The Invisible Mentor

Booked on Tuesdays: Review – The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

August 23rd, 2011 |

Cover of The Gambler

Born in Moscow in 1821, Fyodor Dostoyevsky has written a few timeless classics – Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, The Possessed and Poor Folk. It’s often been said that writers should write about what they know to bring realism and authenticity to their work. A gambling addict himself, Dostoyevsky wrote The Gambler under pressure from his publisher.

Reading The Gambler will evoke all kinds of emotional responses within you, and you’ll get drawn into the story whether or not you want to. The book takes you into the world of the roulette game, and you get to see gambling through the eyes of a gambler. Gambling is addictive, and you see the gambler wanting another “hit” because he thinks that the next time will be different, he will win the next round, he has to recover what he has just lost. You see the compulsive nature of the gambler.

The protagonist in The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is Alexei Ivanovich who is a tutor to a Russian family living in Germany. The family (the General, his two children Misha and Nadia, his step-daughter Polina Alexandrovna) is bankrupt and has been living in a hotel well above their means. The General and his family are waiting for the family matriarch, Grandmother, to die so that they can secure an inheritance to pay off their debts and put them once again in good financial standing. It’s actually quite morbid really because they frequently send telegrams to Russia enquiring if grandmother has died yet. They receive news from Russia telling them she will last only a few days.

There are two different kinds of gambling taking place in the story – the physical act of gambling and the metaphorical act of gambling. In The Gambler, you see Alexei Ivanovich playing roulette and you also see Grandmother gambling when she visits Germany. The General is engaged to Mademoiselle Blanche who will only marry him if he’s financially secure, so she too is waiting around for Grandmother to die. The General borrowed a substantial amount of money from Frenchman, Monsieur le Comte, so he too has an interest in Grandmother dying. They are gambling that Grandmother will die very soon.

Polina asks Alexei to gamble on her behalf because it is somewhat frowned upon for women to play in the casino. Alexei is in love with Polina but it’s an unhealthy love and he doesn’t even think that she feels the same about him. He tells her that he would do anything for her and she tests him and he complies, sometimes doing absurd things like insulting someone at her request. But Alexei resents playing the roulette on behalf of Polina because deep down he feels that he would win if he plays for himself.

Unexpectedly Grandmother appears in Germany, she has recovered from her near death experience and she sees how the family is living. Of course they are very shocked to see her and hopes are dampening, and they realize that their gamble on her quick death is not paying off. Grandmother insists that Alexei take her to the casino. She spends time observing and asking questions and then she starts betting. Initially, she wins a considerable amount of money, and she gives some to everyone except her family because she heard of their constant enquiries to find out if she was dead. Alexei begs Grandmother to stop playing but she is hooked, so he refuses to play on her behalf.

Grandmother keeps playing, she finds people to take over from Alexei. She plays until she loses all the money she took with her to Germany, which was a substantial amount, and she has to borrow money from Englishman, Mr Astley to pay her passage back to Russia.

While Grandmother is gambling, all concerned see the inheritance shrinking and there is mounting pressure on the General to get her to stop. The General loses his fiancé, and he loses everything because he used whatever assets he had as surety for the loan. Grandmother eventually dies but it’s several months later.

In the story you also see Alexei becoming addicted to gambling. It’s almost as if he is feverish, and something comes over him and he has to play roulette. Shortly after Grandmother returns to Russia Alexei wins a substantial amount of money, and wants to give some to Polina but she refuses to take it, and leaves. However, Mademoiselle Blanche encourages him to go France and spend the money, which he does, mostly on her. Easy comes, easy goes.

The Gambler is very well written but I found the story very unsettling, wasted lives and wasted opportunities. A big lesson is not to spend promised money, wait until you have the funds in your hand. It doesn’t matter how good you are at gambling, you cannot beat the system all the time because no one wins all the time. Even though I found The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky unsettling, I recommend it. It’s a realistic look into the world of gambling.

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