Why won’t Tomsky’s 80-year-old grandmother share her incredible secret for gambling? Alexander Pushkin, today on The Classic Tales Podcast. Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening. Thank you to all of our financial supporters. We couldn’t do this without you. We really try make your support worth your while. For a five-dollar monthly donation, you get a monthly code for $8 off any audiobook download. Give more, and you get more! It really helps us out, and gives us a revenue stream we can count on in this crazy time. And you help to keep the podcast going strong, so that more folks like you can discover the classics in a curated and easily accessible format. Go to classictalesaudiobooks.com today, and become a financial supporter. Thank you so much. App users can hear the poem “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud”, by William Wordsworth in the special features for today’s episode. Today we return to Russia, and Alexander Pushkin. He was born to a noble family, but by the time he came along, most of the money was gone. He is one of the great Russian luminaries, and today’s story of self-destructive greed is largely reprinted and anthologized. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made it into an opera which premiered in St. Petersburg in 1890. Faro, spelled in the story as f-a-r-o, is a gambling card game in which players bet on the order in which the cards will appear. Pharoah, like the Egyptian Pharoah, is said to have been the name of the king of hearts. And now, The Queen of Spades, by Alexander Pushkin. Tap here to go to www.classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a financial supporter!   Tap here to go to our merchandise store!