The Gambler

Rating:
Summary: Misfit
Review: Dostoyevsky felt the gambling rooms were as hellish as the penal settlements he portrayed in THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD. He dictated the story to the woman who was to become his second wife. Five years after completing THE GAMBLER Dostoyevsky was able to stop gambling. Alexei, the General and Paulina are three of the main characters. Alexei is a tutor, an unimportant person. Paulina is the stepdaughter of the General. The General is waiting for his relative, a character known as the Grandmother to die.

Alexei goes to play roulette for Paulina. He loses everything quickly. The General is infatuated with Mlle. Blanche, a much younger woman. Alexei claims Russians are incapable of accumulating capital. Roulette is made for them. Alexei learns from Paulina that the General has mortgaged everything. Paulina dares Alexei to insult another guest at the establishment, a baroness. There are times when Russians abroad become excessively nervous. The General calls Alexei to account for his actions.

The Grandmother surprises everyone by arriving in town. She says she knows about the telegrams being sent asking if she is dead yet and clearly she is alive at present. The Grandmother has a wheel chair and the manager of the hotel gives her a good hotel room. Grandmother wants to go to the roulette table with Alexei who has been discharged by the General and Martha, her servant. The family hesitates to accompany her because she is eccentric. She wins by putting her money on zero. Paulina wants Alexei to deliver a letter for her to an Englishman. The General wants Alexei to stop acting as the Grandmother's guide, and to save them. The old woman, sleepless, plays again and loses. She wants to have her chair wheeled to the money changers to cash in some of her Russian bonds.

Alexei goes to Paris with Mlle. Blanche. After a week the General arrives. Later Blanche and the General marry. Alexei gambles, wins, loses, and moves to Germany, guarding his small stake. Humiliation is the mainstay of friendship Alexei concludes when the Englishman visits. This skeletal rendition of some of the points of the plot fails to portray adequately the wonderful and colorful writing Dostoyevsky employs to present his all too-human actors.

Rating:
Summary: Beauty Amid Ashes.
Review: I loved this book. I'm not sure that any book entitled "Gambling Psychology" would include a better profile of the psychopathology that is gambling addiction. The main character's massochism is also a wonderful case study of how such personalities operate and function. The plot is excellent and "granny" is so perfectly described that it's as if the author included a photograph of her. Much of the Russian psyche is on display and the reader will get a glimpse into people and lifestyles that are quite in keeping with what one might find today in our own Roulettenberg, Las Vegas. This was a concise but pleasant ride through human nature.

Rating:
Summary: Addiction
Review: The Gambler is one of Dostoevsky's small masterpieces. I can think of no story, current or historical, that addresses the subject of gambling and addiction in such a convincing manner. The interactions between masters and servants, lovers, and nationalities are so well illustrated that it makes you catch your breath. I myself have no interest in gambling. Still, I have probably read this novella ten times over the years. If Dostoevsky's larger works are a little intimidating, start here and work your way up. All of it is worth the time and effort.