This volume contains new translations of four of Pushkin's works of fiction. In the Queen of Spades Pushkin explores the nature of obsession. The Tales of Belkin are parodies of sentimentalism, while Peter the Great's Blackamoor is an early experiment with recreating the past. The Captain's Daughter combines historical fiction in the manner of Sir Walter Scott with the devices of the Russian fairy-tale. The introduction provides close readings of the stories and places them in their European literary context. This should be of interest to undergraduate students of Russian literature, post-graduate students of comparative literature, courses on the history of the novel, the historical novel and the relation between literature and history, and general readers.