The Necessary
in View of the Superfluous
​
Duets · A Series of Paired Readings

A Fortune Chased, a Fortune Found

​

One man has almost nothing and stakes it all to win a fortune. The other has all he needs, and a fortune finds him. Neither is ready for what it asks in return.

​

Alexander Pushkin's The Queen of Spades (1834) is cold, swift, and merciless: an officer stakes everything on a dead countess's secret for winning at cards.

​

Robert Louis Stevenson's The Treasure of Franchard (1883) is warm, wry, and forgiving: a contented country doctor unearths a hoard he was never meant to keep.

​

Is a fortune a man's undoing, or his deliverance?