The Queen of Spades

Hermann, an officer of the engineers, watches his comrades gamble night after night without ever staking a card. He hears that an old countess knows the secret of three winning cards, learned long ago in Paris, and resolves to get it from her. To reach her he feigns love for Lizaveta, the young ward who lives in her house, and lets himself in one night. The tale explores greed, cold calculation and the chance no calculation removes. Pushkin holds the balance between character study and ghost story, never saying which one wins.