The Queen Of Spades

Introducing Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith. 
 
 Celebrating the range and diversity of Penguin Classics, they take us from snowy Japan to springtime Vienna, from haunted New England to a sun-drenched Mediterranean island, and from a game of chess on the ocean to a love story on the moon. Beautifully designed and printed, these collectible editions are bound in colourful, tactile cloth and stamped with foil. 
 
A countess with a card trick; love letters filled with deception; a desperate man with a pistol.'The Queen of Spades', one of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories, is accompanied here by the thrilling 'Dubrovsky' and unforgettable 'Tales of Belkin'. 
 
 
'He is the lasting wonder of Russian literature' - Guardian

A prophetic phenomenon of the Russian spirit

He is the lasting wonder of Russian literature

Alexander Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. He was exiled for his liberal views on serfdom and autocracy, but this allowed him the freedom to write some of his greatest works, including the novel in verse Eugene Onegin. He died in 1837 after being fatally wounded in a duel.

A countess with a card trick; love letters filled with deception; a desperate man with a pistol.'The Queen of Spades', one of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories, is accompanied here by the thrilling 'Dubrovsky' and unforgettable 'Tales of Belkin'.

Selected Poetry

'Wood's lively translations grasp the irrepressible sense of freedom which is the poet's hallmark ... Pushkin is lucky in Antony Wood. Pleasure is to be found on every page of this book'

This Selected Poetry by Antony Wood supersedes all previous translations ... Wood's 'The Bronze Horseman' gives us Pushkin at his most tragic. 'Count Nulin' shows him at his most light-hearted. 'The Tale of Tsar Saltan' bounces along with delightful vitality. Even with the delicately musical short lyrics - still harder to translate - Wood's success rate is remarkable ... The result is a more rounded picture of Pushkin - in many ways the most universal of poets

This Selected Poetry deserves a wealth of praise . . . a truly valuable edition both for its scrupulous and often magnificent versions of individual poems and as a worthy general introduction to this poet, who is such a treasure for Russia and for the world

Everybody knows how difficult Pushkin's poems are to translate. Antony Wood has succeeded, within the limits of the possible

Re-creating Pushkin requires skills approaching magic. Antony Wood is one of the two or three best translators of Russia's greatest poet in the Anglophone world, because his Pushkin moves: you watch him dance as well as hear him sing

Antony Wood's translations show an unusual grace and a deep knowledge of Pushkin's poetry

Pushkin's poetry is lyrical, beautifully simple, vivid, and endlessly emotive. It can be enjoyed by all readers, regardless of their background in poetry. And there is now one definitive book of Alexander Pushkin's poetry, the one book you need to read in order to fully appreciate Alexander Pushkin's poems: Alexander Pushkin Selected Poetry, translated with complete command and majesty by Antony Wood

A volume to keep within easy reach at most times

Anthony Wood is to be congratulated on this suburb collection, which renders Pushkin in all his matchless grace, wit and musicality

Alexander Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. He was exiled for his liberal views on serfdom and autocracy, but this allowed him the freedom to write some of his greatest works, including his novel in verse, Eugene Onegin. He died in 1837 after being fatally wounded in a duel. 
 
 Antony Wood is an editor and translator from Russian and German, and also runs the publishing house Angel Books.

WINNER OF THE READ RUSSIA PRIZE 2020 
 
Alexander Pushkin established what we know as Russian literature. This collection includes his strongly personal lyric verse, which springs spontaneously from his everyday life - his numerous loves, his exile, his hectic life in St Petersburg - while the narrative poems here, from exotic Southern tales to comic parodies and fairy tales of enchanted tsars, display his endless ability to surprise. His landmark work The Bronze Horseman, with its ghostly central figure of Peter the Great, holds the meaning of all Russian history. Antony Wood's translations reveal the variety, inventiveness and perfection of Pushkin's verse.

Novels, Tales, Journeys

Puskin's masterpieces in prose, in sparkling new translations by the award-winning Pevear and Volokhonsky. 
 
The father of Russian literature, Pushkin is beloved not only for his poetry but also for his brilliant stories, which range from dramatic narratives of love, obsession and betrayal to lively comic tales, and from satirical epistolary tales to imaginative historical fiction. This volume includes all Pushkin's prose in brilliant new translations, including his masterpieces 'The Queen of Spades', 'The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin' and 'The Captain's Daughter'.

A superb gathering of writings by the short-lived Alexander Pushkin ... Pevear and his longtime partner Volokhonsky render Pushkin's words in an easy, conversational tone that is very far from the fustiness of the Constance Garnett renderings of old ... A long overdue collection that speaks truly and well to Pushkin's brilliance as a prose stylist as well as observer of the world

Pushkin (1799-1837), arguably Russia's greatest poet, finds worthy translators in Pevear and Volokhonsky, who have compiled an indispensable edition of the master's complete prose. Pushkin's great ambition, keen curiosity, and comprehensive range are all in evidence here

The father of Russian literature, Pushkin is beloved not only for his poetry but also for his brilliant stories, which range from dramatic narratives of love, obsession and betrayal to lively comic tales, and from satirical epistolary tales to imaginative historical fiction. This volume includes all Pushkin's prose in brilliant new translations, including his masterpieces 'The Queen of Spades', 'The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin' and 'The Captain's Daughter'.

The Queen of Spades

'Hermann waited for the appointed hour like a tiger trembling for its prey.' 
 
One of Pushkin's most popular and chilling stories, 'The Queen of Spades' tells of a young man who develops a dangerous obsession in pursuit of the wealth he craves. 
 
One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. After traveling through the Caucasus and the Crimea, he was sent to Bessarabia, where he wrote The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain at Bakhchisaray, and began Eugene Onegin. His work took an increasingly serious turn during the last year of his southern exile, in Odessa. In 1824 he was transferred in north-west Russia, where he wrote his historical drama Boris Godunov, continued Eugene Onegin and finished The Gipsies. He was mortally wounded and died in January 1837..

A Novel in Verse

Eugene Onegin

A sparkling new translation of Pushkin's masterpiece

One of the finest of all verse translations into English ... reproduces every facet of the original: the precise meaning, the wit, the lyricism. Not once is there a false note.

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. After traveling through the Caucasus and the Crimea, he was sent to Bessarabia, where he wrote The Captive of the Caucasus and The Fountain at Bakhchisaray, and began Eugene Onegin. His work took an increasingly serious turn during the last year of his southern exile, in Odessa. In 1824 he was transferred in north-west Russia, where he wrote his historical drama Boris Godunov, continued Eugene Onegin and finished The Gipsies. He was mortally wounded and died in January 1837. 
 
 
Stanley Mitchell was born in 1932 in London. He read Modern Languages (French, German and Russian) at Oxford. He taught at various universities - Birmingham, Essex, Sussex, San Diego California, McGill, Montreal, Dar es Salaam Tanzania, Derby, University College London and Camberwell School of Art. Subjects included Russian literature and art, comparative literature, art history and cultural studies. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Aesthetics at the University of Derby and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Art History at University College, London. He has translated Georg Lukacs and Walter Benjamin, written a variety of articles and reviews, and given numerous lectures and talks.

Eugene Onegin is the master work of the poet whom Russians regard as the fountainhead of their literature. Set in 1820s Russia, Pushkin's verse novel follows the fates of three men and three women. Engaging, full of suspense, and varied in tone, it contains a large cast of characters and offers the reader many literary, philosophical, and autobiographical digressions, often in a highly satirical vein. Eugene Onegin was Pushkin's own favourite work, and this new translation by Stanley Mitchell conveys the literal sense and the poetic music of the original.

Tales of Belkin and Other Prose Writings

A masterful collection of stories by Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), Russia's first genius in poetry and prose.

ALEXANDER PUSHKIN was born in Moscow in 1799, and died in 1837, challenging a troublesome admirer of his wife to a duel. 
 
RONALD WILKS has translated many Russian works for Penguin, including Chekhov's MY APPRENTICESHIP, THE KISS AND OTHER STORIES, and THE PARTY AND OTHER STORIES (available in Penguin Classics). 
 
JOHN BAYLEY is Warton Professor of English Literature, Oxford University. He has written many books, and has also introduced Pushkin's EUGENE ONEGIN for Penguin Classics.

Alexander Pushkin was Russia's first true literary genius. Best known for his poetry, he also wrote sparkling prose that revealed his national culture with elegance and understated humour. Here, his gift for portraying the Russian people is fully revealed. The Tales of Belkin, his first prose masterpiece, presents a series of interlinked stories narrated by a good-hearted Russian squire - among them 'The Shot', in which a duel is revisited after many years, and the grotesque 'The Undertaker'. Elsewhere, works such as the novel-fragment Roslavlev and the Egyptian Nights, the tale of an Italian balladeer seeking an audience in St. Petersberg, demonstrate the wide range of Pushkin's fiction. A Journey to Arzrum, the final piece in this collection, offers an autobiographical account of Pushkin's own experiences in the 1829 war between Russia and Turkey, and remains one of the greatest of all pieces of journalistic adventure writing.

The Queen of Spades and Other Stories

A collection of Pushkin's chilling short stories

The Queen of Spades and Other Stories is a collection of short fiction showcasing Alexander Pushkin's application of Romantic sensibilities to uncompromising studies of human frailty. This Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by Rosemary Edwards. 
 
'The Queen of Spades', one of Pushkin's most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady's luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. 'The Negro of Peter the Great', a story based on the life Pushkin's own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction - and criticism - of both French and Russian society, while 'Dubrovsky' is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. 'The Captain's Daughter' tells of a young man sent to military service - based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin's unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history. Together these four stories display the versatility and innovation that earned Pushkin his reputation as a master of prose and established him as the towering figure in Russian literature. 
 
Rosemary Edmonds's translation is accompanied by an introduction examining Pushkin's simplicity of style and the powerful influence he exerted on his country's literature. 
 
Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837) was born in Moscow in 1799. Leaving school in 1817, he spent three years in St Petersburg working in the Foreign Office and writing erotic verse. His flirtations with pre-Decembrist movements and his revolutionary verses lead to his exile in 1820. After a stay in the Caucasus and Crimea he was sent to Bessarabia, where he began to write more seriously, beginning Eugene Onegin and Tsygany. In 1831 he retired to a family estate, married, and his literary output slackened. He was mortally wounded in a duel and died in January 1837. 
 
If you enjoyed The Queen of Spades, you might like Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, also available in Penguin Classics.

Alexander Pushkin was born in Moscow in 1799. Leaving school in 1817, he spent three years in St Petersburg working in the Foreign Office and writing erotic verse. His flirtations with pre-Decembrist movements and his revolutionary verses lead to his exile in 1820. After a stay in the Caucasus and Crimea he was sent to Bessarabia, where he began to write more seriously, beginning Eugene Onegin and Tsygany. In 1831 he retired to a family estate, married, and his literary output slackened. He was mortally wounded in a duel and died in January 1837. 
 
 
Rosemary Edmonds was born in London and studied languages in England, France and Italy. During the war she was translator to General de Gaulle. Among her many translations for Penguin Classics are Tolstoy's War and Peace, Anna Karenin and Resurrection and Turgenev's Fathers and Sons. She died in 1998.

The Queen of Spades, one of his most popular and chilling short stories, tells of an inveterate card player who develops a dangerous obsession with the secret of an old lady's luck, which he believes will bring him the wealth he craves. The Negro of Peter the Great, a story based on the life Pushkin's own great-grandfather, is a vivid depiction - and criticism - of both French and Russian society, while Dubrovsky is the Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer. The Captain's Daughter tells of a young man sent to military service - based on the actual events of the rebellion against Catherine II, it demonstrates Pushkin's unparalleled skill at blending fiction and history. Together these four stories display the versatility and innovation that earned Pushkin his reputation as a master of prose and established him as the towering figure in Russian literature.

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the Russian poet and author was born in Moscow in 1799. He was exiled for his liberal views on serfdom and autocracy, but this exile allowed him the freedom and the time to write some of his greatest works. He died in 1837 when he was fatally wounded in a dual. 
Charles Johnston was a translator and poet. He died in 1986. Michael Basker teaches Russian at Bristol University. John Bayley has published many books including studies of Tolstoy and Pushkin.

This novel in verse, said to be the parent of all Russian novels, is a tragic story of innocence, love and friendship. Eugene Onegin, an aristocrat, much like Pushkin and his peers in his attitude and habits, is bored. He visits the countryside where the young and passionate Tatyana falls in love with him. In a touching letter she confesses her love but is cruelly rejected. Years later, it is Onegin's turn to be rejected by Tatyana.

Pushkin Eugene Onegin And Other Poems

Pocket clothbound volumes from the world's greatest poets, and with a stunning range of anthologies. Each volume has an elegant jacket, full cloth sewn binding, silk ribbon marker and headbands, with gold stamping on front and spine and decorative endpapers. In size, price and presentation they make ideal gifts and are a joy to read and collect. More than eighty titles in print.

Pushkin was the first Russian writer of European stature, and he is among the very few artists - such as Homer and Shakespeare - to have shaped the consciousness and history of an entire nation and its language, thereby affecting the world at large. Eugene Onegin is not merely the greatest poem in the Russian language by its most influential poet: it is a global culture, social and political icon of the highest order. The historical power of this work - a novel in verse - is made all the more extraordinary by the simplicity of its subject. Eugene Onegin is a story of disappointed love. Tatyana falls for the handsome Eugene to whom she daringly makes advances. He cooly rejects her, then flirts with her sister, Olga. When challenged by Olga's fiance, Lensky kills him in a duel, seemingly indifferrent to the grief he causes. (Ironically, Puskhin himself was to be killed in similar circumstances in 1937, some seven years after he completed the work). Onegin leaves the district. When he returns four years later, Tatyana has married another man and it is her turn to reject his advances. But it turns out that Onegin's hauteur is affected: he has always loved her passionately. She loves him too and both reflect painfully on what might have been.

Alexander Pushkin

Alex Jennings

Geoffrey Streatfeild

Ralph Fiennes

Bill Nighy

Paul Scofield

Simon Callow

Hattie Morahan

Alison Pettitt

Greg Wise

Full Cast

Alan Howard

Moira Lister

Max Irons

Linus Roache

Including Eugene Onegin, Boris Godunov & The Queen of Spades

Dramatisations and readings of Pushkin's most famous works - plus biographical programmes and an original play based on his life 
 
One of Russia's most iconic poets, Alexander Pushkin is often described as the 'father of Russian literature'. A gambler, playboy and social reformer, he was exiled by the Tsar for his controversial poetry and died aged 37 in a duel defending his wife's honour. 
 
This BBC Radio anthology opens with full-cast dramatisations of his two masterpieces, Eugene Onegin and The Bronze Horseman, both set against the backdrop of his turbulent life. The former, set the night before the fateful duel, sees Pushkin (Geoffrey Streitfeild) telling his wife the story of St Petersburg socialite Onegin, his best friend, and the woman who loves him. In the latter, starring Max Irons, Pushkin's epic poem symbolising the battle between Tsar and citizen is interspersed with scenes depicting his own parallel struggles with state power. 
 
The inspiration for Rachmaninov's opera Aleko, The Gypsies is a powerful exploration in narrative verse of the conflict between freedom and love. Zemfira brings Aleko, a man running from the law, home to meet her father, but life in a gypsy camp is more challenging than he imagined. Read by Ralph Fiennes, Alex Jennings and Gabrielle Glaister. 
 
Set during the 'Time of Troubles' in the early 1600s, Pushkin's only full-length play, Boris Godunov, is a historical drama about the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who was Tsar from 1598 to 1605. It features a stellar cast including Alan Howard, Bill Nighy and Jane Lapotaire. 
 
His 'little tragedy', Mozart and Salieri, tells of the rivalry between Mozart and Antonio Salieri, who was rumoured to have been behind Mozart's early death. Starring Paul Scofield as Salieri and Simon Callow as Mozart. 
 
Also included are four superb short stories - 'The Snowstorm', starring Janet Maw and Michael Maloney, 'The Squire's Daughter', read by Hattie Morahan, 'The Queen of Spades', featuring Moira Lister, Greg Wise and Amanda Root, and 'The Golden Cockerel', read by Alec McCowen. 
 
Finally, two bonus features chart Pushkin's extraordinary life and legacy. Soul of Fire: Alexander Pushkin 1799-1837 comprises three hours of music, drama and biography, as presenter Gerard McBurney visits the places that were formative influences on Pushkin, and introduces dramatised excerpts from his work and operatic adaptations by Tchaikovsky, Glinka and Mussorgsky. And in the original drama Cloudberries, starring Linus Roache as Pushkin, poet Elaine Feinstein tells the story of the great Russian author, from his unhappy childhood to his untimely death. 
 
Contents 
Eugene Onegin 
The Bronze Horseman 
The Gypsies 
Boris Godunov 
Mozart and Salieri 
'The Snowstorm' 
'The Squire's Daughter' 
'The Queen of Spades' 
'The Golden Cockerel' 
Soul of Fire: Alexander Pushkin 1799-1837 
Cloudberries 
 
First published 1824 (The Gypsies), 1825 (Boris Godunov), 1830 (Mozart and Salieri), 1831 ('The Snowstorm', 'The Squire's Daughter'), 1833 (Eugene Onegin, The Bronze Horseman), 1834 ('The Queen of Spades', 'The Golden Cockerel') 
 
© 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2023 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd

Alexander Pushkin

Books by Alexander Pushkin

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter