First published 2015
Alexei Ivanovich works as a tutor for a Russian General's family in a German hotel. The General owes massive debts to a Frenchman named Des Grieux and desperately awaits news of his wealthy aunt's death to claim his inheritance. Alexei burns with hopeless love for Polina, the General's stepdaughter, who treats him with cold cruelty even as she demands his absolute devotion. She sends him to the casino to gamble for her, then laughs at his winnings and his declarations of love. When the expected inheritance evaporates after the aunt arrives and loses nearly everything at the roulette tables, Polina faces ruin. Des Grieux abandons the family, offering only a fraction of what he owes. Desperate to save Polina, Alexei rushes to the casino and wins over two hundred thousand roubles. He returns to pour gold and banknotes onto her bed, but his gesture backfires spectacularly. Polina takes fifty thousand roubles and flings the money in his face before fleeing to another man. Dostoyevsky captures the fever of gambling and the agony of unrequited obsession in this tale of financial and emotional ruin.
Genres: fiction, drama, literary-fiction, addiction, 19th-century, russian-literature
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Germany, Russia
Period: 19th-century
84 pages · Paperback · Editorial International
Content warnings: addiction