The stories in this volume demonstrate Dostoyevsky s genius for fusing caricature, irony and the grotesque to create a powerful dark humour. The Gambler is a breathtaking portrayal of an intense and futile obsession. Based on Dostoyevsky s own experience of financial desperation and the compulsive desire to win money, it focuses on the characters that take their places at the gaming tables of Roulettenburg : the outspoken, aristocratic Grandmamma , the mercenary Mademoiselle Blanche, the cool, mysterious Polina and Alex, the author s self-portrait; a man gripped by exhilaration and hopelessness. Bobok is a blackly comic satire in which a desolate writer becomes drawn into the conversations of the dead, and A Nasty Story is a humorous look at the disparity between a man s exaggerated ideal of himself and the sad reality.
EAN/ISBN : 9780141907956
Publisher(s): Penguin UK, ePenguin
Format: ePub/PDF

Author(s): Dostojewskij, Fjodor M. - Coulson, Jesse