The use of numbers in the Queen of SpadesThe use of numbers, particularly three and to a lesser extent seven, is of great importance in The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin Spades. The use of three permeates the text in different ways, being major, minor and in reference to time. According to Alexander Slonimsky in an essay written in 1922, "The idea of ​​the grouping of three is dominant..." (429). In the main details of the story we find "three fantastic moments" (Slonimsky 429), three cards, three major catastrophes, three main characters and the use of six chapters, six being a multiple of three. The three fantastic moments are: "Tomsky's story (chapter 1), Hermann's vision (chapter 5), and the miraculous victory (chapter 6)" (429). These three moments form the backbone of the story. In Tomsky's story, the three cards that guarantee a winner in the lighthouse game are read for the first time. What makes this incident great in relation to the story is the importance of the story to the events that follow as opposed to the cavalier attitude attributed to those present. The second fantastic episode is that of the apparition of the dead countess to Hermann. This incident is fantastic in that the three cards named by the Countess are actually the trump cards, meaning that the Countess is an apparition and not simply a dream. The last fantastic incident occurs when Hermann miraculously wins for the first time at the Faro table. The reader now knows, without a shadow of a doubt, that the three are magic cards. “The particular meaning of the three cards is shown in the rhythmic quality of Hermann's thoughts” (Slonimsky 429). Looking at the original text the rhythmic quality is much more evident......medium of paper......the greatest of the classical literary tradition and is also considered one of the triumvirates of great Russian literature. Regarding The Queen of Spades, DS Mirsky has to say: "The Queen of Spades is undoubtedly Pushkin's prose masterpiece" (436). Works Cited Mirsky, DS Title unknown. 1926. Criticism of Nineteenth-Century Literature, Volume 3. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. Pushkin, Alexander. The Queen of Spades. 1834. Trans. Ivy and Tatiana Litvinov. Literature of the Western World, third edition, volume two. Ed. Brian Wilkie and James Hurt. New York: Macmillin, 1992. 870-890. Slonimsky, Alexander. Title unknown. 1922. Criticism of Nineteenth-Century Literature, Volume Three. Ed. Laurie Lanzen Harris. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983.