The Queen of Spades and Other Stories

Four of Pushkin's best short story collections are included in this anthology in new translations. One of the best short stories ever written is Pushkin's The Queen of Spades which examines the nature of obsession. While Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early attempt at time travel The Tales of Belkin are clever parodies of sentimentalism. The Captain's Daughter is a novel-length masterwork that combines Sir Walter Scott-style historical fiction with elements from Russian fairy tales. The stories are closely read in the Introduction which also sets them in the context of European literature.