The Gambler is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoyevskys own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book Dostoyevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts. The Gambler treated a subject Fyodor Dostoevsky himself was familiar withgambling. Fyodor Dostoevsky gambled for the first time at the gaming tables at Wiesbaden in 1863. From that time till 1871, when his passion for gambling subsided, he played at BadenBaden, Homburg, and SaxonlesBains frequently, often beginning by winning a small amount of money and losing far more in the end. He wrote to his brother Mikhail on 8 September "And I believed in my system ... within a quarter of an hour I won 600 francs. This whetted my appetite. Suddenly I started to lose, couldnt control myself and lost everything. After that I ... took my last money, and went to play ... I was carried away by this unusual good fortune and I risked all 35 napoleons and lost them all. I had 6 napoleons dor left to pay the landlady and for the journey. In Geneva I pawned my watch. " Fyodor Dostoevsky then agreed to a hazardous contract with F. T. Stellovsky that if he did not deliver a novel of 12 or more signatures by 1 November 1866, Stellovsky would acquire the right to publish Dostoevskys works for nine years without any compensation to the writer.

Binding: Paperback;192 pages; Publisher: Brian Westland; Classification: N/A; Weight: 385.8 g; Dimensions: N/A

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