Listeners of the lecture are invited to look at "The Gambler" as a text where the author's biography, cultural clashes, and personal painful experience intertwine. The lecture will focus on the dramatic history of the novel's creation and why it is called Dostoevsky's most autobiographical and most "European" work. The focus will be on the space of play - not only in the literal sense, at the gaming table, but also in a broader sense, where characters, national types, desires, dependencies, and notions of dignity collide. The novel shows how representatives of different European nations intersect in one plot, along with different models of behavior, passions, and self-deception. There will also be a discussion about the "triple" trial of the heroes - roulette, money, and love. Through these three lines, one can see how the heroes undergo a test of internal stability, who cannot withstand it, and who maintains human dignity. An important part of the conversation will also be about the author himself: how his personal experience is reflected in the novel, how it is artistically processed, and why this story remains instructive. The lecturer is Valentina Vasilievna Borisova, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Professor of the Department of Russian Language and Theory of Literature at MGUL, leading researcher at the "Moscow House of Dostoevsky" department of the V.I. Dal State Literary Museum. On our website, we talk about free events in Moscow.