The Gambler (novel)

The Gambler

Everyman Library edition of The Gambler
Author Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Original title Igrok (Игрок)
Country Russia
Language Russian
Genre Novel
Publication date
 1867
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)

The Gambler (Russian: Игрок, Igrok) is a short novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian general. The novella reflects Dostoyevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoyevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline to pay off gambling debts.[1]

Inspiration

The Gambler treated a subject Fyodor Dostoyevsky himself was familiar with—gambling. Fyodor Dostoyevsky gambled for the first time at the gaming tables at Wiesbaden in 1863.[2] From that time till 1871, when his passion for gambling subsided, he played at Baden-Baden, Homburg, and Saxon-les-Bains frequently, often beginning by winning a small amount of money and losing far more in the end.[2] He wrote to his brother Mikhail on 8 September:[2]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky then agreed to a hazardous contract with F. T. Stellovsky that if he did not deliver a novel of 12 or more signatures by 1 November 1866, Stellovsky would acquire the right to publish Dostoyevsky's works for nine years without any compensation to the writer.[2][3] He noted down parts of his story, then dictated them to one of the first stenographers in Russia and his wife-to-be, young Anna Grigorevna, who transcribed them and copied it neatly out for him.[1][3] With her help, he was able to finish the book in time.[1]

Plot summary

The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman de Criet and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, "Grandmother", he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise. His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges's hand in marriage.

Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General's stepdaughter, and swears an oath of servitude to her. He told her while on a walk on the Schlangenberg (a mountain in the German town) that all she had to do was give the word and he would gladly walk off the edge and plummet to his death. This leads to her asking him to go to the town's casino and place a bet for her. He refuses at first but, when goaded and reminded of his oath of undying love and servility, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table. He returns to her the winnings but she will not tell him the reason she needs money. She only laughs in his face (as she does when he professes his love) and treats him with cold indifference, if not downright malice. He only learns the details of the General's and Polina's financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley. Astley is a shy Englishman who seems to share Alexei's fondness of Polina. He comes from English nobility and has a good deal of money.

One day while Polina and Alexei are on a walk they see Baron and Baroness Wurmerhelm. Polina dares him to insult the aristocratic couple and he does so with little hesitation. This sets off a chain of events that details Mademoiselle Blanche's interest in the General and gets Alexei fired as tutor of the General's children. Shortly after this, Grandmother shows up and surprises the whole party of debtors and indebted. She tells them all that she knows all about the General's debt and why the Frenchman and woman are waiting around the suite day after day. She leaves the party of death-profiteers by saying that none of them are getting any of her money. She then asks Alexei to be her guide around the town famous for its healing waters and infamous for its casino where the tables are stacked with piles of gold; she wants to gamble.

After being ushered to the roulette table, she plays and wins 13,000 Friedrich's d'ors (7000-8000 roubles), a significant amount of money. After a short return to the hotel, she comes back to roulette tables and she starts to get the bug; before she leaves the town, she's lost over a hundred thousand roubles in three days.

When Alexei gets back to his room after sending Grandmother off at the railway station, he's greeted by Polina. She shows him a letter where de Criet says he has started legal proceedings to sell Generals' properties mortgaged to him, but he is returning properties worth fifty thousand roubles to General for Polina's benefit. de Criet says he feels he had fulfilled all his obligations that way. Polina tells Alexei she is de Criet's mistress and she wishes she had fifty thousand to fling at de Criet's face. Upon hearing this, Alexei runs out of the room and to the casino where he in a feverish rush of excitement wins in few hours two hundred thousand florins (100 000 francs) and becomes a rich man. When he gets back to his room and the waiting Polina, he empties his pockets full of gold (Alexei estimates the weight to some 4 kilos) and bank notes onto the bed. At first she accuses him of trying to buy her like de Criet, but then she embraces him. They fall asleep on the couch. Next day, she asks for fifty thousand roubles (25 000 francs) and when he gives it to her, she flings that money at Alexei's face and runs off to Mr. Astley (they had been secretly meeting and exchanging notes and she was supposed to meet him night before but has come by mistake to Alexei's room). He doesn't see her again.

After learning that the General wouldn't be getting his inheritance and that Prince Nilski is penniless, Mademoiselle Blanche leaves the hotel with her mother/chaperone for Paris and seduces Alexei to follow her. Alexei goes with them, and they stay together for almost a month, he allowing Mlle Blanche to spend his entire fortune on Mlle Blanche's personal expenses, carriages and horses, dinner dances and a wedding-party. After getting herself financially secured, in order to get an accepted status in the societies, Mlle Blanche unexpectedly marries the General, who has followed her to Paris.

Alexei starts to gamble to survive. One day he passes Mr. Astley on a park bench in Bad Homburg and has a talk with him. He finds out from Astley that Polina is in Switzerland and actually does love him. Astley tells that Grandmother has died and left Polina and the children financially secured. The General has died in Paris. Astley gives him some money but shows little hope that he will not use it for gambling. Alexei goes home dreaming of going to Switzerland the next day and recollects what made him win at the roulette tables in the past.

Characters

Adaptations

The novel was the basis of an opera by Sergei Prokofiev, also called The Gambler.

Several films have been inspired by the book. The Great Sinner, a loose adaptation, starred Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner under the direction of Robert Siodmak in 1949. 1972 co-production of the USSR and Czechoslovakia by Lenfilm studio and Barrandov Studios, directed by Alexei Batalov which follows the book closely. Some see The Gambler (1974) written by James Toback, directed by Karel Reisz and starring James Caan, Paul Sorvino, and Lauren Hutton as a loose adaptation of the story in a twentieth-century American setting. The Gamblers, a German film released in 2007, was directed by Sebastian Bieniek. There are also two movies based on Dostoyevsky's life during the time when he was writing the novella. 1981 Soviet movie, Twenty Six Days from the Life of Dostoyevsky is the most notable one. Hungarian director Károly Makk's film The Gambler was released in 1997, and the romantic comedy Alex & Emma (freely adapted and with a modern setting) was released in 2003. An adaptation of the novella, The Gamblers, is among the early unpublished plays of Tom Stoppard.

The excellent Turkish television series Ezel, a production of Ay Yapim, references The Gambler throughout the episodes.

The Gambler (2014) is an American crime drama film directed by Rupert Wyatt from a screenplay by William Monahan, based on the original screenplay by James Toback. It is a remake of the 1974 film.

A TV mini-series was broadcast on BBC in 1969, and rebroadcast by Masterpiece Theatre in the US.[4]

A radio play version was aired by BBC Radio 4 in December 2010, written by Glyn Maxwell and directed by Guy Retallack.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Search, Read, Study, Discuss.". online-literature.com. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Jones, Malcolm (1991). Introduction to Notes from the Underground and The Gambler. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-953638-2.
  3. 1 2 Mills, William (2004). Introduction to The Idiot. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-044792-7.
  4. ↑ The Gambler on IMDb.
  5. ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wcsb2
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