Pressed by creditors and by the issuer Stelofski, Dostoevsky writes in a few weeks in October 1866, the Player. This novel was the occasion of Dostoevsky's acquaintance with his second wife, Anna Gkrigkorievna Snitkina, which stood beside him, in the role of guardian angel, until the end of his life.

Player has autobiographical basis and includes the experiences of the author from the time of the second trip abroad in 1863, the German spas Wiesbaden and Homburg, where Dostoevsky experienced the world of roulette and card games and charmed for a period that . In the face of the basic hero Alexei lvanovits, reflected many of the psychological tests was then Dostoyevsky, while the character of Paulina reflected the mental world of Paulina Souslova, then the beloved. At the same time, the faces of the other heroes, Dostoevsky satirizes a particularly intense way the traditions of Western Europeans, especially the French, and the moral decline of France during the Second Empire, while stressing the moral superiority, even decadent, Russian heroes towards them.