Dostoevsky’s The Gambler

Svetlana Evdokimova is professor of Slavic studies at Brown University.

• AcknowledgmentsNote on Transliterations and TranslationsIntroduction: Dancing on the Feet of ChanceSvetlana EvdokimovaPart I: Through the Lens of Psychology1 The Gambler and the Poet: Notes on Dostoevsky, Illness and CreativityRichard J. Rosenthal2 Dostoevsky at Play: Between Risk and Uncertainty in RoulettenburgJoachim I. Krueger and David J. GrüningPart II: Socio-Historical Contexts3 Polina and Lady Luck in Dostoevsky’s The GamblerRobert L. Jackson4 The Gambler: Gambling the Self, the Family, and the Country AwayVladimir GolsteinPart III: Philosophic Dimensions5 Betting on Zero: Existential Themes in Dostoevsky’s The GamblerEvgenia Cherkasova6 The Gambler, Not a ComedyJeff Love7 From Zero to Hero: Gambling and Human WorthOctavian Gabor8 The Shape of Nothing: The Antinomic Essence of Play and The GamblerAndrea Oppo Part IV: Questions of Aesthetics9 The Russian Quest for Form, Narrative, and SalvationSvetlana Evdokimova10 How the Character Writes the Novel: Dostoevsky’s Gambler (or ????????? «?????» ????????????)Carol Apollonio11 Prokofiev’s GamblerSimon MorrisonIndexAbout the Contributors

This extraordinary volume, the first critical work devoted entirely to Dostoevsky’s The Gambler, explores the novel and its author from a variety of perspectives and contexts. Medical, aesthetic, psychological, sociological, religious, philosophical, cultural, biographical, musical, and ethical concerns all come into play in this important collection of original essays by a group of accomplished critics and thinkers from a variety of fields. Svetlana Evdokimova’s introduction, “Dancing on the Feet of Chance” unpacks and elucidates a wealth of approaches and insights. The other contributors succeed in matching the impeccably high standard she has set for inquiry into Dostoevsky, his strange novel, and its risk-filled creation. This book, dedicated to Robert Louis Jackson, reprints his classic “Polina and Lady Luck in Dostoevsky’s The Gambler.”