Surrounded by spies, his writing personally censored by the Tsar, Pushkin (1799-1837) had every incentive both to write historical stories, such as The Captains Daughter and the uncompleted Negro of Peter the Great, and to criticize Russian society. This selection from his work also includes Dubrovsky, a Byronic tale of a dispossessed young officer, and The Queen of Spades. This famous story of the card tables, whose self-seeking hero Dostoyevsky called a colossal figure, was made into an opera by Tchaikovsky.