RKS RUSSIAN LITERATURE: Always…The Next Spin of the Roulette Wheel (Fyodor Dostoevsky)

Posted byRobert K Stephen (CSW)Posted inliteratureTags:, , , , , ,

I have a feeling of expectation and it can’t be wrong. I’ve got 15 louis d’or now, though I only began with fifteen gulden. If I play carefully to start with…..But no! Surely I’m not such a fool as that. I’m a lost soul. But why should I not rise from the dead? All I need to do is play cautiously and patiently at first and the rest will follow. All I need to do is keep control of myself for one hour, and my destiny will be forever changed. The key thing is character.

Well, I won, and twenty minutes later left the casino with a hundred and seventy gulden in my pocket! That’s a fact, and it shows what one last remaining gulden can do……But what if my courage had failed me. What if I hadn’t dared to make that decision?

Tomorrow. Tomorrow it will all be over!

Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Gambler”, 1866

Published by Robert K Stephen (CSW)

Robert K Stephen writes about food ,drink, travel, film, and lifestyle issues. He also has published serialized novels "Life at Megacorp", "Virus # 26, "Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog" and "The Penniless Pensioner" Robert was the first associate member of the Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada. He also holds a Mindfulness Certification from the University of Leiden and the University of Toronto. Be it Spanish cured meat, dried fruit, BBQ, or recycled bamboo place mats, Robert endeavours to escape the mundane, which is why he has established this publication. His motto is, "Have Story, Will Write."

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