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 (1866), set in the fictional town of Roulettenberg, explores the compulsive nature of gambling, one of the author's own vices and a subject he describes with extraordinary acumen and drama.