14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A secret at the card table, a rebellion at the fortress gates: how much can one choice cost?
In The Queen of Spades, Hermann watches others gamble but never plays—until an old Countess's secret takes hold of him. Her lonely ward, Lizaveta Ivanovna, hopes his letters promise a different life. In The Captain's Daughter, Pyotr Grinyov faces rebellion at a remote fortress, where love for Masha Mironova meets hard questions of honor.
Alexander Pushkin's collection moves from Saint Petersburg gambling rooms to country roads and lonely outposts. Dubrovsky follows a young officer whose family loses its estate through a rigged lawsuit; the story remains unfinished. The Tales of Belkin brings comic and sad stories under an invented author's name, including The Postmaster, where Samson Vyrin fears losing his beloved daughter.
What you’ll discover
- Chance becomes an obsession Follow Hermann as the promise of winning at cards takes hold of his thoughts.
- Courage without a boast Meet Masha Mironova, whose modest manner holds a quiet courage amid rebellion.
- Power turns neighbors apart Watch a quarrel between former friends bring ruin and drive Vladimir Dubrovsky toward outlaw life.
- A father's tender fear Visit the stationmaster Samson Vyrin, whose love for Dunya carries the fear of loss.
- Plain words that linger Discover how a few exact details make room for comedy, sadness, fate and honor.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy adventure, duels and robbers, ghost stories, tender romances and sharp comedy, told by a poet with a sly sense of humour.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Small things carry great consequences
- Honour stands before a rebel
- Injustice turns a gentleman outlaw
- One secret crowds out conscience
- Love takes an unexpected route
- Pride and sorrow shape ordinary lives
- Jokes and rumours reveal character
- Private feelings meet public expectations
- Human gestures set events moving
Who’s who
- Peter GrineffA spoiled young officer who learns honour and loyalty in a remote fortress, and who loves Masha Mironoff.
- SavelitchPeter's old servant, grumbling and endlessly loyal, who guards his master's money and his life.
- PougatcheffA Cossack rebel who claims to be the dead Emperor, cruel to many and oddly kind to Peter.
- Masha MironoffThe Commandant's quiet daughter, brave in her own way, who wants to marry only with Peter's family's blessing.
- Vladimir DoubrovskyA Guards officer who loses his home to an unjust lawsuit and becomes a masked robber and then a tutor.
- HermannA thrifty young engineer who cannot stop thinking of three winning cards and stakes everything to learn them.
- SilvioA silent, dangerous hussar and master shot who nurses an old grudge for six years.
- Liza MouromskyA lively landowner's daughter who dresses as a peasant girl to meet the neighbour's son she has never met.
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The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin
A teenager gives his coat to a stranger in a blizzard, and the favour later saves him from a rebel's gallows.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Only one of this multitude of poets, however, is truly admirable, absorbing all the rest in the lustrous rays of his genius,―the glorious Pushkin.”
In short
A boy of sixteen is lost in a blizzard on the Russian steppe. A ragged stranger guides him to shelter, and the boy thanks him with a hare-skin coat that splits at the seams.
The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 45 min6 h 10 min fast, 9 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 111,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A careless youth learns on the road
Peter Grineff tells the story of The Captain's Daughter many years after the events. He grows up spoiled on his father's estate near Simbirsk. His old servant Savelitch raises him, and a French tutor teaches him little beyond bad habits.
At sixteen Peter expects a bright life among the Guards in St. Petersburg. His father sends him to serve at Orenburg instead. The parting advice is simple. Take care of your honour while you are young.
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Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 9 h 0 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Pushkin, Alexander. The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prose-tales-of-alexander-pushkin.
Pushkin, A. (2026). The prose tales of Alexander Pushkin. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prose-tales-of-alexander-pushkin
Pushkin, Alexander. The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prose-tales-of-alexander-pushkin.
@book{pushkin2026prose,
author = {Pushkin, Alexander},
title = {The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-prose-tales-of-alexander-pushkin}
}
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What is The Prose Tales of Alexander Pushkin about?
It is a collection of short and long stories by Pushkin. They include a rebellion novel, a robber tale, a ghost story, tales of love and honour, and unfinished works about a poet and the Tsar's African godson.
Which stories are in the collection?
The book holds The Captain's Daughter, Doubrovsky, The Queen of Spades, The Amateur Peasant Girl, The Shot, The Snowstorm, The Stationmaster, The Coffin-Maker, Kirdjali, Egyptian Nights, and Peter the Great's African.
Is The Captain's Daughter based on a true story?
It is fiction set during the real Pougatcheff rebellion of 1773 to 1774. The rebel leader, the siege of Orenburg and the Empress Catherine are historical, while Peter Grineff and the Mironoff family are invented.
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.
“Two fixed ideas can no more coexist in the moral world than two bodies can occupy the same place in the physical world.”
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