Pelaaja

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

"Pelaaja" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is a short novel completed in 1866. Set in a German casino town, it follows Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor to a debt-ridden Russian family desperately awaiting a wealthy aunt's inheritance. Alexei becomes entangled in their schemes while hopelessly devoted to Polina, the General's stepdaughter who treats him with cruel indifference. When the aunt arrives and succumbs to gambling fever herself, the fragile hopes of everyone unravel. The novel reflects Dostoyevsky's own addiction to roulette and the destructive power of obsession.