SOURCE: "Preface to 'The Queen of Spades,'" in Reflections on Literature and Morality, Meridian Books, 1959, pp. 275-77.

In the following essay, Gide notes that the "clarity, balance, [and harmony" of Pushkin's prose works set them apart from other Russian fiction of the same period.]

French connoisseurs already know Pushkin's The Queen of Spades in Mérimée's translation. It might appear impertinent to offer now a new version, and I do not doubt that the earlier one will appear more elegant than this one, which has no merit other than its scrupulous exactness. That is its justification. A preoccupation with explaining and rounding off induced Mérimée to blunt somewhat the crystalline peaks of the tale. We have resisted adding anything to Pushkin's clean and spare style, with its slender grace, which hums like a taut string. When Pushkin writes: "Herman quivered like a tiger," M...