The Gambler (Dostoevsky)/Chapter 10

This summary was created using artificial intelligence. It has not yet been reviewed by an editor and may contain errors.

0️⃣

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Gambler. Chapter 10

Grandmother Takes Her First Turn at Roulette

1866

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “The Gambler”

The original takes about 28 minutes to read

Microsummary

Grandmother defied her anxious relatives, entered the Casino, learned roulette, and won heavily on zero and red. Her feverish play also awakened Alexis’s recognition of his own gambling nature.

Chapter Summary

Grandmother was given an exceptionally luxurious hotel suite because the landlord assumed that her commanding manner, large retinue, numerous trunks, and reserved railway compartment marked her as a wealthy princess. She inspected every room from her wheelchair while questioning the apprehensive landlord.

She criticized a mythological painting, a Saxon statuette, the carpet, and the enormous bed. After ordering the bedding removed and checking for bugs, she demanded that her own sheets and pillows be used instead.

Grandmother invited Alexis Ivanovitch to visit her when he was not teaching. He explained that the General had dismissed him after a dispute involving a German baron. Grandmother rebuked the General, supported Alexis’s wish to challenge the baron, and repeatedly called the General a blockhead.

After arranging for two hired bearers, Grandmother asked where roulette was played. Although the General urged her to rest after her journey, she insisted on immediately visiting the Casino and seeing the town’s springs, gardens, and other attractions.

The General and his companions feared that her public behavior would embarrass them. De Griers privately said that she had become childish and might do something foolish alone, so the entire party accompanied her through Chestnut Avenue.

During the procession, Polina and Mlle. Blanche walked beside the wheelchair and answered Grandmother’s many questions. Alexis noticed anxious exchanges among De Griers, Blanche, and the General, whose hopes had already been damaged by Grandmother’s declaration that she would give them none of her money.

At the Casino, Grandmother was shown every room before entering the crowded gaming salon. She watched the gamblers, croupiers, police, thieves, and attendants with intense curiosity, then had her chair placed beside the chief croupier at a roulette table.

She became interested in a young man who had won about 40,000 francs but continued staking recklessly. Grandmother urgently wanted Alexis to tell him to stop before he lost everything. She also studied a methodical Frenchwoman who played for exactly one hour and carefully recorded her bets.

Alexis explained roulette’s combinations and the special role of zero. Grandmother immediately ordered repeated bets on zero despite his warnings. After three initial losses, a larger stake won. She continued betting, lost once, and then hit zero again, receiving 4,200 gülden.

The excitement awakened Alexis’s own gambling instincts. Grandmother then staked 4,000 florins on red and won, repeated the same bet, and won again. With 12,000 florins accumulated, she finally ordered Alexis to collect the gold and banknotes and wheel her home.

Characters

Grandmother (Antonida Vasilevna) — commanding woman of about 75, a general’s wealthy widow who uses a wheelchair, humiliates pretension, defies her relatives, and becomes feverishly absorbed in roulette.

Alexis Ivanovitch — narrator, young Russian man and recently dismissed tutor in the General’s household, Grandmother’s escort and betting assistant, impulsive and increasingly conscious of his gambling compulsion.

The General — middle-aged Russian general, Grandmother’s financially dependent relative and Polina’s stepfather, anxious about appearances and alarmed by the threat her independence poses to his expectations.

Marquis de Griers — adult French man associated with the General’s financial schemes, outwardly charming but privately calculating as he tries to supervise Grandmother and preserve hopes of gaining from her fortune.

Polina Alexandrovna — young Russian woman, the General’s stepdaughter and Alexis’s pupil, restrained and uneasy as she accompanies Grandmother and answers her continuous questions.

Quotes

“Go and tell him,” suddenly she exclaimed with a nudge at my elbow, “—go and tell him to stop, and to take his money with him, and go home. Presently he will be losing—yes, losing everything that he has now won.”

“Alexis Ivanovitch, did not the croupier just say that 4,000 florins were the most that could be staked at any one time? Well, take these 4,000, and stake them upon the red.”

“I myself was at heart a gambler. At that moment I became acutely conscious both of that fact and of the fact that my hands and knees were shaking, and that the blood was beating in my brain.”

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.