Queen of Spades (story)
Queen of Spades ( Russian Пиковая дама ) is a short story by Alexander Pushkin . It served as a template for the opera of the same name by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky . The story was published in 1834.
action
The young engineer officer Hermann, the son of a German who had become Russian, lives frugally and modestly. During a night of play, Tomski tells him about his grandmother, the countess, who decades ago in Paris learned the secret of how to predict three winning cards in a Pharos game .
Hermann tries to get close to the Countess. To do this, he approaches Lisaweta, her companion. During a secret meeting, however, he sneaks into the countess's room. He begs her to tell him the secret, threatens her, but she is silent. When she discovers an unloaded pistol in his hand, she suffers a heart attack and dies. At the funeral, Hermann has a vision. It seems to him that the deceased is giving him a look. In the evening the ghost of the countess appears to him and tells him that the three, the seven and the ace bring him the profit.
For the next few days, all of his thoughts will revolve around the three auspicious cards. When the card player Chekalinsky comes to Saint Petersburg, Hermann asks him for a game and puts all his savings on the three who also wins. The next day he bets everything on the seven and wins again. On the third day he sets about two hundred thousand rubles to the (as he says) ace that also wins, but instead of the ace Hermann unconscious on the Pique Dame set, so he loses his entire fortune. It seems to Hermann as if the card had the Countess's facial features and was grinning maliciously at him. He goes mad and keeps mumbling, "Three, seven, ace. Three, seven, queen."
Radio plays
- 1946: Queen of Spades - Production: SDR ; Editing: Hans Sattler , director: Cläre Schimmel .
- 1946: Queen of Spades - Production: MDR ; Editing: Hans Georg Stamm , director: Alfred Kranz .
- 1950: Queen of Spades - Production: BR ; Editing: Gerda Corbett , composition: Herbert Jarczyk , director: Heinz-Günter Stamm .
Film adaptations
- 1910 Russia: Пиковая дама - Pikowaja Dama, directed by Pjotr Tschardynin
- 1916 Russia: Пиковая дама - Pikowaja Dama, directed by Jakow Protasanow
- 1918 Germany: Queen of Spades , directed by Arthur Wellin
- 1927 Germany: Queen of Spades, directed by Alexander Rasumny
- 1949 Great Britain: Pique Dame (The Queen of Spades), directed by Thorold Dickinson
- 1960 Soviet Union: Pique Dame (Пиковая дама - Pikowaja Dama), directed by Roman Tichomirow
- 1981 Federal Republic of Germany: Queen of Spades
- 1982 Soviet Union: Queen of Spades (Пиковая дама - Pikowaja Dama), director: Igor Maslennikow
- 2016 Russia: Дама пик - Dama Pik, directed by Pawel Lungin
Current issues
- Alexander Pushkin: Queen of Spades , Russian / German, translated and afterword by Kay Borowsky. Reclam, Stuttgart 2014, ISBN 978-3-15-001613-8 (= Reclams Universal Library , Volume 1613).
- Alexander Pushkin: Queen of Spades . Audiobook, 1 hour, 5 minutes, 1 CD, unabridged reading by Markus Hoffmann. Argon, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-87024-829-1 .
