The Gambler (Dostoevsky)/Chapter 1

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Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Gambler. Chapter 1

Polina Entrusts Her Fortune to the Roulette Table

1866

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “The Gambler”

The original takes about 21 minutes to read

Microsummary

Returning to the General’s indebted household, the tutor learned that everyone awaited an inheritance. Polina entrusted him with 700 florins and ordered him to win money at roulette on her behalf.

Chapter Summary

After two weeks away, the Russian tutor returned to Roulettenberg and found that the General’s party had arrived three days earlier. The General received him coldly, while Maria Philipovna appeared distracted. Their behavior suggested that the financially troubled household had recently obtained money.

The General’s party cultivated the appearance of enormous wealth. He had the tutor exchange two thousand-franc notes, and the family rode through town in splendid carriages. The tutor estimated that they possessed only seven or eight thousand francs, an amount unlikely to sustain their expensive display for long.

Before the outing, the General ordered the tutor to keep Mischa and Nadia away from the Casino. He accused the young man of being addicted to gambling and warned him not to compromise the General’s reputation. He then returned part of the tutor’s savings as one hundred thalers.

At luncheon, the tutor was nearly treated as an inferior servant, but his acquaintance with Mr. Astley secured him a place among the company. Astley was a shy, gentle, wealthy English traveler whom the tutor had repeatedly encountered in Europe. He was visibly attracted to Polina.

The French Marquis dominated the meal with pompous remarks about finance and Russian politics, while the General contradicted him only timidly. Irritated by Polina’s indifference and his own humiliating dependence on the household, the tutor deliberately entered the conversation and tried to provoke the Frenchman.

He complained that Russians abroad were routinely insulted and recounted a confrontation at a Catholic office in Paris. When a sacristan delayed his passport visa, he threatened to spit into Monsignor’s coffee, declared himself a heretic and barbarian, and forced the official to complete the visa immediately.

The tutor then argued with the Marquis about French conduct during the invasion of Russia in 1812. The General became furious, but Astley enjoyed the dispute and invited the tutor for a drink. Later, the tutor met Polina privately in the park near the Casino.

Polina was angry because the diamonds he had pledged for her produced only seven hundred gülden instead of the two thousand she expected. She said she desperately needed money. She also revealed that the General’s wealthy grandmother was believed to be dying and that the entire household awaited news of her death and inheritance.

The tutor suspected that the Marquis had lent money to the General because he expected the inheritance. Polina admitted that the Marquis had begun courting her after learning she might benefit from the will. They also discussed Astley, whom Polina acknowledged was in love with her, although she still favored the cleverer and more prestigious French Marquis.

Polina reminded the tutor that he had promised to leap from the Shlangenberg at her command. She said she hated him but needed him, then ordered him to gamble her seven hundred florins at roulette. Torn between hatred, devotion, and a willingness to die for her, he headed toward the roulette table while wondering what secret plan had made the money so urgent.

Characters

Unnamed Tutor-Narrator — narrator, young Russian man employed as tutor to the General’s children, proud, provocative, gambling-prone, and obsessively devoted to Polina.

Polina Alexandrovna — young Russian woman, the General’s clever and emotionally guarded stepdaughter, possible heiress, object of several men’s affection, and commanding focus of the narrator’s obsession.

The General — middle-aged Russian nobleman, employer of the narrator and stepfather of Polina, financially distressed, status-conscious, haughty, and dependent on an expected inheritance.

The French Marquis — adult French nobleman, cousin of Mlle. Blanche, possible creditor to the General, suitor to Polina, and a pompous, calculating speaker on finance and politics.

Mr. Astley — wealthy adult English traveler, shy but intelligent and amiable, friend of the narrator, acquaintance of the General, and honorable admirer of Polina.

Quotes

“Last time you told me—when on the Shlangenberg—that at a word from me you would be ready to jump down a thousand feet into the abyss. Some day I may remind you of that saying...”

“I hate you because I have allowed you to go to such lengths, and I also hate you and still more—because you are so necessary to me. For the time being I want you, so I must keep you.”

Yet I also swear that if, on the Shlangenberg, she had really said to me, “Leap into that abyss,” I should have leapt into it, and with equal pleasure. Yes, this I knew well.

This summary is based on the translation by C. J. Hogarth, first published in Poor Folk; The Gambler (London: J. M. Dent & Sons; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1915). Illustrations were created using AI.