The Gambler/Bobok/A Nasty Story

Russians abroad

Its a long time since I have read any works by Dostoyevsky's and what struck me in reading this novel and two short stories for the first time was how outrageously funny he can be. This is particularly true in the short stories but it also seeps through in The Gambler: the short novel, in which Dostoyevsky parodies a group of Russian exiles in the imaginary German town of Roulettenburg. Alexis Ivanovich tells the story in the first person and the opening sentence of chapter 4 "Today has been funny, outrageous and absurd." sums up the novel succinctly.

Alexis Ivanovich is employed as a tutor to The General's children. The General's entourage or family are all staying in a hotel not far from the spa and the casino. The show more General is picking up the bill, but it soon becomes apparent he has money problems: he may be indebted to Monsieur de Grieux always referred to as the Frenchman, he is certainly in love with mademoiselle Blanche who he wishes to marry. Alexis is in love with Polina Alexandrovna who is related to the General, but he seems to be in competition with the Englishman Mr Astley, (who is not part of the Generals family) and with the Frenchman who spends most of his time in deep nefarious conversations with the General. Money is the problem that may resolve all these issues. Alexis doesn't have any, but is confident he can win money at the Casino, everyone else seems to be dependent on Grandmamma who resides in Russia, is seriously rich, apparently on death's door and will leave a substantial part of her fortune to the General. The whole entourage seem to have their lives on hold. The sudden arrival of Grandmamma in Roulettenburg apparently in robust health apart from having lost the use of her legs, puts everyone in a quandry and they become even more anxious, when she employs Alexis to take her to the casino where she promptly becomes hooked on gambling at the roulette wheel.

All the exiled Russians that make up the Generals entourage know their place in society, there is a strict pecking order and Alexis a mere employee is treated with various degrees of disdain. He tells his story of the "family" from the outside, but of course he wants to gain admittance through Polina, who plays him along for her own amusement. It is a comedy of manners, with undertones of the burlesque especially in the setting of the casino, where people elbow their way to a prime position at the roulette wheel and where Grandmamma in her wheelchair becomes increasingly desperate. The characters are superbly drawn with caricatures provided from Alexis's point of view.

"A Frenchman is rarely amiable by nature: He always seems to be obligingly calculating and to order when it pays him. The natural Frenchmen consists of the most bourgeoise, petty everyday stodginess - in short he is the most boring creature in the world. In my view, only innocents and especially Russian young ladies are charmed by the French."

Bobok is little more than a sketch, but it is funny. Bobok is in a graveyard and suddenly hears a muffled conversation and then realises that the dead are talking to each other. Apparenty there is a period of about 40 days when the newly buried can talk to each other and of course all the petty jealousies and slights are immediately apparent just as if they were still alive.

A Nasty Story is a fully realised and brilliant shorter story. Three generals living in St Petersburg get together to politely sip some champagne at the house of the oldest man. The younger of the three Ivan Illyich is full of new ideas, he believes in something he calls humanity and wishes to blur the lines between the strict class categories that are present in Russian society. The other two are disdainful. Strictly at 11.30pm the little gathering disperses and Ivan finds that his carriage is not waiting outside to take him home. Snow is on the ground, but he decides to walk. He comes across a wooden house where a wedding celebration is in progress and recognises someone who works in his office. He decides to break all conventions and go in to join the party. He first of all meets with a stunned silence and then things go from bad to worse as the comedy veers towards the grotesque.

I thoroughly enjoyed this penguin classic edition that had been sitting on my shelves unread for too long a time. Dry and uninteresting it certainly wasn't and so 4 stars. show less

What an interesting way to end the book. So vague but satisfying as well. We do not know what will happen to the main character and while it may seem positive, we know how human nature is.
While some of the book was hard to comprehend due to the french, overall, it was quite enjoyable. The way it displayed addiction was well described and as someone who knows nothing of gambling, it was quite entertaining nonetheless. The internal dialogue of Alexei was also nice and pleasant to read after having read Notes from the Underground. Alexei was quite the character and the way he had degraded himself for Polina was pretty funny considering how proud Alexei had been portrayed. The open ended nature of the ending reinforces this idea of show more addiction and what people will do for their dreams, regardless of their practicality. show less

Published in 1862 in the Dostoevsky brothers’ journal Time, A Nasty Story is one of Dostoevsky’s shorter, funnier and crueller comedies.

Actual State Councillor Ivan Ilyich Pralinsky is on his way home somewhat the worse for drink after a small birthday party with some of his colleagues, when he passes by the house of one of his subordinates. A wedding is in progress in the house, and he remembers that his subordinate, an unassuming, beaverish man named Pseldonimov, is getting married there. Pralinsky decides to gatecrash the wedding, to scatter his largesse among the crowd and then leave in glory. It all goes horribly wrong, in a series of absolutely toe-curling solecisms, terrible even by Dostoevskyan standards...

Read the full show more review on The Lectern:

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2009/04/nasty-story-dostoevsky.html show less

A deep view into the mind of the mentally deranged and obsessed. No other writer I know of comes close in reflecting the imagery of the shadow world of the mad and insane.

The destructive force of gambling. Human passions and the difficulty of controlling them. This is the primary focus of The Gambler, a short novel with big themes by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. For a full review see http://the-iceberg.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-gambler-by-fyodor-dostoyevsky.html