Gambler

'The Gambler' is a psychologically probing novel concerning the gambling episodes, tangled love affairs, and complicated lives of Alexis Ivanovitch, a young gambling addict; Polina Alexandrovna, the woman he loves; a pair of French adventurers; and other characters. Narrated by Alexis, this short novel is based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's own experiences as a compulsive gambler. Like so many characters in Dostoevsky's novels, Alexis is trying to break through the wall of the established order and the human condition itself, but instead, he is drawn into the vortex of the roulette wheel. Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 1881) was a prominent Russian novelist and writer and is widely considered one of the most outstanding and influential writers of modern literature.