Did you call the Queen of Spades as a child? Did you come or did you run out of the room before closing your eyes? In my childhood, drawing a ladder on the mirror with lipstick to show this mystical person was a very fun activity, and the process itself served as a good way to identify panties. Those who were not ready to meet her fled from the bathroom, while for those who knew, summoning the Queen of Spades was fun and interesting. But where did she come from to us? Does everyone know where she lives?
House of Princess Golitsina
The readers of this note, who are familiar with the work of the great classic exclusively from Lukomorye and the walking cat on chains, hardly recognize these lines:
“The street was crowded with carriages, carriages one after another rolled to the illuminated entrance. From the carriages, the slender leg of a young beauty, the rattling over-the-knee boots, then the striped stocking and the diplomatic shoe were constantly stretched out. Fur coats and cloaks flashed past the stately doorman. Hermann stopped.
- Whose is this house? - he asked the corner alarm.
- Countess ***, - answered the guard.
Hermann trembled."
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Some of my readers will want to doubt the correctness of the chosen address, whether the house of the famous princess Golitsina is exactly described in this great work? Why did the classic house his Queen of Spades here? I’ll answer you simply, it’s not for nothing that Pushkin left a note in his diary: "At court they found a resemblance between the old countess and Princess Natalya Petrovna and, it seems, they are not angry." This mark means that the reference conceived by the genius has turned out, the trick has succeeded, and we cannot have doubts about the correctness of the chosen house.
Today you can easily touch the elements of this house, notice the similarities that Pushkin described in his lines, and look furtively at the spacious lobby. It will be a little more difficult for you to appreciate the luxury of the grand marble staircase leading to the fireplace on the site, well, only a select few like Neo will be able to see the spiral staircase along which Herman left the house of the Queen of Spades after his date with Lisa.
Three, seven, ace
The story of the creation of the story will add mystics and mysteries to my story. Before writing it, the author lived very close to this house and was friends with the princess's nephew. It was he who told Pushkin the magic legend, how, after one of his losses, an old woman we know told him about the secret of three cards, and that, in turn, this story was told by a magician and sorcerer known throughout Petersburg - Count Saint Germain.
Alexander Sergeevich was so impressed by this fable that he decided to write it down for posterity. Due to the complete absence in those years of tools suitable for us in the form of LiveJournal and other platforms for bloggers, he did it in the only convenient way, grabbed his pen and wrote a story, which later went to the top and scattered around the world.
The magic of number three
The princess was very superstitious in life, and her image perfectly fit into the concept of the great work, and was so remembered by her contemporaries that her death also brought a share of mystery to this world. Rumor has it that the ghost of a black officer appeared to her and took her body to the grave after him, leaving only a restless soul in the house.
Her serene spirit did not go unnoticed by another great creator - Tchaikovsky, because it was he who composed his opera to the tune of the aforementioned work. Many will want to argue that Pyotr Ilyich began to write it in Florence, yes, but remember that dying of cholera, he spent the last days of his life in a house whose windows looked directly onto this mysterious mansion, in the apartment of his brother Modest.
Is this a coincidence? Is there any arcane magic in this number "three"? I cannot answer these questions, and here it is up to you to decide, but you should know that the geniuses mentioned in my story died exactly three years after the publication of such a mystical Queen of Spades. Pushkin in 1837, while the story was out of print in 1834, and Tchaikovsky in 1893, whose opera was first staged in 1890 …
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