Portal:Literature/Selected article archive/August 2007

The Gambler The Gambler is a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky about a young tutor in the employment of a formerly wealthy Russian General. The novella reflects Dostoevsky's own addiction to roulette, which was in more ways than one the inspiration for the book: Dostoevsky completed the novella under a strict deadline so he could pay off gambling debts.

The book was the basis of an opera by Sergei Prokofiev, also called The Gambler, as well as Hungarian director Károly Makk's film The Gambler (1997), which is about Dostoevsky writing the novella.