The Queen of Spades

De: Alexander Pushkin

Narrado por: Cathy Dobson

Alexander Pushkin's greatest short story. Hermann, a young German officer serving in the Engineers regiment, is obsessed by gambling, although he never indulges in it himself. One night he hears a tale about how a wealthy 87-year-old Countess in St. Petersburg once learned the secret of how to win on three cards from the Duc d'Orleans. He becomes obsessed with learning the secret himself.

In pursuit of this aim, he becomes enamoured of the Countess' companion, the beautiful Lizaveta. A nocturnal visit to his paramour, however, turns to tragedy as he finds himself in the chamber of the Countess and tries first by persuasion and then by force to get her to reveal the secret of the cards. The denouement of the story is uncanny and captivating.

Public Domain (P)2014 Red Door Audiobooks

Classic and rightfully so!

Great story, very riveting and narrative. It was simply fantastic to listen to. As the cliche goes, it was a page turner.

Pushkin's greatness ruined by narrator

The narrator uses a maddeningly staccato delivery over and over again, as if every 5th line or so is a punch line to a stand-up comedy routine.

I love Russian literature, but I found it near impossible to focus on the story given how annoying the narration was.