Very interesting, never heard that, but I'm not surprised! Incredibly raw depiction of human nature. Much less verbiage than his other works but very profound.
>Also fabulous is The Double, which was the second thing he published, and still one of his best.
Flabbergasted I haven't read this yet. Got a copy on they way, thanks for the heads up!
Since you like his other novels I should warn you that it's unlike those - it's more of a cross between later Dostoevsky and Gogol, as well as a late variation on the Romantic trope of the doppelganger. It's tragicomic but hilarious. It shows its influences very clearly but it also shows D's own unmistakeable qualities.
The social-literary critics of the time (Belinsky etc.) hated it and threw D into the literary doghouse for it. But it was the one book of his that Nabokov loved. I know whose good opinion I'd rather have! That difference more or less tells you everything.
The Gambler has a hell of a backstory - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21152240. And since gambling was Dostoevsky's own addiction, the intensity has a personal quality.
Also fabulous is The Double, which was the second thing he published, and still one of his best.