4 h 29 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 4 h 29 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How do you keep your honor when your life depends on an enemy’s mercy?
Pyotr Grinyov expects an easy start to military life. Instead, his father sends him toward a remote frontier fort. A snowstorm interrupts the journey; a stranger helps him reach shelter, and Grinyov gives him a coat. At Captain Mironov’s modest post, his expectations give way to love and rivalry.
Marya Mironova, the commandant’s daughter, becomes the center of Grinyov’s hopes, while fellow officer Alexei Shvabrin brings jealousy and hostility. Then Yemelyan Pugachev’s rebellion reaches the frontier. As the rebel leader challenges the Russian crown, Grinyov faces choices that pull personal gratitude, love, and public duty in different directions.
What you’ll discover
- Honor under pressure Follow a young officer as he learns that obedience alone cannot settle every moral choice.
- A quiet love Discover Grinyov’s love for Marya as rebellion puts their private hopes at risk.
- An unexpected bond Meet Pugachev through his unusual connection with a man whose loyalty belongs elsewhere.
- Life at the frontier Enter a modest fort where personal rivalries sharpen the dangers beyond its walls.
- History brought close Experience upheaval through one young man’s memories, where everyday decisions carry new weight.
Who will love it
Readers who like adventure with a warm heart, historical settings, loyal servants and sharp rivals, a love story tested by war, and a voice that mixes humor with honor.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A sheltered boy is sent to the frontier
- Love and rivalry end in a duel
- Rumors of rebellion reach the fort
- The guide returns as the rebel chief
- Honor, mercy and loyalty are tested
- A memoir that mixes humor with history
Who’s who
- Petr GrineffA proud, warm-hearted young officer who tells the story, and who wants to win Masha while keeping his honor and his oath.
- Marya Mironoff (Masha)The commandant's gentle daughter, shy and sensible, who refuses to marry without his parents' blessing and shows steady courage.
- SavelitchPetr's old servant, scolding and devoted, who guards his master's money and his life with equal stubbornness.
- PugachevA runaway Cossack who claims to be the dead Emperor, cruel to his enemies yet strangely grateful to Petr.
- ChvabrineA clever, mocking officer, exiled after a duel, who wants Masha and cannot bear that Petr has won her heart.
- Ivan MironoffThe simple, honest commandant of Fort Belogorsk, who wants only to do his duty and keep his family safe.
- Vassilissa IgorofnaThe commandant's wife, who rules both house and garrison, and who is loud, kind and braver than anyone expects.
- ZourineA hussar captain who lures Petr into billiards, punch and debt, and who remains a rough but loyal friend.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 4 h 29 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 9 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Die Tochter des Kommandanten in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Die Tochter des Kommandanten
by Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin · 1836
A young officer's gift of a hare-skin coat to a stranger on a wild winter road comes back to decide his fate.
Medium level2–5 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Daughter of the Commandant is a short novel by Aleksandr Pushkin, the Russian poet, who published it in 1836, the year before his death. It is told as the memoir of an old gentleman, Petr Grineff, who looks back on the winter when he was seventeen and the Cossack leader Pugachev shook the Russian Empire.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A sheltered boy is sent to the frontier
Petr Andreyevich Grineff grows up on his father's estate near Simbirsk. His faithful old servant Savelitch looks after him, and a drunken French tutor named Beaupre teaches him next to nothing. The boy's schooling ends the day his father finds him making a kite from a fine map, tying a tail to the Cape of Good Hope.
At sixteen Petr dreams of the glittering Guards in Petersburg. His father, a retired major, has other plans. After reading the Court Almanac one autumn day, he decides that his son must learn the soldier's trade, and he sends him to serve under an old comrade in Orenburg. His parting advice is to guard his honor while he is young.
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What is The Daughter of the Commandant about?
It follows young officer Petr Grineff, sent to a remote fort in 1773. He falls in love with the commandant's daughter Masha, fights a duel with a rival, and finds himself caught up in Pugachev's rebellion.
Who is Pugachev in the novel?
Emelian Pugachev was a real Don Cossack who led a great uprising from 1773 to 1775, claiming to be Emperor Peter III. Pushkin also wrote a history of him, and he appears here as a vivid, complex figure.
Is The Daughter of the Commandant a true story?
The rebellion, Pugachev and several places are historical, but Grineff, Masha and their story are invented. Pushkin published the novel in 1836 and presents it as an old man's family memoir.
The author
Alexander Pushkin
1799–1837 · Russian poet and novelist
Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist. He was born in Moscow in 1799 and died in Saint Petersburg in 1837. He wrote Eugene Onegin between 1823 and 1831. His other works include the play Boris Godunov and the stories The Queen of Spades and The Captain’s Daughter.
More by Alexander Sergejewitsch Puschkin
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