El jugador

A young tutor accompanies the family of a retired general to the German spa town of Roulettenburg. The widowed general is penniless but hopes to marry a French lady of uncertain identity. He adopts a lifestyle beyond his means, hoping that his wealthy, infirm, and ailing aunt will soon die and name him her heir. The tutor—and narrator of the novel—is hopelessly in love with Polina, his employer's stepdaughter, but she sometimes looks at him "like that ancient empress who undressed before her slave because she didn't consider him a person." One day she gives him seven hundred florins to gamble at the roulette table, and he, who has never been to a gambling hall, obeys her and wins, without knowing why he needs the money. Moreover, "everything seemed very sordid to me, as if to say morally vile and filthy." However, always at Polina's urging, he will continue to play and will not be the only one in the general's entourage to be caught up in the euphoria and fascination of roulette.