The Gambler (1866) stands among the more significant shorter works of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881). In addition to its literary merits, this short novel boasts several important connections to its author's life and career: it was written quickly during the composition of Crime and Punishment, one of the greatest novels of all time; its writing was hastened by the hiring of a young stenographer, Anna Snitkina, who was to become Dostoyevsky's second wife; and it discusses with great insight the psychology of desperate gambling, a compulsion which brought its author to the brink of ruin.

For interested readers, Dostoyevsky's earlier Notes from the Under ground (1864) is also available in the Dover Thrift Editions series.

A compulsive gambler himself at a certain period of his life,Dostoyevsky wrote this novel with real authority. Set in the appropriately named Roulettenburg, a German spa with a casino and an international clientele, it concerns the gambling episodes,tangled love affairs and complicated lives of Alexey Ivanovitch,a young gambler; Polina Alexandrovna, the woman he loves; a pair of French adventurers and other characters.

Although not as dark as some of Dostoyevsky's other works, The Gambler nevertheless offers a grim and psychologically probing picture of the fatal attractions of gambling. Among its strengths are its well-drawn characters--Aunt Antonida, although lightly sketched in, is especially delightful--and its faithful depiction of life among the gambling set in fashionable German watering holes. This edition reprints Constance Garnett's authoritative translation.