The Gambler

Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "The Gambler" is about a young teacher working for a once-rich Russian general.The novella, which was in many respects inspired by Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, illustrates this behavior: Dostoevsky finished the book in 1866 under pressure to finish it before he had to pay off gambling debts.The Gambler dealt with gambling, a topic that Fyodor Dostoevsky was familiar with.In 1863, Fyodor Dostoevsky played a hand of cards at a Wiesbaden casino.He played frequently at Baden-Baden, Homburg, and Saxon-Les-Bains from that point on until 1871, when his fervor for gambling petered out.Frequently, he would start out winning a modest sum of money and end up losing much more.Fyodor Dostoevsky and F. T. Stellovsky then entered into a risky contract whereby Stellovsky would acquire the right to publish Dostoevsky's works for nine years, until 1 November 1875, without paying the author any money.This clause would apply if Dostoevsky failed to deliver a nove