The Queen of Spades has long been acknowledged as one of the world`s greatest short stories. In this classic literary representation of gambling, Alexander Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. Hints of the occult and gothic alternate with scenes of St Petersburg high-society in the story of the passionate Hermann`s quest to master chance and make his fortune at the card-table. Underlying the taut plot is an ironical treatment of the romantic dreamer and social outcast.

This volume contains three other major works of Pushkin`s fiction, moving from the witty parodies of sentimentalism and high melodrama in The Tales of Belkin to an early experiment with recreating the past in Peter the Great`s Blackamoor. It concludes with the novel-length masterpiece The Captain`s Daughter , which combines historical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the colour and devices of the Russian fairy-tale in a narrative of rebellion and romance.

These new translations, as well as being meticulously faithful to the original, do full justice to the elegance and fluency of Pushkin`s prose. The Introduction provides insightful readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context. A chronology of the Pugachov Uprising illuminates the events in The Captain`s Daughter .