Пиковая дама
By Александр Сергеевич Пушкин
Cover: Military Parade of Emperor Paul in front of Mikhailovsky Castle by Alexandre Benois (1870-1960) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
Hermann, an engineer who never gambles, hears that an old countess knows the secret of three winning cards and sets out to wrest it from her. Pushkin's tale of obsession and a ghost at the card table is one of the finest short stories in the language. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.