∎ PDF The Queen of Spades and Other Stories A New Translation Alexander Pushkin Andrew Kahn Alan Myers Books

The Queen of Spades and Other Stories A New Translation Alexander Pushkin Andrew Kahn Alan Myers Books

Download As PDF : The Queen of Spades and Other Stories A New Translation Alexander Pushkin Andrew Kahn Alan Myers Books

The Queen of Spades and Other Stories A New Translation Alexander Pushkin Andrew Kahn Alan Myers Books

The print is blotchy and barely readable--like reading an old mimeograph page. It's not what anyone should expect of a brand-new book from a major publisher. Penguin should be ashamed to offer such rubbish.


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The Queen of Spades and Other Stories A New Translation Alexander Pushkin Andrew Kahn Alan Myers Books Reviews

This book is a nice (don't forget cheap) adaptation and translation of Russia's most celebrated author, A.S.Pushkin. I imagine that other editions (hardcover and so on) are extremely expensive, so this book is a good introduction into the works of a classic and exceptionally talented writer. I have read much of Pushkin in Russian language, so I can honestly say that this book is true to the originals and it is worth spending your $3 on. NOTE To people, who know that Pushkin is considered greatest RUSSIAN (emphasis on "russian") writer and expect to find real Russia in his writings you won't find much of it here, for the fact that Pushkin wrote mainly about his upper-class contemporaries, who (pretty much like Pushkin himself) lost touch with real Russia, hence the revolution awhile later... If you want to feel some of Pushkin's russian spirit, you should try reading his poetry instead of the short stories.
From what I can learn this present volume ISBN 0192839543 from 1999 replaces ISBN 0192832131 from 1997.That volume is almost identical but is just 273 pages versus the present. I am not clear on all the changes but the books contains similar material and identical covers.

Roughly, here is the contents

Introduction
Bibliography
Life of Pushkin
Milestones of the Pugachev Uprising

The Puskin Stories

Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
- The Shot, 12 pages
- The Snowstorm, 12 pages
- The Undertaker, 7 pages
- The Stationmaster, 12 pages
- The Lady Peasant, 18 pages

The Queen of Spades, 29 pages

The Captain's Daughter a novella, 108 pages

Peter The Great's Blackamoor, 35 pages, an unfinshed work.

Then summary Notes.

Comments

The book contains a very long introduction to the works and has many notes at the end. In reading just the present book, you will receive a good idea of the general works of Pushkin - abbreviated - and a lot of detail on the present works.

The stories are excellent, well written, and one is instantly converted to being a Pushkin fan. I am not a literary expert but I have read works by Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc, and clearly one sees the connection in style and subject matter. It is easy to see how Tolstoy drew inspiration from these works.

The stories are grounded mostly in realism and 18th and 19th century historical events although there are romantic touches and Queen of Spades has elements of the supernatural.

Overall, these are excellent stories that bring a smile to one's face.
This Dover Thrift edition - The Queen of Spades and Other Stories - offers an enjoyable introduction to Alexander Pushkin, an early nineteenth century Russian poet and writer. This collection includes Pushkin's popular The Queen of Spades and his five short stories published under the title The Tales of the Late P. Belkin. The translation was by T. Keane, originally published in 1894 by G. Bell & Sons, London.

The Queen of Spades is a haunting story of one man's obsession with gambling. Hermann, German by birth but a young officer in the Russian military, is notable among his fellow officers in St. Petersburg for his restraint "He has never had a card in his hand in his life; he never in his life had a wager, and yet he sits here till five o'clock in the morning watching our play". Hermann becomes intrigued with a tale of a closely held secret, one that reveals a bidding sequence that always wins.

Unlike the title story, the other five stories have settings in rural Russia at great distance from cosmopolitan Moscow and St. Petersburg. Apparently Pushkin originally published these stories under a pseudonym. P. Belkin, supposedly a somewhat mysterious individual that liked to collect tales.

An Amateur Peasant Girl The wealthy landowner Ivan Petrovitch Berestoff, feuds with his nearest neighbor, Gregory Ivanovitch Mouromsky. Unknown to either, Mouromsky's daughter, Lizaveta Gregorievna, while dressed as a peasant girl, has attracted the attention of Berestoff's son, leading to considerable confusion.

The Shot In a formal Russian duel one duelist, chosen by chance, fires first from a fixed distance at the other. If the first duelist misses his opponent (or does not critically wound him), the second duelist now fires. In this tale the second duelist, a superb marksman, holds his fire, but with the understanding that at some future time he will return and kill his opponent.

The Snowstorm This highly contrived story is singularly Russian. Love, chance, and honor ultimately mitigate the unexpected consequences of a senseless prank by a young military officer.

The Postmaster This story is perhaps less contrived, and yet it still relies heavily on coincidences. The postmaster is not a postman, but is one that manages a way station for resting horses and travelers.

The Coffin Maker In what appears to be a dream, an undertaker is harassed by his previous clients, now all dead and buried, who return to his home for festivities. The ending is somewhat ambiguous.
FYI The kindle version of this book has different stories than the printed version of this book. It is supposed to have

The Queen of Spades
The Tales of the Late P. Belkin
An Amateur Peasant Girl
The Shot
The Snowstorm
The Postmaster
The Coffin-Maker

Instead the kindle version has

The Negro of Peter the Great
Dubrovsky
The Queen of Spades
The Captain's Daughter

Don't get the kindle version if you actually want t he same stories as the paperback.
excellent
Classic of A. Pushkin!!! Amazing piece of history that is still flourishing Russian literature and history. Definitely a must read book. I'm grateful that my professor chose this book for our class.
Book was in Good condition
The print is blotchy and barely readable--like reading an old mimeograph page. It's not what anyone should expect of a brand-new book from a major publisher. Penguin should be ashamed to offer such rubbish.