One of Dostoevsky's weaknesses takes the form of symbolic, tangible, in what is the essence of his Being: the sick obsession with gambling. From a young age, he has a passion for card games - but only in Europe does he discover the diabolical mirror of his nervousness: the Red and the Black, roulette, this so dangerous game within his primitive duality. The green table of Baden, the roulette of Monte Carlo are his most intense ecstasies in Europe: they hypnotize him more than the Madonna of the Sistine, than the statues of Michaelangelo, than the midday landscapes, than the art and culture of the whole world. Because there he finds the intensity, the final decision: black or red, odd or even, happiness or annihilation, loss or gain - condensed in those seconds when the wheel turns: the intensity concentrated in that lightning bolt of pain or pleasure, as his temperament craves.