Old Books, New Readers discussion

Hi Everyone,

The September Book of the Month is The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The theme was novellas and short books; since this book is on the longer side of short books, I will put up this rough reading schedule:

September 1-7   Chapters 1-4
September 8-14  Chapters 5-8
September 15-21 Chapters 9-12
September 22-30 Chapters 13-17

Here is the link to a free version of The Gambler at Project Gutenberg:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2197

This is the Hogarth translation; I think it is fair to say that the general consensus is that there are better translations available. I will be reading this version since my library does not have this book in english and I don't want to pay $20 for a new copy. :-)

For those who want some info on the translations, here are a few articles I found on the subject:
https://prakyg.wordpress.com/2014/10/...
https://xixvek.wordpress.com/2012/08/...


I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this book,
Ian

I have read this several times, well how can anyone not llike Dostoyevsky?

Thanks for creating the schedule, Ian. I have a free kindle version too. I think its Hogarth.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

Now that week 1 is done, how is everyone finding this book? I am loving it and I couldn't help reading ahead to chapter 10. I thought it was going to be something dark and depressing, but I have found it to be the opposite. It is pretty funny in parts; I'd watch a movie adaption of this in a second.

I’ve just finished week 1’s readings and I’m getting drawn in. Dostoevsky really has a talent for depicting his characters so they come to live.

The story is fine but does anyone like any of the characters? They all are selfish and mean and rude. I hope in the end they all lose everything. lol.

I’m especially not a fan of Polina right now.

I like the characters in the book in that they all seem to be terrible people, but interesting. It is refreshing after Bleak House, where Esther's defining quality was she is a good person. I found the grandmother hilarious.

I went a bit ahead of schedule and finished this book last night; I really liked it, but I am unsure on the ending. I can't wait to hear what everyone else thought.

I wish the book had a table of the exchange rates between gold, florins, thalers, francs, roubles, gülden, louis d'or, pounds, etc...

Hello everyone!
I’m really liking the book so far. I think I’ll finish it next week.
It’s my first Dostoevsky book, and I love his writing. Reading this book is giving me the courage to read Crime and Punishment.
I also love the grandmother, I wasn’t expecting the story to be this funny – I thought there would be a more intense description of the gambling addiction, which was why I was reticent to pick up this book in the first place, but I’m pleasantly surprised about the course of the story.

I finished today and left a revue if you want to go read it but will wait to post it here until everyone is done. in the end I liked it and think it has lots of discussive subjects and opinions.
Gambling is not the only subject of this book that is clear.

I really liked this book, the story, the characters, and the dialogue were wonderful and written in a way that only Fyodor Dostoevsky can do. I am a huge fan of Crime and Punishment and gave it five stars would highly recommend. However, I expected the same from this book, it was great and I absolutely loved it up until after Polina leaves the hotel room everything after that seemed rushed and left a lot of plot holes. It was still good I gave it three stars I just felt like it could have gone longer.

After finishing this last night, I couldn't shake the notion that Polina was like the personification of a roulette wheel. She was such a taciturn, unpredictable person. I didn't buy that Ivanovich was really in love with her. She was a jolt of dopamine, like his gambling addiction.

Larry, these characters drove me crazy as well, especially when Ivanovich gave all his winnings to a gold digger like Blanche. It was almost like he was living up to his indifference.

Like everyone, I didn't know how to process these characters; however, the ones I thought I hated I grew to like.

Correction: the roulette wheel was personified. It took on the qualities of Polina.

Daniel, that's an interesting observation. Polina does resemble the roulette wheel. Maybe that's why Alexei was addicted to both of them.

I really don't understand how Alexei ended up being seduced so easily by Blanche, especially when she barely acknowledged him before when he didn't have money. Also, how could he just let her spend all his money like that right away.

I'd also like to get a better understanding of the currency conversions and how much the values were worth back then compared to today. I found it hard to understand the scale of how much they were really losing and winning in roulette.