The Queen of Spades, Alexander Pushkin

93 pages. 17.6x10.4x0.8cm. Paperback. At the beginning of the 19th century, Russian literature was still in its infancy. It lacked a Shakespeare, a Cervantes, or a Petrarch. Pushkin alone would fill this void. For poetry, with Ruslan and Lyudmila (1820), theater with Boris Godunov, and the short story with The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin (1830). At 31, he laid the foundations for the entire history of Russian literature, from which its most illustrious figures, from Lermontov to Gorky, would constantly draw inspiration. While Pushkin's life, cut short by a duel at 38, is striking for its romantic brilliance, his writing, and his prose in particular, is marked by a sober classicism. At once elegant, shimmering, and subtly tinged with a gentle irony, it focuses on common folk as much as on great lords, illuminating the depths of the soul with subtle touches, with unparalleled simplicity, sensitivity, and artistic perfection. -Scarbo