SOURCE: Davydov, Sergei. “The Ace in ‘The Queen of Spades.’” Slavic Review 58, no. 2 (summer 1999): 309-28.

In the following essay, Davydov traces various critical perspectives on Pushkin's novella, focusing on rational and supernatural explanations for the protagonist's obsession with the three, seven, and ace cards.

I pоstipinnо v usyplinsi I cuvstv i sum vpadait оn, а pirid nim vооbrazinsi Svоj pistryj micit фaraоn. 

—A. S. Pushkin, Evgenii Onegin, 8:37

(And slowly, as his mind and feeling / descend into a languid dream, / Imagination takes up dealing / her motley Faro game to him.)

At a card table at the beginning of Pikovaia dama (The Queen of Spades), Tomskii recounts a tale about his flamboyant grandmother, an avid Faro player. In her youth the Countess once lost a large sum to the Duke of Orleans au jeu de la Reine at Versailles. When her husband refused to pay off her...