Perhaps better than any other work of fiction, Dostoevsky’s novel The Gambler captures and analyzes gaming’s fatal attraction. We follow Aleksey Ivanovich’s ups and downs in the make-believe German city of Roulettenburg, where nationalities mix in a frenzied competition for money and status. Written in twenty-six days to beat an unscrupulous publisher’s deadline, The Gambler is based on the author’s own struggles with gambling addiction. It will leave readers amused and baffled at Aleksey’s contradictory and self-destructive energy.