Pressed by his creditors and by the publisher Stelovski, Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler in just a few weeks, in October 1866. This novel was the reason for Dostoevsky's acquaintance with his second wife, Anna Grigorievna Snitkina, who stood by him as a guardian angel until the end of his life.
The Gambler has an autobiographical basis and includes the author's experiences from his second trip abroad in 1863, to the German spa towns of Wiesbaden and Homburg, where Dostoevsky was introduced to the world of roulette and gambling, and was fascinated by it for a time.
In the character of the main hero, Alexei Ivanovich, many of the psychological trials that Dostoevsky faced at that time are reflected, while in the character of Polina, the emotional world of Polina Suslova, his girlfriend at the time, is mirrored.
At the same time, through the personalities of his other characters, Dostoevsky satirizes in a particularly intense way the morals of Western Europeans, especially the French, and the moral decay of France during the period of the Second Empire, while emphasizing the moral superiority of his, although fallen, Russian heroes over them.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
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