The Gambler (Dostoevsky)/Chapter 11

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Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Gambler. Chapter 11

Grandmother’s triumph threatens the inheritance

1866

Summary of a Chapter
from the Collection “The Gambler”

The original takes about 19 minutes to read

Microsummary

Grandmother celebrated her roulette victory, gave away money, and returned to gamble again, while the General’s circle begged Alexis to protect their hoped-for inheritance before she left town.

Chapter Summary

Grandmother left the roulette salon after winning nearly thirteen thousand florins. Her triumph transformed her eccentric behavior into a public spectacle, and strangers gathered around her chair. The General, no longer embarrassed by her, congratulated her with forced familiarity, while De Griers and Mlle. Blanche covered their anxiety with flattering smiles.

Grandmother calculated her winnings in Russian currency and delighted in possessing more than eight thousand roubles. She mocked the others for sitting idle and began distributing money freely. Potapitch and Martha received fifty gülden each, the chair bearers received ten, and several servants and bystanders were rewarded merely for bowing or appearing needy.

A shabby expatriate appealed to Russian generosity and received twenty gülden. Grandmother also promised new dresses to Polina and Blanche, although Blanche accepted with her usual mocking expression. On the Avenue, Grandmother continued giving money away, even ordering Alexis Ivanovitch to reward a drunken stranger whom he doubted was a genuine beggar.

Grandmother asked whether Alexis had ever gambled and encouraged him to stake everything on zero. Learning that he had only two hundred gülden, she offered to lend him five hundred. She then sharply reminded the General that he should expect none of her money, alarming him and provoking De Griers to call her a terrible old woman.

Another supposed beggar proved to be an old soldier with a wooden leg, who angrily rejected the implication and swore at Alexis. Grandmother dismissed him as a fool. She then announced that after lunch she intended to return to roulette. De Griers and Blanche warned that her luck could change, but she replied that she alone had the right to lose her own money.

At the hotel, Grandmother boasted of her victory to the landlord and Theodosia, giving Theodosia thirty gülden. Martha described watching the gambling table in terror and praying for her mistress. Grandmother ordered Alexis to be ready at four, instructed him to summon a doctor so she could take the waters, and sent him away to rest.

Alexis reflected that Grandmother’s unexpected arrival had shattered the General’s plans. The family had been awaiting news of her death and the resulting inheritance, but she had declared that the General would receive nothing. De Griers and Blanche still hoped to influence her because their own financial and marital plans depended upon the fortune.

Alexis understood the interests linking the conspirators but remained uncertain about Polina’s secrets. Though he had almost no money, employment, security, or plan for the future, he cared chiefly about her. He longed for her to confess that she loved him and felt unable to imagine leaving her.

Polina suddenly emerged from the General’s suite and secretly gave Alexis a letter for Mr. Astley. Alexis found Astley among a riding party and delivered it without receiving an answer. Astley immediately rode away, and Alexis became depressed and jealous that another man had become Polina’s confidant.

Back at the hotel, the General, De Griers, and Blanche begged Alexis to prevent Grandmother from gambling away the inheritance. The General admitted that his affairs and family depended on her fortune, while Blanche tried to persuade Alexis through sudden tenderness. Their appeal was interrupted by Potapitch, who reported that Grandmother could not sleep and demanded Alexis’s presence. At half-past three, she ordered her bearers to lift her chair, and the party set out for the roulette rooms again.

Characters

Grandmother — elderly Russian woman, the General’s wealthy aunt, physically dependent on a wheeled chair but proud, energetic, generous, stubborn, and newly captivated by roulette.

Alexis Ivanovitch — narrator, young Russian man and former tutor attached to the General’s household, nearly penniless, fascinated by gambling, devoted to Polina, jealous, perceptive, and emotionally reckless.

The General — middle-aged Russian military man, Grandmother’s indebted relative and Polina’s stepfather, anxious about his inheritance and humiliatingly dependent on Blanche and De Griers.

Polina Alexandrovna — young Russian woman, the General’s stepdaughter and object of Alexis’s obsessive love, secretive, emotionally guarded, preoccupied, and privately corresponding with Mr. Astley.

De Griers — adult French man, the General’s creditor and influential associate, outwardly polished but calculating, contemptuous, and deeply invested in preserving Grandmother’s fortune.

Quotes

“What else do you suppose?” she retorted. “Are you going only to sit here, and grow sour, and let me look at you?” ... “It is not your money that I am going to lose; it is my own.”

“Because you have taken upon yourself to act as guide to this, to this—how shall I express it?—to this old lady... But she will only gamble away all that she has—gamble it away like thistledown.”

I wanted her to come to me and say, “I love you,” and, if she would not so come, or if to hope that she would ever do so was an unthinkable absurdity—why, then there was nothing else for me to want.

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.