The Poor Folk and the Gambler

by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Fyodor Dostoyevsky

1915. Two works from Dostoevsky, Russian novelist, who is considered one of the most outstanding and influential writers of modern literature. Poor Folk, written in epistolary form is his first novel. From the Introduction: These two examples of Dostoevsky's art are sketches set in widely differing frames. The one concerns a gambler who frequents the fashionable spas and casinos of Germany; the other consists of a series of love-letters exchanged between two poor folk whose lives are spent amid the slums of St. Petersburg. Yet there is this in common between the two sketches-that each of them ends on a note of hinted tragedy. Both the gambler and the pair of sorrowful lovers ask as the curtain falls: Is there any hope for us. Sometimes it is said of Dostoevsky that he could not see the comedy of life as well as he could the tragedy; yet humor abounds in these two works, even as it does in sundry others by the same author. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

Genres: Fiction, Classics

320 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1956

About the author

Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский (Russian)

Works, such as the novels Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880), of Russian writer Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky or Dostoevski combine religious mysticism with profound psychological insight.

Very influential writings of Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin included Problems of Dostoyevsky's Works (1929),

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky composed short stories, essays, and journals. His literature explores humans in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century and engages with a variety of philosophies and themes. People most acclaimed his Demons(1872) .

Many literary critics rate him among the greatest authors of world literature and consider multiple books written by him to be highly influential masterpieces. They consider his Notes from Underground of the first existentialist literature. He is also well regarded as a philosopher and theologian.

(Russian: Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский) (see also Fiodor Dostoïevski)

Reviews

[Hayley Lekas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dostoyevsy’s writing is unlike any other author I have ever read. He writes with purpose and style and it’s the writing rather than the plot that keeps you reading. I’ll break my review into two sections since this is a book of two separate stories.

First, Poor Folk was painful in terms of circumstance. The two main protagonists are ignorant and dense. The story is told over a series of letter writing where both characters are in continual declines of utter financial ruin both by their ineptness to change their situation. Their relationship is also quite strange and it starts as familial although it’s never really described how so but then turns romantic or maybe just desperate dependency. The emotions of the financial ruin are predictable: shame and craze; however, the way they’re brought on are the more conspicuous pieces. For instance, the male protagonist feels shame over people discussing his relationship rather than literally needing to beg for money and then spends it away without a thought. This was an interesting read but my lesser favorite of the two.

Second, The Gambler was a riveting story mostly about greed even among the most upper class of the society exemplified through gambling. Even though gambling is looked at as a sordid affair, it’s interesting to see how some of the more respected people, even secretly, have ties to gambling. Especially through the main character, Dostoyevsky portrays the complete loss of self and everything one identifies with through gambling. The main protagonist eventually even forgets the woman he obsesses over through the need and desire to gamble. It’s also a sad story, but what makes this story the most compelling is the way Dostoyevsky tells the tale. It’s interesting to see such an analysis of characters and their unraveling and shortcomings. Dostoyevsky leaves a lot to the imagination as much is not said but inferred. It’s hard to put into words the way his words evoke a story.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have to say I usually enjoy Dostoyevsky. In this case I struggled through most of ‘Poor Folk’ which was a real slog. ‘The Gambler’ shaped up well in the first section. However, it too became a long slog. The problem was by no means the authors writing. It was the dreary content and some of the stylistic quirks to ‘Poor Folk’.

Feel a bit cheap reviewing it given I didn’t finish either story cover to cover but at least I read over. 1/2 Poor Folk 1/5 - The Gambler 2/5.

[Alicia Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. I thought Poor Folk quite good, but The Gambler just didn't do it for me. I found it boring and very slow-going to the point that I skimmed quite a bit.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed poor folk but I didn’t read the gambler. I find that rather a depressing subject. I am now moving onto Gogol for lighter Reading.

[Bill Galen]

Still pond, crystal clear, / Dew falling onto the turf. / Inner child childhood.[return]Random musings . . .[return]For ye have the poor with you always . . . well, you can take that as gospel.[return]Les Miserables, the prequel . . . some same, some not.[return]You can't fix stupid . . . that's it.[return][return]Ron White hits the mark on Dostoevsky's Poor Folk: "You can't fix stupid. There's not a pill you can take; there's not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever."[return][return]Barbara Alexievna has taken a few classes, but they didn't take. Makar Alexievitch finally believes what everyone has been telling him--he is stupid. Their problem is that they are also poor. If rich, they could dissipate a fortune and still feel well off. But they are not, so these two lead each other on a downward spiral that nearly destroys them both.[return][return]We learn of them through their letters, which they write to each other almost daily, even though they live in adjacent apartment houses. Makar is obsessed with Barbara, a paternal feeling (as he says), spends money on her he doesn't have, which he borrows until his credit runs out. We have met him before, in Pere Goriot, who sacrifices everything he has for his daughters, taking him from wealth to penury and death.[return][return]Barbara is a fallen woman, who ekes out a living as a seamstress, living hand to mouth, at times from the hand of Makar holding bon bons. She is only a snowball's throw from the same fate that Hugo's Fontine suffers.[return][return]The ethic of poverty that Makar and Barbara share is to live their life only for others. They have not the resources to live for themselves, but rely precariously on the meagre livelihood that comes to them as copy clerk and seamstress. The little life they have is mortgaged to the government office and the dress shop. Makar himself speaks to this ethic in his story about the shoemaker: the poor master-shoemaker can dream only of his craft, mechanically stamping out his shoe pattern for others to wear, his wife and children starving nearby; the wealthy neighbor dreams of all the varied shoes that are his for the taking, thinking of no one but himself. I remember hearing of a social experiment, where a caricature artist would, unasked, draw a portrait of passersby and hand it to the subject; the poor insisted on paying, the rich considered it a gift owed to them.[return][return]Nothing noble about Dostoevsky's poor. In contrast, Hugo's Jean Valjean was worse off than Makar when he received a gift of trust from the Bishop, but he invested it and created a factory, a prosperous town, and a bright future for Fontine's daughter. Valjean lived for others too, but had the advantage of being very strong, and, may I say, not stupid.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a different edition with only "The Gambler" and some bonus materials. I cannot imagine reading "Poor Folk", it sounds like early Dostoevsky at his worst. This is a Dostoevsky book that I like. He dictated it in about 26 days to meet a publisher's deadline. It was all the time he had left after the time he spent on "Crime and Punishment". It's a fast read with lots of drama about gambling and romance, and how the two are intertwined. You win big, then lose it all. There are a few interesting side characters, but also a few who are underdeveloped and difficult to keep sorted out. Much is made about the protagonist's love interest, as the characters are modeled on Dostoyevsky and his second great love, Polina Suslova. His first love was his first wife who was a mean, horrible woman and flaunted her affairs to him. Polina was not much better, although she did have a searching and intellectual mind. The edition I read included Polina's diaries from the years she was involved with Dostoevsky, and a short story she wrote about their affair. The diaries are an interesting account of Russian salons in Paris, and are probably the only redeeming view of her. Even though in both her own fiction and others' writing about her, she seems cold and unforgiving, the diaries show that she suffered a great deal with depression and not knowing what to do with herself, although she was determined to be an independent woman travelling round the Continent. (Her sister was one of the first female physicians, quite renowned, which is tough to compete with.) Her short story "The Stranger and Her Lover" is so awful that it makes Ms. Suslova look even worse. She writes the female character with such grandiosity and such hollow dramatic gestures, while she makes the Dostoyevsky character so repellent and pathetic. The story is only notable for the insight it gives into the author's ego. The edition I read also included a few letters from Dostoyevsky to others, describing her as someone who is intensely critical of others but who will never be pleased. It also includes the letter he wrote to Polina telling her of his second marriage to the woman, Anna, whom he dictated "The Gambler" and some of "Crime and Punishment" to. This third great love was a somewhat common woman who proved to be his biggest supporter throughout the rest of his life, which included self-exile abroad, crushing gambling debts, paying his dead brother's debts, and trying to meet awful publisher's deadlines. I guess the third love is the charm.

[James Violand · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful. Easy to read. Dostoyevsky paints a portrait of an addict and how his life becomes a struggle just to exist. Although Russian literature is so depressing, Dostoyevsky tends to emphasize redemption rather than gloom.