The Gambler / Bobok, a Nasty Story by Dostoyevsky (Penguin Classics)

Penguin Classics, 1972, softcover, 236 pages, condition: very good.

Presents the stories such as The Gambler, a portrayal of an intense and futile obsession; Bobok, a blackly comic satire in which a desolate writer becomes drawn into the conversations of the dead; and, A Nasty Story, a humorous look at the disparity between a man's exaggerated ideal of himself and the sad reality.

The argument of "The Gambler" is that one's destiny is beyond the reach of winning or losing. Destiny can be best realized by not imposing a morality on success or failure: by acting dispassionately from a perspective beyond consequences. This is not, however, a conclusion that Dostoyevsky champions. He satirizes the nature of a compulsive gambler to show the true cost of such a material and ultimately valueless existence. Alexis traps himself in this questionable premise.

At one point the narrator, Alexis Ivanovich, has everything he wants in hand: considerable winnings. Polina, Alexis' elusive, enigmatic love interest, has finally admitted her love for him. Rather than banking his winnings and standing by Polina he throws it all away on a trip to Paris with a concubine. Even when confronted with the decision to live a meaningful life, Alexis finds himself a zero: a paradox both valueless, and an origin of potential.