"Kavanagh leaves us with a series of specific, provocative insights into several novels and a solid basis for a cultural history of gambling under the ancien regime."-- Eighteenth-Century Fiction. "This is an important study, brilliantly argued on its own terms, but more importantly, a study that is bound to have major implications for the way we, critics, will understand the French Enlightenment."--Josue V. Harari, Emory University.