Ep. 715, The Queen of Spades, by Alexander Pushkin

Why won’t Tomsky’s 80-year-old grandmother share her incredible secret for gambling? Alexander Pushkin, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.

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App users can hear the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, by William Wordsworth in the special features for today’s episode.

Today we return to Russia, and Alexander Pushkin. He was born to a noble family, but by the time he came along, most of the money was gone. He is one of the great Russian luminaries, and today’s story of self-destructive greed is largely reprinted and anthologized. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made it into an opera which premiered in St. Petersburg in 1890.

Faro, spelled in the story as f-a-r-o, is a gambling card game in which players bet on the order in which the cards will appear. Pharoah, like the Egyptian Pharoah, is said to have been the name of the king of hearts.

And now, The Queen of Spades, by Alexander Pushkin.

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