The Gambler – Fyodor Dostoevsky

"I have lost everything, but I have won myself back!"

Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor to a Russian general's family in a German spa town, falls into the grip of a compulsive gambling addiction. He is also tormented by his love for the General's stepdaughter, Polina. In the feverish atmosphere of the casino, fortunes are won and lost in seconds, mirroring the chaotic emotional lives of the characters.

Dostoevsky wrote this novella in under a month to pay off his own gambling debts. It is a brilliant, frantic psychological study of addiction and risk. It captures the dizzying highs and crushing lows of the gambler's soul.