Gambling in the works of Russian classics
Gambling, on the one hand, was condemned by the clergy, on the other - was popular among both ordinary people and the nobility. In the XIX century at the card tables could meet almost all the elite https://australiacasinoonline.com/best-payout-online-casinos/ writers of the time: Pushkin, Leo Tolstoy, Mikhail Lermontov. They played stouffe, bank, or whist. Sometimes in one evening they left huge sums at the tables.
"The Queen of Spades" by Alexander Pushkin.
The Works of N. V. Gogol.
"War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
"The Gambler" by F. M. Dostoevsky
How much did the characters in the cult novels lose and win?
Not surprisingly, iconic Russian works are replete with card jargon, and almost always the characters sooner or later find themselves drawn into the game of chance.
"Alexander Pushkin's The Queen of Spades
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin, according to his contemporaries, was an inveterate gambler. True, not the most successful, so that even after his death he left huge debts - about 120,000 rubles. This is an astronomical sum for that time. At that time for 100,000 rubles could buy an estate with 80 hectares of land and 250 serfs.
It is the maps the great classicist called his only passion. No wonder that from under his pen came out a mystical story "The Queen of Spades", the plot revolves around a gambling game of Stoss.
"The Queen of Spades" - what is the story about? No spoilers.
The writer introduces readers to such colorful characters as Hermann, the old countess and the poor, naive pupil Lizaveta Ivanovna.
The main character is a young engineer, the poor son of a russified German. Although ambitious, secretive and, at heart, greedy as well, he liked to watch others play, he never took up cards himself. It was because he was frugal and did not want to rely on luck, risking his already small fortune. But all that changed when Hermann heard about the old Countess' secret. Allegedly she knew which three cards to bet and always win.
"The Queen of Spades."
The Tale of the Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin
Mysticism and realism are intertwined in the work. And the abundance of nineteenth-century card-carrying slang words immerses readers in the everyday lives and merry evenings of young Russian nobles.
The story is full of symbolism and even has a certain overtone of fatalism. In fact, literally every movement of the characters (whether they turned right or left) corresponds to the rules of the game of Stoss. So you can predict Hermann's fate long before he picks up a deck of cards.
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Card jargon from The Queen of Spades
"The Queen of Spades" is a real treasure trove of information for those interested in the history and jargon of gambling. Already at the beginning of the story there are phrases and slang, typical for the XIX century, but out of use in the XXI.
For example, a certain Surin, after playing cards at night, says:
"...I play Mirandole, I never get hot, I can't be led astray by anything, but I still lose!".
Mirandole is a card trick where the player does not increase his initial bet. So Surin's style could be characterized as calm, not gambling, and cautious.
The slang expression "Bend the Mirandole/Mirandole" was also common https://newzealandcasinosonline.co.nz/online-casinos-nz-dollars/ at the time. It meant the same thing - to gamble without raising the stakes. Such a phrase can be found in S. P. Zhikharev's "Notes of a Contemporary. Diary of a civil servant" and M. I. Pyleev in "Old life".
The Cartwrights.
"The Cartwrights" by David Teniers
Another interesting quote from the beginning of the story:
"...and never once bet on the rut? Thy hardness is amazing to me."
This is the opposite of mirandole.
A rute (the word is not declined) is a lucky card a player thinks he bets over and over again to one day get a large sum of money. It doesn't matter that it doesn't bring victory. The gambler would persevere until he won the jackpot and thereby recouped all his losses.
A rute was also called a really lucky card that brought victory several times in a row. There is a famous quote by Krylov. He did not in vain called Rute the mother of wealth.
Rute card
Lucky Card
Further in the novel, the card players complain about the never played the main character Hermann, they say:
"...has never bent a single paroli..."
Paroli (emphasis on the last syllable) is a doubling of the bet. The word comes from the French paroli. Bend because players folded a corner of the card, indicating that they wanted to double what they staked.
Playing cards
Card game
Another expression that occurs in the story is:
"...how my grandmother does not pontificate!"
Pontate (from the German pontiren) means to play against the banker. The word was originally used in a card game popular among the Russian nobility. It refers to a banquet. Other names and varieties: bank-table, stoss, pharaoh. В