Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Gambler (1866) follows Alexei Ivanovich, a young tutor entangled in the affairs of a debt-ridden Russian general's family at a German spa resort. Desperately in love with Polina, the general's proud stepdaughter, Alexei becomes consumed by the roulette wheel, convinced that fortune can win her love and elevate his lowly status. As the household eagerly awaits the inheritance of the ailing, wealthy Grandmother, she astonishingly arrives at the casino herself, succumbing to the same feverish addiction. A piercing study of obsession, greed, and self-destruction, the novella mirrors Dostoevsky's own gambling demons, famously dictated in just twenty-six days.
