series of magnificent rooms filled with courteous waiters. Several generals and privy councilors were playing whist; young people sat lounging on damask sofas, eating ice cream and smoking pipes. In the living room, at a long table, around which about twenty players were crowded, the owner was sitting and throwing a bank. He was a man of about sixty, of the most respectable appearance; the head was covered with silver gray hair; his plump and fresh face portrayed good nature; his eyes sparkled, enlivened by his ever-present smile. Narumov introduced Hermann to him. Chekalinsky shook his hand in a friendly manner, asked him not to stand on ceremony, and continued to throw.

Talya lasted a long time. There were more than thirty cards on the table.

Chekalinsky stopped after each throw to give the players time to decide, wrote down the loss, politely listened to their demands, and even more politely folded back the extra corner that had been bent by an absent-minded hand. Finally the tallya is over. Chekalinsky shuffled the cards and prepared to throw another.

Let me bet a card,” said Hermann, extending his hand from behind the fat gentleman, who was immediately punting. Chekalinsky smiled and bowed, silently, as a sign of submissive consent. Narumov, laughing, congratulated Hermann on the permission of a long-term fast, and wished him a happy start.

It's coming! - said Hermann, writing a jackpot with chalk above his card.

How much, sir? - asked the banker, squinting: - sorry, sir, I can’t see it.

“Forty-seven thousand,” answered Hermann.

The next evening Hermann appeared again at the table. Everyone was expecting him. Generals and privy councilors abandoned their whist to see such an extraordinary game. The young officers jumped off the sofas; all the waiters gathered in the living room. Everyone surrounded Hermann. The other players didn't play their cards, eagerly waiting to see how he would end up. Hermann stood at the table, preparing to punt alone against the pale, but always smiling Chekalinsky. Everyone printed out a deck of cards. Chekalinsky shuffled. Hermann withdrew and placed his card, covering it with a pile of bank notes. It looked like a duel. Deep silence reigned all around.

Chekalinsky began to throw, his hands were shaking. The queen went to the right, the ace to the left.

Ace wins! - said Hermann, and opened his card.

“Your lady was killed,” Chekalinsky said affectionately.

Hermann shuddered: in fact, instead of an ace, he had a queen of spades. He couldn’t believe his eyes, not understanding how he could have gotten away with it.

At that moment it seemed to him that the Queen of Spades squinted and grinned. The extraordinary similarity struck him...

Old woman! - he shouted in horror.

Chekalinsky pulled the lost tickets towards him. Hermann stood motionless. When he left the table, a noisy conversation arose. - Nicely sponsored! the players said. - Chekalinsky shuffled the cards again: the game went on as usual.

Conclusion

Hermann has gone crazy. He sits in the Obukhov hospital in room 17, does not answer any questions, and mutters unusually quickly: “Three, seven, ace!” Three, seven, queen!..

Lizaveta Ivanovna married a very kind young man; he serves somewhere and has a decent fortune: he is the son of a former steward of the old countess. Lizaveta Ivanovna is raising a poor relative.

Tomsky was promoted to captain and marries Princess Polina.

Notes

la Venus moscovite - Moscow Venus (French)

Au jeu de la Reine - for a card game at the queen's (French)

Il paraît que monsieur est décidément pour les suivantes. - Que voulez-vous, madame? Elles sont plus fraîches. - You seem to strongly prefer chambermaids. - What to do? They are fresher. (French)

Grand" maman - grandmother (French)

Bon jour, mademoiselle Lise. - Hello, Lisa. (French)

Paul- Paul (French)

Vis-à-vis - couples (in country dance). (French)

Vous m'écrivez, mon ange, des lettres de quatre pages plus vite que je ne puis les lire. - You write me, my angel, four-page letters faster than I can read them. (French)

M-me Lebrun - Mrs. Lebrun (French)

Leroy - Leroy (French)

May 7 18**
Homme sans mœurs et sans religion!
7 May 18 **.
A person who has no moral rules and nothing sacred! (French)

Oubli ou regret? - oblivion or regret? (French)

à l’oiseau royal - “royal bird” (“crane”, i.e. with a cap on one side). (French)

Une affectation - pretense. (French)

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin often found inspiration for his works in places that would never have occurred to anyone else. So, the idea for the story “The Queen of Spades” was born... at the card table. His friend, Prince Golitsyn, told the poet about his grandmother, who once helped him win back by calling three cards. The prince bet on them and won. The old woman then said that this secret was revealed to her by the famous French swindler Saint-Germain. Princess Golitsyna became the prototype of the countess, and the story of her friend formed the basis of Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades,” but Alexander Sergeevich invented all the other events of the story. He realized his idea in Boldino - researchers suggest that the story was written in the fall of 1833, but this is not known for certain, since the manuscript of one of the most famous works of the genius of Russian literature, unfortunately, was lost. Many critics note that in fact, in their own way form, “The Queen of Spades” is more a story than a story. The genre of the work is also difficult to determine - it contains the characteristic features of a Gothic novel, such as an old mansion, a secret connected with evil spirits and fatal coincidences. However, it can also be classified as a genre of realism, given that everything fantastic in it is presented through the perception of the main character, Herman, who eventually goes crazy. Today, “The Queen of Spades” can be read from the book or downloaded for free - any format will give a complete idea of the idea that Pushkin wanted to express. And it lies in the fact that for any of his actions a person is punished. There are no innocents in the story: the Countess cruelly tortures her pupil Lisa; Herman uses the girl’s feelings to penetrate the old woman’s house and find out her secret, and Lisa herself dreams of escaping from the clutches of her imaginary benefactress and uses Herman for this. If you read the story online in its entirety, you will notice how Pushkin casually hints at the transformation of the heroine who was shown as a victim - Lisa does not yearn for her lover who has gone crazy, she got married safely and sheltered a poor pupil in her house. The circle is closed.

Today, many people know that Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are popular in Europe, but in fact, it was “The Queen of Spades” that became one of the first works that opened Russian literature to foreign readers: for example, Prosper Merimee himself translated its text into French. And Tchaikovsky’s famous ballet, based on this story, immediately captivated European theaters and continues to do so today.

As for me, I don't care
Got a fiery passion,
Passion for the bank! nor the gifts of freedom,
Neither Phoebus, nor glory, nor feasts
Wouldn't they have been distracted in years past?
Me from the card game;
Pensive, all night until light
I was ready in previous summers
Interrogate fate's covenant:
Will the jack land to the left?
The dinner bell has already rung,
Among the torn decks
The tired banker was dozing.
And I, frowning, cheerful and pale,
Full of hope, closing my eyes,
He let it go for the third ace.
A.S. Pushkin. (author’s digression, not included in the main text of the novel “Eugene Onegin”).

The Queen of Spades means secret malevolence.
The newest fortune telling book.

About the product:
“The Queen of Spades” is a story by the greatest Russian poet and writer, the founder of new Russian literature, the creator of the Russian literary language - Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (06/06/1799 - 02/10/1837), the most mysterious and mystical work in his work.
The manuscript of “The Queen of Spades” has not reached us, so the exact dates of its writing are not known. Most likely, it was written in Boldin in 1833, where Pushkin was from October 1 to early November.
The story was published in the magazine “Library for Reading” in 1834, and in the same year it was reprinted almost unchanged in the collection “Tales Published by Alexander Pushkin.” "The Queen of Spades" was well received by readers. However, the opinions of literary critics were divided. Some praised the story only for its entertaining plot and elegance of style: critic A. Kraevsky wrote: “In The Queen of Spades, the hero of the story is a truly original creation, the fruit of deep observation and knowledge of the human heart; it is furnished with persons observed in society itself (...); the story is simple, distinguished by elegance.” But, at the same time, due to the lack, in their opinion, of an idea, they considered it a clear failure of the writer. This assessment was clearly expressed by V. Belinsky: “...The Queen of Spades” is not actually a story, but a masterful story. It surprisingly correctly outlines the old countess, her pupil, their relationship and the strong, but demonically selfish character of Hermann. Actually, this is not a story, but an anecdote...” Others believed that Pushkin created something new in Russian literature, something that had never been written by anyone. F. Dostoevsky argued that Pushkin created perfect fantastic prose: “... The fantastic should be so in touch with the real that you should almost believe it. Pushkin, who gave us almost all forms of art, wrote “The Queen of Spades” - the height of fantastic art...”
The basis of the plot of “The Queen of Spades” was an amusing incident that happened to Sergei Grigorievich Golitsyn. The young prince, with whom the writer often met both in society and at the card table, told Pushkin how once, having lost heavily at cards, he was forced to bow to his grandmother, Princess Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna, an arrogant and imperious person, distinguished by her intelligence and coolness. disposition, and ask her for money. She didn't give me any money. But she shared a magical secret that the famous Count Saint-Germain told her. Three cherished cards - “three, seven and ace” - allowed the princess’s grandson to win back just as famously as she herself had once managed. Natalya Petrovna was taught to play cards by the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, with whom Golitsyna was very friendly. Golitsyna became desperately addicted to card games and spent whole nights at the green table in the famous gambling room of Versailles. She bet significant sums, won and lost... One day, Natalya Petrovna lost a huge amount to the Duke of Orleans. Her husband said that he would not only not give her money to pay off her gambling debt, but would also forbid her to play at all. Natalya Petrovna first fell into rage, then into confusion: she could not lose the greatest pleasure in her life - excitement. No threats or persuasion had any effect on her husband, and he remained adamant. Then Natalya Petrovna was forced to turn for help to a man who looked after her a lot, but was rejected, just like everyone else. He called himself Comte Saint-Germain and was very popular in pre-revolutionary Paris. Incredible rumors circulated about the fantastic wealth of the mysterious count, and, being in a desperate situation, Natalya Petrovna agreed to surrender to Saint Germain if he gave her money to repay the debt. Saint Germain didn’t give her money, but he taught her how to win back. That same evening, Golitsyna experienced a magical combination of cards, and “three, seven, ace” brought her a huge win. Natalya Petrovna Golitsyna died at the age of ninety-six years, in St. Petersburg, in the year of Pushkin’s death, having outlived him by several months. Golitsyna was buried in Moscow, in the cemetery of the Donskoy Monastery: in the Golitsyn tomb, in the Church of the Archangel Michael. Before the revolution, gamblers brought bouquets intertwined with blue, silver and coral ribbons (the three colors of the Golitsyn coat of arms) to her grave and asked her to appear in a dream, as she appeared to Pushkin’s Hermann, and reveal to them the secret of the three winning cards.
On March 1, 1834, Pushkin’s story was published and immediately created a real sensation among the reading public: not only with its exciting semi-mystical plot, but also because its characters had real prototypes, including people known to the entire high society.
In his diary dated April 7, 1834, Pushkin writes: “My Queen of Spades is in great fashion - players are punting on three, seven and ace. At court they found similarities between the old countess and the prince. Natalya Petrovna, and they don’t seem to be angry.”
“The Queen of Spades” begins with a description of the game of the card game “shtoss”, popular in those years (in the 18th century it was called “pharaoh”, “faro”, “bank”). Russian nobles spent a significant part of their lives at the green cloth of card tables; Fortunes were lost and won, destinies were broken, crimes and suicides were committed. The lines that became the epigraph to the first chapter of “The Queen of Spades,” according to the memoirs of A. Kern, were written by Pushkin at the end of January 1828, in the house of Prince S. Golitsyn during a card game, in chalk on his sleeve:

And on rainy days,
They were going
Often;
They bent - God forgive them! —
From fifty
One hundred
And they won
And they unsubscribed
Chalk.
So, on rainy days,
They were studying
Business.

About the author:
According to the recollections of his relatives and contemporaries, Pushkin was very fond of card games. As A. Kern recalled, “Pushkin loved cards very much and said that this was his only affection” (1, 1, 264). He admitted to his friend A. Wulf that “the passion for the game is the strongest of passions” (1, 1, 226) . According to the writer and critic K. Polevoy, Pushkin “played a pretty strong game and most often lost in a feather” (1,1,250). A relative of the poet, Simbirsk governor A. Zagryazhsky, said that once Pushkin lost all his cash, and as a bet he offered the fifth chapter of “Eugene Onegin” he had completed, which he also lost; then, having bet a couple of pistols, he still won and won back both the pistols and the manuscript, and in addition, he won about one and a half thousand rubles (1,1,226). Here is a report from one of the gendarmes (a certain P. Efremov) who was observing the freethinking poet: “In the police list of Moscow card players for 1829, among 93 numbers it appears: “1. Count Fyodor Tolstoy is a subtle player and planner. 22. Nashchokin - retired guard officer. Gambler and brawler. Well-known for the cases that were carried out about him. 36. Pushkin is a famous banker in Moscow.” Alexander Sergeevich’s passion for the game was also noted by the gendarme general A. Volkov, in a report to Benckendorf dated March 5, 1827: “About the poet Pushkin, as much as the short time allowed me to do reconnaissance, he was received well in all houses and, it seems, not so much.” now he is engaged in poetry as a card game, and has exchanged the Muse for the Fly, which is now, of all games, in great fashion.” The poet lost huge sums; with an annual salary of seven hundred rubles, he happened to “squander” several thousand in one night. After his death in a duel, he left 60 thousand rubles in debt, which Emperor Nicholas I mercifully repaid from his personal funds. More than half of this money was a debt of honor.
About the publication:
The publication contains 18 etchings, hand-colored by the artist. Their laconic and elegant composition represents a harmonious synthesis of verbal and visual images, through which the artist immerses the viewer in the space of the artistic concept of the work, in the intriguing depths of semantic riddles and symbols. The lack of detailed characteristics of the characters requires the viewer not only to have a thorough knowledge of the text of “The Queen of Spades,” but also creative imagination, comprehension of the hints and quotes hidden in the artistic presentation.
Noteworthy is the carefully thought-out architectonics of the book, determined by the versatility of the literary work. Its basis is the rhythmic alternation of titles and spreads with texts and etchings. Each title plays an independent role; its illustrative series precedes the development of the plot of the page illustration that follows it.
The dominant motive for constructing the composition is the theme of a card game - the driving force of the literary plot, which can be read in every element of the book’s design. The game of pharaoh is included in the composition of the etchings with a velvet black background, personifying the allegories hidden in it: life controlled by fate and chance, and the confrontation between a person’s passionate desire to influence the outcome of the game and the “secret malevolence” of fate.
The subjects of the etchings alternate - images of the heroes of the poem are replaced by easily recognizable, but at the same time mystical landscapes of night Petersburg, characterizing the environment of Lisa, Herman, the Countess, and helping to reveal the world of their feelings and thoughts. The psychologically poignant illustrations show a clear influence of romanticism. The portraits of the characters in the story are made in the form of a “two-headed” playing card. A mirror image not only indicates the subject-semantic sphere of a literary work, but also serves as an artistic presentation of portrait characteristics: the “light” and “dark” sides of the human soul, the movement of feelings, passions, thoughts; a comparison of the high and the low, the tragic and the ironic, the real and the fantastic.
The final theme of the story is Herman’s insanity, as a result of which his consciousness unites the real world with images of three true cards: “Three, seven, ace - did not leave his head and moved on his lips. Seeing a young girl, he said: “How slim she is!... A real three of red.” They asked him what time it was, he answered: “It’s five minutes to seven.” “Every pot-bellied man reminded him of an ace,” is present in the subjects of the etchings from the very beginning of the story, anticipating the reason for the tragic outcome of the story.
One of the expressive means of designing a book is an ornament made in Art Nouveau aesthetics, which carries a metaphorical origin. It is in the line - one of the main motives of this style - flexible, elegant, inextricably linked with the idea of symbolism - that the semantic context of the mythological and mysterious plot of the story is contained. Repeated cyclically in the composition of the book, it is present either explicitly, entangling the entire surface of the double-page title with a pattern, or only as a hint - an embossing framing the double-title, reflecting the development of the image of the Queen of Spades.
The epigraph of “The Queen of Spades,” which refers the reader to the “newest fortune-telling book,” indicates that the meaning of the Queen of Spades in the plot of the story is ambiguous. In fortune telling, a card is a conventional symbol of a person, event or incident; the fortune-telling layout determines the fate of a person according to the meanings embedded in the signs of the dropped cards. In the card mythology of players, the queen of spades is designated as an old woman: Bukhtin throws the bank. Removes the deck. Surin asks: “What’s the bottom?” Bukhtin answers: “Old woman.” Surin notes: “I’m not afraid of old women.” But, in the story, the playing card embodies other, deeper artistic images: the card is an old woman - the queen of spades - the executor of the will of fate, who destroyed Hermann's plans.
The text of the book is typed using an “Elizabethan” typeface and hand-printed using a 19th-century manual printing press “Dinglersche maschinen”, on Velin Arshes hand-cast paper, 270 g/m2.
The binding of the book is made of Kenya whale leather, decorated with an image of a playing card - an artistic embodiment of the epigraph to the story, made using the embossing technique. At the top of the card is the Countess of Tomskaya holding a lorgnette in her hand, and at the bottom is the card queen of spades, traditionally depicted with a flower in her hand.
For many centuries, maps were “single-headed”, i.e. the figures on them were depicted in full growth. The first cards without a “top” and “bottom” - “two-headed” mirror cards, where one half reflects the other, were issued in Italy at the end of the 17th century. Beginning in the 14th century, kings, queens and jacks began to be depicted as legendary heroes of antiquity. The Queen of Spades was traditionally depicted as the goddess of wisdom, knowledge, just war, and the patroness of arts and crafts - Pallas Athena.
On the back cover of the binding there is a floral ornament that completes the theme of the Queen of Spades - a symbol of well-deserved punishment that awaits those who exchange love for greed, the high for the low, who betray what is best and virtuous in themselves.
On the spine of the book there is gold embossing of the name of the author of the story.