Tsehhov daam koeraga Chekov Lady and the Lapdog
Tomsky, another member of the
company, remarks that his octogenarian grandmother, the Countess Anna Fedotovna, also does not "punt"
despite the circumstances of an anecdote, which (summarised as follows) he then proceeds to narrate:
Sixty years before (i.e. about 1770) the Countess was the rage of Paris, known there as la Vénus
moscovite. Having lost a considerable sum at cards (at the game of faro) to the Duke of Orleans,
Literary Encyclopedia: Pikovaia dama 10/20/2007 07:09 PM
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moscovite. Having lost a considerable sum at cards (at the game of faro) to the Duke of Orleans,
which her husband refused to cover, she faced financial and social ruin. In desperation, she turned to
the Count Saint-Germain, an occultist of dubious repute [on the subject of whom, thanks in part to
Pushkin, a considerable literature biographical, mystical and fictional has now accumulated].
annaabi.ee 
