The Gambler
by Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821–1881
The book, and the century it came out of.
A tutor in the household of a bankrupt Russian general plays roulette at a German spa on behalf of people who despise him, and discovers that the wheel is the only honest thing in his life. Dostoevsky wrote it in twenty-six days to beat a contract that would have cost him the rights to everything he had written; he hired a young stenographer to do it, and married her. He was himself in ruinous debt to the tables. Illustrated with 58 full-page plates — paintings by von der Embde, Ouvrié and Brücke among them.
At length I returned from two weeks’ leave of absence to find that my patrons had arrived three days ago in Roulettenberg.
The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, complete and unabridged. Spelling and punctuation follow present-day American usage; the sentences, the paragraphs and the voice are the author’s, word for word.
It was written in another era and may carry attitudes a reader today will find dated. They are kept for the sake of the work and do not reflect the views of this house.
- Series
- Salon & Steppe
- Format
- Ebook
- Extent
- about 184 pages
- Reading time
- about 4 hours
- Illustrations
- Full-page plates, credited
- Text
- Complete, unabridged
- Language
- en
- This edition
- 2026
- ISBN
- 9785486509544
58 paintings are bound into this edition
Six of them are shown here, taken from the volume itself. Each is reproduced full page and named with its painter and year.
Written in twenty-six days, 1866
Dostoevsky had signed a contract that would have handed a publisher the rights to everything he wrote for nine years if he missed a deadline. He hired a stenographer, dictated this novel in under a month, delivered it in time, and married her within the year.
The setting is a German spa town of the kind Russians of means went to for the season, where the casino was the point and the waters were the excuse. He knew them: he had lost heavily at Wiesbaden and Baden-Baden, and would go on losing for another five years.
This book in culture: 6 versions
Most people meet a book like this one on a screen first. Here is what was made of it — and none of these is the book.
The whole afterlife of The Gambler — screen, stage and beyond →
- 1919 The Spinning Ball Rudolf Biebrach
- 1968 The Gambler miniseries
- 1977 The Gambler Karel Reisz
- 2007 The Gamblers Sebastian Bieniek
- 2016 El jugador Dan Gueller
- 2000 The Gambler Sergei Prokofiev dramatico-musical work
A page from this edition
Not a mock-up: this page is taken from the finished volume. The ornament above the chapter belongs to its shelf and to no other, the opening letter is set as a drop capital, and the plate below carries the name of the painter and the year.
Both photographed from the finished volume.
The Gambler, first published 1867, issued in this edition by Aeneas Press in 2026 on the Salon & Steppe shelf. Newly set, with the ornament of its series above each chapter and a drop capital on the opening page. Illustrated with full-page plates, each named with its painter.
Published as an ebook and not issued in print by this house; it carries one ISBN, 9785486509544, and is supplied worldwide. This edition — its setting, its ornament, its cover art, and the selection and attribution of its plates — © 2026 Aeneas Press.
Questions readers ask
- Is this the whole of The Gambler?
- Yes — complete and unabridged. Nothing is cut, condensed or paraphrased. This is the book, not a summary of it.
- What exactly did you change?
- The spelling and the punctuation follow present-day American usage. Fyodor Dostoevsky's sentences are untouched — same words, same order, same rhythm.
- Are the pictures really in the book?
- Yes. The edition carries full-page plates bound into the text, each one named with its painter and the year it was made. Six of them are shown on this page.
- How long is it?
- About 184 pages, which is roughly about 4 hours of reading.
- What do I actually get?
- An illustrated ebook with its own ISBN, sold worldwide. One file, yours to keep, readable on any device.
