The Gambler - Dostoyevsky

This was a hack job he did for money while writing Crime and Punishment. He needed the money because he was horrendously in debt because he was a degen gambler. So he was well acquainted with the subject, and it's Dostoyevsky, so even though he wrote it in a rush it's still great. It's much shorter than the other Dostoyovsky/ Tolstoy greats, so a good jumping off point into that field of literature, and it also has a twisted saucy sadomasochistic sideplot as a treat.