“"The bread of the stranger is bitter," says Dante, "and his staircase hard to climb." But who can know what the bitterness of dependence is so well as the poor companion of an old lady of quality?”

— Aleksandr Pushkin, book The Queen of Spades

II.
The Queen of Spades (1833)

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Aleksandr Pushkin33

Russian poet 1799–1837

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“"The bread of the stranger is bitter," says Dante, "and his staircase hard to climb." But who can know what the bitterness of dependence is so well as the poor companion of an old lady of quality?”

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Aleksandr Pushkin33

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