Summary
Chapter 1
“Once we were playing cards with the horse guard Narumov.” Conducting small talk after the game, the men are surprised by one of those present - Hermann, who had been watching the others play all evening, but did not play himself. The man replied that his game was very busy, but he was not able to “sacrifice what is necessary in the hope of acquiring what is superfluous.”
One of the guests, Tomsky, noticed that Hermann was German, and therefore prudent and his attitude to the game was easily explainable. What really surprised Paul was why his grandmother Anna Fedotovna was not playing.
Sixty years ago, while in Paris, she lost a very large sum to the Duke of Orleans at court. The husband categorically refused to pay Anna Fedotovna’s debt, so she decided to turn to the rich Saint Germain. The “old eccentric,” instead of lending money, revealed to the woman the secret of three cards, which would certainly help you win if you bet on them in a row. That same evening, the woman completely recouped, but after this incident the Countess did not reveal the secret to anyone. The guests reacted to this story with disbelief.
Chapter 2
Countess ***, Tomsky’s grandmother, “was capricious, like a woman spoiled by the world, stingy and immersed in cold selfishness, like all old people who have fallen out of love in their age and are alien to the present.” The constant victim of the old woman’s reproaches and whims was her pupil, young lady Lizaveta - “a most unfortunate creature.” The girl accompanied the old woman everywhere, at balls “she sat in the corner, like an ugly and necessary decoration of the ballroom,” “she played the most pitiful role in the world. Everyone knew her and no one noticed,” so the young lady patiently waited for her “deliverer.”
A few days after the evening at Narumov’s, a young engineer appeared near Lizaveta’s window, whom the girl noticed sitting by the window at her hoop. “From that time on, not a day passed without a young man, at a certain hour, appearing under the windows of their house.” A week later, Lizaveta smiled at him for the first time.
This secret admirer was Hermann. Tomsky’s story about the cards “strongly affected his imagination,” so Hermann decided that he must definitely find out the countess’s secret. One day, while walking around St. Petersburg, a man accidentally comes to her house. After this, Hermann had a dream about how “he played card after card, bent the corners decisively, won constantly, and raked in gold and put banknotes in his pocket.” In the morning, the man again comes to the countess’s house and sees Lizaveta in the window - “that minute decided his fate.”
Chapter 3
Lizaveta receives a letter from a secret admirer in which he confesses his love for her. The young lady writes a response and returns Hermann’s message, throwing him a letter outside through the window. But this did not stop Hermann - he began sending letters to the girl every day, asking for a date. Finally, Lizaveta gave in, throwing him a message through the window, in which she explained how to quietly come to her room at night while the countess was at the ball.
Having entered the countess's house at night, Hermann hid in the office leading to the countess's room. When the old woman was left alone, the man came out to her. Asking the countess not to shout, he explained that he had come to find out the secret of the three cards. Seeing that the old woman did not want to share the secret with him, the man took out a pistol (as it later turned out, unloaded). Frightened by the sight of the weapon, the Countess dies.
Chapter 4
Lizaveta, sitting at this time in her room waiting for Hermann, recalls Tomsky’s words with which he described his friend (Hermann) with “the profile of Napoleon and the soul of Mephistopheles” at the ball: “this man has at least three atrocities in his soul.”
Then Herman himself comes to her and tells her that he was with the countess and was responsible for her death. The girl understands that the man was actually looking for a meeting with her for the sake of enrichment, and she, in fact, is the killer’s assistant. Lizaveta is struck by the man’s resemblance to Napoleon. In the morning the man secretly leaves the house.
Chapter 5
Three days later, Hermann went to the monastery, where the countess was buried. When he approached the coffin and looked at the deceased, it seemed to him that “the dead woman looked at him mockingly, squinting with one eye.” Stepping back, Hermann fainted.
At night, the man woke up at a quarter to three and heard someone first knocking on his window and then entering the room. It was a woman in a white dress - the late countess. She said that she came to him not of her own free will, but to fulfill his request. The Countess revealed the secret of three cards - “three, seven and ace”, but made a reservation that the man would win only on the condition that he “wouldn’t bet more than one card a day”, after that he wouldn’t play for the rest of his life and would marry Lizaveta.
Chapter 6
These three cards could not leave Hermann's head. Just at this time, the famous player Chekalinsky arrived in St. Petersburg. Hermann decides to play with Chekalinsky and for the first time, betting 47 thousand on three, wins. Having received the winnings, he immediately went home.
The next day, Hermann bet all his money on seven. Having won 94 thousand, the man “with composure and at that very moment left.” On the third day, Chekalinsky dealt the queen of spades and the ace. Hermann, exclaiming that his ace had beaten the queen, suddenly looked closer and saw that he had actually drawn the queen: “At that moment it seemed to him that the queen of spades squinted and grinned. The extraordinary resemblance struck him... - Old woman! - he shouted in horror.”
Conclusion
After the incident, Hermann went crazy and ended up in the Obukhov hospital. Lizaveta married the son of the countess's former steward.
Brief summary of the story “The Queen of Spades” by Pushkin A.S. by chapter
The old countess sits in front of the mirror, three girls help her dress. Her grandson, Tomsky, comes to her, greets her, and diligently avoids topics related to the death of those people whom the grandmother knew. Ta asks him to bring some novel to read, but “not one of the current ones,” but one “where the hero does not crush either his father or mother and where there are no drowned bodies.” Tomsky replies that there are no such novels. He asks if he can bring his friend. Lizanka, the countess's pupil, hearing that this guest will be Narumov, falls into a daydream and for some reason calls him an engineer. The Countess orders the carriage to be laid, notices Lisa's absent-mindedness (she does not hear the questions addressed to her, does not have time to get dressed). Then, hearing from the valet that it is windy outside, the Countess changes her mind and stays at home. Lisa is sad about her life, because someone else’s bread is bitter. The Countess, although she did not have an evil soul, was capricious, like any person spoiled by the world, stingy and immersed in cold selfishness. The old woman led a social life - she dragged herself to balls, sitting in the corner during them, flushed and dressed in old fashion, hosting half the city without recognizing anyone. Her servants grew fat, many robbed the dying old woman. Lizaveta, on the contrary, was a “domestic martyr.” “She poured tea and received reprimands for wasting sugar, she read novels aloud and was to blame for all the author’s mistakes, she accompanied the countess on her walks and was responsible for the weather and the pavement.” Despite the fact that she was assigned a salary, she was underpaid; at balls she danced only when there were not enough ladies; the ladies took her arm when they needed to go to the restroom to fix something in their outfit. Being proud, Lisa could not help but feel her situation and eagerly awaited her deliverer.
A week before Tomsky’s visit, Lisa was sitting by the window at her hoop and saw a young military engineer on the street. He appeared regularly and looked at her window. This seemed strange to Lisa. A couple of days later, getting into the carriage with the countess, she saw him standing at the entrance. The young man continues to come to the house. This goes on for quite some time. They look at each other, a week later Lisa smiled at him, and so on. That is why she asked if the friend Tomsky was going to bring was an engineer. Having learned that she was not an engineer, she was upset and wondered if her behavior had betrayed her secret. Hermann was the engineer.
Hermann was the son of a Russified German, who left him a small capital. Believing that he must strengthen his material independence, Hermann did not touch not only the capital itself, but also the interest, and lived on one salary. He did not allow himself a single extravagance, and his friends often made fun of his frugality. However, he was secretive and ambitious, and that is why he spent whole nights watching the card game, although without participating in the game. Having heard the story about the old countess, he began to think how good it would be if the old countess revealed her secret to him. Hermann does not really believe the story and thinks that it is better to bet on the more reliable “three cards” - calculation, moderation and hard work. One day he wanders onto one of the main streets of St. Petersburg, stops in front of a house, to which carriages bringing noble people drive up every now and then. Having asked whose house this is, Hermann hears in response that it belongs to Countess ***, the same one Tomsky was talking about. Returning home, Hermann cannot fall asleep for a long time, then he dreams of playing cards, winning huge sums. The next day he again goes to the countess's house and stands near it. He notices a girl in one of the windows. Ta looks at him. This is what sealed his fate.
A very brief retelling of the story “The Queen of Spades”.
St. Petersburg, beginning of the 19th century. A lover of card games, Hermann learns about the existence of a win-win combination of 3 cards. Easy money attracts the hero, he plans to find out the secret from its bearer - the old countess. It is impossible to get close to the old woman herself, but Hermann meets and falls in love with her naive pupil Lisa.
Lisa dreams of marriage, which will free her from the oppression of her overbearing guardian. She responds to false advances and agrees to a secret meeting under the cover of darkness. Having gained access to the Countess's house, Hermann goes not to meet Lisa, but to her aunt's bedroom. He threatens the old woman with a pistol and demands to reveal the treasured combination of cards to him.
Unable to withstand the pressure, the Countess dies without revealing the secret. At the funeral, Hermann imagines that the old woman is grinning at him from the coffin. That same night the hero sees her in a dream, she tells him the secret cards - three, seven, ace.
Hermann hurries to try them out in the game and wins for a long time until he gets the queen of spades with the face of the late countess. The hero loses his mind and spends the rest of his life in a psychiatric clinic.
Story line
The story begins with how horse guard Narumov had several men playing cards. While making small talk, they discussed a guy named Hermann. All this time he stood on the sidelines and watched the progress of the game. When one of those present asked him a question about why he did not play, the hero replied that the game was very attractive, and he did not have a fortune that could be sacrificed.
Tomsky noted that such an answer can be explained as Hermann is German and prudence is in his blood. Paul was surprised that his grandmother Anna Fedotovna was absent during the game, because she was a gambling person.
It turns out that sixty years ago, a woman lost a large sum while in Paris. Her husband forbade her to pay from the family fortune. Then she was forced to turn to a rich man named Saint-Germain for help. Instead of borrowing money, he told the old woman the secret of the three cards. Thanks to him, the woman was able to recoup that evening. After this incident, she no longer sat down to gamble.
The Countess, Tomsky's grandmother, was a wayward woman. She is selfish and cold to everyone around her. Her pupil Lizaveta was forced to endure all her whims. The entire high society knew this girl, but no one noticed her. Even at social events and balls, Lizaveta was next to the countess; most often she sat in a secluded corner and felt unnecessary. Recently, the old woman’s whims were unbearable, and the girl dreamed only of meeting her “savior” as soon as possible.
Fan at the window
A few days after the evening took place at the Narumovs’, Lizaveta noticed an unknown man under her window. He began to come regularly, at the same time. Only a week later the girl smiled at him for the first time.
This secret admirer turned out to be Hermann. He was impressed by Tomsky's stories about the secret of the three cards. From that moment on, he decided to get into the countess’s house at any cost and find out this secret. The man even had dreams about him sitting at the table and playing cards.
In the dream he won a large fortune.
A couple of days later, Hermann threw a letter through the window in which he declared his love for Lizaveta. In response, she threw the message back at him. This did not upset the young man, and he continued to come every evening and write letters. Soon the girl gave in to him and wrote about how to get into the palace unnoticed.
Hermann came at night and hid in the Countess's office. When she entered, there was a strong appearance of unfamiliarity. The guy said that he would leave immediately after she revealed to him the secret of the three cards. The woman refused to talk, so he pulled out a gun and began threatening her. At the sight of the firearm, the woman had a seizure and died.
At that moment, Lizaveta was sitting in her room and waiting for Herman. She recalled the phrase of Tomsky, who described this unfamiliar guy as “the profile of Napaleon, the soul of Mephistopheles.” At this time, Herman himself enters the room and admits that he is guilty of the death of the Countess. The girl understood that the guy was looking for a meeting with her only in order to get his own benefit. When it got dark outside, Hermann left unnoticed.
Three days later the funeral took place. Hermann arrived at the chapel where the countess's funeral was being held. He timidly approached the coffin, and it seemed to him that the deceased was mocking him, narrowing one eye. After this, the guy retreated and fainted.
Big hopes
Late at night, Hermann woke up from someone first knocking on his window and then entering the room. Opening his eyes, he saw a woman in white. It was the late countess. The woman said that she had come to reveal to him the secret of the three cards. Only on the condition that he marries Lizaveta and never gambles again.
The Countess spoke about those cards - three, seven and ace. Hermann will be able to win only if he follows the rule - not to bet more than one card per day.
The hero spent the entire next day thinking only about these cards. At this time, the famous player Chekalinsky arrived in St. Petersburg. Hermann decided to try his luck and play with him. He bet forty-seven thousand on three and won. After that I immediately went home.
At the second game the guy won ninety-four thousand. On the third day, Chekalinsky dealt the queen of spades and the ace. Hermann shouted that his ace was beating the queen, but when he looked closer, he realized that he had drawn a queen who looked like an old countess. This is exactly what he screamed in horror. After everything that happened, Herman went crazy, and Lizaveta successfully married the son of the countess’s steward.
In his book, Pushkin showed that any evil returns like a boomerang. If a person dreams of great wealth, he must go towards this goal in an honest way. This is the main thought and idea of the work, which makes you think about your actions.
Summary of “The Queen of Spades” for a reader’s diary
Full name of the author : Pushkin Alexander Sergeevich
Title : Queen of Spades
Number of pages : 20. Pushkin A. S. “Selected works in two volumes.” Publishing house "Fiction". 1978
Genre : Story
Year of writing : 1833
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.
