The Gambler 1st Edition Author:Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Gambler is a stunning psychological portrait of a young man's exhilarating and destructive addiction to gambling, a compulsion that Dostoevsky-who once gambled away his young wife's wedding ring-knew intimately from his own experience. In chronicling the disastrous love affairs and gambling adventures of Alexei Ivanovich, Dostoevsky explores... more » the irresistible temptation to look into the abyss of ultimate risk that he believed was an essential part of the Russian national character.« less