Notes from the Underground ; And, The Gambler
'Notes from the Underground' (1864) is one of the most profound works of nineteenth-century literature. A probing, speculative book, often regarded as a forerunner of the Existentialist movement, it examines the important political and philosophical questions that were current in Russia and Europe at the time.'The Gambler' is a psychologically probing novel concerning the gambling episodes, tangled love affairs and complicated lives of Alexey Ivanovitch, a young gambler; Polina Alexandrovna, the woman he loves; a pair of French adventurers and other characters. It is a bleak picture of the fatal attractions of gambling with wonderful characterization, faithful depiction of gambling life at fashionable German watering holes.