conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a description for a book titled The Queen of Spades about Michael with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Contemporary
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: G. Michael the author is the author of two novels, ten plays that attempt to extend the boundaries of theater, four original works in philosophy that seek to integrate mind and body, and an original work in psychology that challenges the assumptions underlying current psycho-therapeutic theory and practice.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: a plot for a book titled The Queen of Spades
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: The Queen of Spades (story): Hermann, an ethnic German, is an officer of the engineers in the Imperial Russian Army.\nHe constantly watches the other officers gamble, but never plays himself.\nOne night, Tomsky tells a story about his grandmother, an elderly countess.\nMany years ago, in France, she lost a fortune at cards, and then won it back with the secret of the three winning cards, which she learned from the notorious Count of st Germain.\nHermann becomes obsessed with obtaining the secret.\nThe countess (who is now 87 years old) has a young ward, Lizavyeta Ivanovna.\nHermann sends love letters to Lizavyeta, and persuades her to let him into the house.\nThere Hermann accosts the countess, demanding the secret.\nShe first tells him that story was a joke, but Hermann refuses to believe her.\nHe repeats his demands, but she does not speak.\nHe draws a pistol and threatens her, and the old lady dies of fright.\nHermann then flees to the apartment of Lizavyeta in the same building.\nThere he confesses to have killed the countess by fright with his pistol.\nHe defends himself by saying that the pistol was not loaded.\nHe escapes from the house with the aid of Lizavyeta, who is disgusted to learn that his professions of love were a mask for greed.\nHermann attends the funeral of the countess, and is terrified to see the countess open her eyes in the coffin and look at him.\nLater that night, the ghost of the countess appears.\nThe ghost names the secret three cards (three, seven, ace), tells him he must play just once each night and then orders him to marry Lizavyeta.\nHermann takes his entire savings to Chekalinsky\'s salon, where wealthy men gamble for high stakes.\nOn the first night, he bets it all on the three and wins.\nOn the second night, he wins on the seven.\nOn the third night, he bets on the ace — but when cards are shown, he finds he has bet on the Queen of Spades, rather than the ace, and loses everything.\nWhen the Queen appears to wink at him, he is astonished by her remarkable resemblance to the old countess, and flees in terror.\nIn a short conclusion, Pushkin writes that Lizavyeta marries the son of the Countess\' former steward, a state official who makes a good salary.\nHermann, however, goes mad and is committed to an asylum.\nHe is installed in Room 17 at the Obukhov hospital; he answers no questions, but merely mutters with unusual rapidity: "Three, seven, ace.\nThree, seven, queen.\n".