The queen of

The Queen of Spades is a short story with supernatural elements by Alexander Pushkin about human avarice. Pushkin wrote the story in autumn 1833 in Boldino and it was first published in the literary magazine Biblioteka dlya chteniya in March 1834.

The story was the basis of the operas The Queen of Spades (1890) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, La dame de pique (1850) by Fromental Halevy and Pique Dame (1864) by Franz von Suppe (the overture to the Suppe work is all that remains in today\'s repertoire). It has been filmed numerous times.

Hermann, an ethnic German, is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army. He constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself.

One night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess. Many years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at faro, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards, which she learned from the notorious Count of St.

Germain. Hermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.

The countess (who is now 87 years old) has a young ward, Lizavyeta Ivanovna. Hermann sends love letters to Lizavyeta, and persuades her to let him into the house.

There Hermann accosts the countess, demanding the secret. She first tells him that story was a joke, but Hermann refuses to believe her.

He repeats his demands, but she does not speak. He draws a pistol and threatens her, and the old lady dies of fright.

Hermann then flees to the apartment of Lizavyeta in the same building. There he confesses to frightening the countess to death with his pistol.

He defends himself by saying that the pistol was not loaded. He escapes from the house with the aid of Lizavyeta, who is disgusted to learn that his professions of love were a mask for greed… Famous works of the author Alexander Pushkin: Eugene Onegin, The Captain\'s Daughter, Boris Godunov, Ruslan and Ludmila.

An atmospheric short story taken from the collection, BEYOND THE STARS, written and illustrated by two great Irish talents in children’s fiction todaySilla loves the winter with its snow and cold winds, but most of all, she loves the ice. So when the ice floes of her kingdom and the icicles at her Ice Palace start to melt, she doesn’t believe Zeffa, King of the Warm Winds, when he comes to her in friendship, begging for her help.

Instead, she declares war on him and assembles her battalion of penguins: the battle lines have been drawn. But sometimes people aren’t what they seem and loyalty is found in the most unexpected of places.

Will Silla and Zeffa be able to overcome their differences to fight global warming and save their kingdoms?A tale showing how by working together we can overcome the seemingly impossible, vividly depicted by evocative illustrations.Look out for the other eleven stories – also available as e-shorts!.

A tremendously vivid, page-turning and plausible novel that depicts the rise and fall of Anne Boleyn, the most spirited, independent and courageous of Henry’s queens, as viewed from both the bedrooms and the kitchens of the Tudor court.Everyone knows the story of Anne Boleyn.

Henry VIII divorced his longstanding, long-suffering, older, Spanish wife for a young, black-eyed English beauty, and, in doing so, severed England from Rome and indeed from the rest of the western world. Then, when Henry had what he wanted, he managed a mere three years of marriage before beheading his wife for alleged adultery with several men, among them his own best friend and her own brother.

This is the context for Suzannah Dunn\'s wonderful new novel, which is about – and told by – two women: Anne Boleyn, king\'s mistress and fated queen; and Lucy Cornwallis, the king\'s confectioner, an employee of the very highest status, who made the centrepiece of each of the feasts to mark the important occasions in Anne\'s ascent. There\'s another link between them, though: the lovely Mark Smeaton, wunderkind musician, the innocent on whom, ultimately, Anne\'s downfall hinged…Suzannah Dunn has all the equipment needed for literary-commercial success: wit, a mastery of dialogue, brilliant characterization, lack of pretence, and good humour.

The Queen of Subtleties adds to that mix a wonderfully balanced, strong story; Dunn has plumped for a fascinating retelling of one of the most often-told, most compelling stories of our islands\' history. In doing so, she\'s turning from contemporary stories to historical fiction.

The result is sensational.

A charming romantic comedy about a hard-up single mum inheriting a stately home – and a host of headaches. The perfect novel for curling up with during the long winter nights.

Sophy Winter is not your typical Lady of the Manor. When she unexpectedly inherits Winter\'s End – a crumbling mansion in the beautiful Lancashire countryside – it seems like all Sophy\'s prayers have been answered.

But the house is decrepit and its eccentric inhabitants are a nightmare. And once it is discovered that Winter\'s End played host to a young Shakespeare, the entire village of Sticklepond becomes curious about Sophy\'s plans, especially charming Jack Lewis.

But is he really smitten by Sophy…or her newly-acquired cash?Meanwhile, Sophy’s gorgeous head gardener Seth is the strong and silent type. But does his passion bloom for anything beyond the horticultural?A charming romantic comedy for fans of Katie Fforde and Jill Mansell – guaranteed to thaw the coldest of hearts!.

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and the creator of the Lost World literary genre. Queen of the Dawn is about the overthrow of the Hyksos and reinstatement of the rightful pharaonic line.

A thrilling account of treachery, loyalty and martyrdom in Elizabethan England from an exceptional new writer.As darkness fell on the evening of Friday, 28 October 1588, just weeks after the defeat of the Spanish Armada, two young Englishmen landed in secret on a Norfolk beach.

They were Jesuit priests. Their aim was to achieve by force of argument what the Armada had failed to do by force of arms: return England to the Catholic Church.

Eighteen years later their mission had been shattered by the actions of a small group of terrorists, the Gunpowder Plotters; they themselves had been accused of designing ‘that most horrid and hellish conspiracy’; and the future of every Catholic they had come to save depended on the silence of an Oxford joiner, builder of priest-holes, being tortured in the Tower of London.‘God’s Secret Agents’ tells the story of Elizabeth’s ‘other’ England, a country at war with an unseen enemy, a country peopled – according to popular pamphlets and Government proclamations – with potential traitors, fifth-columnists and assassins.

And it tells this story from the perspective of that unseen ‘enemy’, England’s Catholics, a beleaguered, alienated minority, struggling to uphold its faith.Ultimately, ‘God’s Secret Agents’ is the story of men who would die for their cause undone by men who would kill for it.

For fans of the ‘Windsors’ and ‘Now we are Sixty’: a beautifully illustrated collection of amusing and affectionate stories from inside the royal family.Arriving at the theatre, the Queen and the Queen Mother appeared to be having words.

‘Who do you think you are?’ demanded the Queen Mother. ‘The Queen, Mummy, the Queen.

’About twenty years ago the Guardian first published two camp anecdotes about the Queen Mother. Readers reeled to see stories actually printed in a national newspaper that until then had had only an underground existence in certain circles.

After that, tales about the royal family became respectable; they were also, quite rightly, believed. Taken as a whole they reflect the contradictory roles we like royalty to fulfil: unworldly and impossibly regal or engagingly domesticated and just like us, or camp, worldly and outrageous.

In this affectionate tribute Thomas Blaikie has gathered together a compendium of stories, many of them never published before, which provide access to a unique world. How exactly does a Queen react when she finds her footmen draped in her jewels? What does she do to amuse herself as she whiles away the hours sitting for her portrait? And how did the Duchess of Windsor and the Queen Mother really get on? This beautifully illustrated book answers these questions and poses many more in its celebration of the diverse personalities of the House of Windsor.

В предлагаемую вниманию читателей книгу пошли две знаменитые повести великого русского поэта и писателя А.С. Пушкина. Пиковая дама и Капитанская дочка с комментариями переводчика.

This collection of Pushkin’s stories begins with ‘The Queen of Spades’, perhaps the most celebrated short story in Russian literature. The young Hermann, while watching some friends gambling, hears a rumour of how an officer’s grandmother is always able to predict the three winning cards in a game.

He becomes obsessed with the woman and her seemingly mystical powers, and seeks to extract the secret from her at any cost. This volume, part of a new series of the complete works of Pushkin in English, also includes ‘Dubrovsky’, the story of a man’s desire to avenge himself after his land is unjustly taken from him by an aristocrat; ‘The Negro of Peter the Great’, a tale inspired by Pushkin’s maternal grandfather; and the unfinished story ‘Egyptian Nights’, a meditation on poetry and the poet.

Together, they represent some of the most striking and enduring pieces of Pushkin’s prose fiction.

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\'Everything a romantic novel should be – an absolute delight.’ – Veronica HenryMeet MollyNew York’s most famous agony aunt, she considers herself an expert at relationships…as long as they’re other people’s.

The only love of her life is her Dalmatian, Valentine.Meet DanielA cynical divorce lawyer, he’s hardwired to think relationships are a bad idea.

If you don’t get involved, no-one can get hurt. But then he finds himself borrowing a dog to meet the gorgeous woman he sees running in Central Park every morning…Molly and Daniel think they know everything there is to know about relationships…until they meet each other that is…\'Wonderfully romantic and sumptuously atmospheric.

For fans of Barbara Erskine and Kate Morton comes an unforgettable novel about three women and the power one lie can have over history.London, 1662:There was something the Winter Queen needed to tell him.

She fought for the strength to speak.‘The crystal mirror is a danger.

It must be destroyed – ‘He replied instantly. ‘It will’.

Ashdown, Oxfordshire, present day: Ben Ansell is researching his family tree when he disappears. As his sister Holly begins a desperate search, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to an ornate antique mirror and to the diary of Lavinia, a 19th century courtesan who was living at Ashdown House when it burned to the ground over 200 years ago.

Intrigued, and determined to find out more about the tragedy at Ashdown, Holly’s only hope is that uncovering the truth about the past will lead her to Ben.‘Fans of Kate Morton will enjoy this gripping tale.

Teaching Sunday school at her brother\'s church in the Bay area was supposed to help former champion athlete Esther «Essie» Walker understand boys–the better to raise her newborn son as a stellar example of manhood. Fat chance! Enter the eight-year-old male psyche: awful jokes, disrespectful behavior and general mayhem.

Essie, the queen of control, finds herself in a brand-new world of chaos.The pressure builds on all fronts–Sunday school class, husband\'s job, church pageant, aging parents, finances, friends secretly battling illnesses–until Queen Esther has one royal meltdown.

God, it seems, has makeover plans for Essie\'s competitive nature. Her characteristic control is in very short supply as she gains a better understanding of the nature of imperfection, the value of motherhood and the virtues of a messy but connected life.

They were there for different reasons: Vanya was hiding in the museum crowds to escape from fatigue and a sour mood, while Tasya had wandered away from her parents and gotten lost while collecting ideas for her album. The kids find that they have something in common: the ability to travel through time and space by gazing deeply and observantly into paintings. For them, the images become portals into a different reality, where they meet Rembrandt and his characters and also encounter the Queen of the Tulips.