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Product Reviews
The Gambler brilliantly captures the strangely powerful compulsion to bet that Dostoevsky, himself a compulsive gambler, knew so well. The hero rides an emotional roller coaster between exhilaration and despair. Secondary characters such as the Grandmother, who throws much of her fortune away at the gaming tables, are unforgettable. Under the pressure of a deadline from an unscrupulous publisher, and with rights to his entire works at stake, Dostoevsky dictated the book in less than a month to the star pupil of Russia's first shorthand school. Then he married her. First published in 1866, this oddly sympathetic tale is about a man named Alexei with a passion for and addiction to roulette. 214 pgs, paperback, 1866, reprinted 2004
