An oblique allusion to Manon Lescaut in The Gambler suggests that Dostoevsky used Prevost's novel as one of his models for his semi-autobiographical text. Both texts focus on passion as a driving force in the narrator's life; both dwell on the conflict between worldly and spiritual values; both seek to come to grips with the power of money and temptation; and both find ways to subvert conventional morality. A fascination for an apparently capricious and enigmatic femme fatale almost consumes the narrators in both texts. Prevost's novel may have had an important impact on Dostoevsky’s depiction of a character losing his ethical compass while surrounded by corruption in a society undergoing a crisis in values.