Product Description

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a masterly meditation on life and death, recounting the physical decline and spiritual awakening of a worldly, successful man who is faced with his own mortality. Only in his last agonizing moments does Ivan Ilyich finally confront his true nature, and gain the forgiveness of his wife and son for his cruelty towards them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #335023 in Books
• Published on: 1989-02-23
• Original language: Russian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

From the Inside Flap
On learning of Ivan Ilyich’s sudden demise and death, his former colleagues begin vying for promotion; it seems neither in life nor in death has Ivan Ilyich made any lasting impression. And, as Tolstoy takes us back to Ivan Ilyich’s early days, it is a life of futility, of emptiness and primarily of spiritual barrenness that is revealed. Yet Tolstoy also reveals how, in the face of serious illness, Ivan Ilyich had made a final resolute gesture to come to terms with his mortality.

Presented here alongside The Devil, a further work exploring the powerful and destructive nature of obsession, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the most exquisitely constructed novellas by the author of War and Peace.

From the Back Cover
‘The story is usually regarded as an amazing narrative of the experience of dying, a search for the meaning of death. It is all that, and more: it’s a great questioning of what is and what ought to be, in a human life’ – NADINE GORDIMER

About the Author
Count Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 on the family estate of Yasnaya Polyana, in the Tula province. He took part in the Crimean war and after the defence of Sevastopol wrote The Sevastopol Sketches (1855-6), which established his literary reputation. He is the author, among many other works, of War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) and A Confession (1879--82).

Customer Reviews

One of the best things Tolstoy ever wrote
As Wittgenstein said 'Death is not an event in life'. In Tolstoy's narrative we see frequently how those still living are unsure of how to react in a genuine way to those dying, and instead fall back on their normal habits and approaches to life - one character early on won't let Ivan's death stop him from his evening routine of gambling. Ivan's widow is, between her sobs, concerned that she should get the maximum amount possible from the government to cover his funeral. It's touches like these which bring to mind Auden's 'Musee des beaux Arts', and also make the narrative ring as true as as it does. Another significant strand to the story is Ivan's relationship with his servant Gerasim, who cares for him as he approaches death. Gerasim is different from many other characters in that he is able to deal with the dying Ivan in a way that is not disgusted, patronising or false. He is the one character who is actually able to relate to him genuinely as he is dying. And this is one of Tolstoy's more didactic points that he sneaks into this narrative of dying, that he sees peasants as being more authentic than the aristocracy of which he was so much a part. But the didacticness never gets in the way of the story, as it arguably does in some of Tolstoy's longer works, and 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' shows Tolstoy at his most concentratedly brilliant.

The translation of this Hesperus Press edition is excellent, and the story is also supplemented by 'The Devil', a story about an aristocrat falling in love/lust with a peasant girl, and its unhappy consequences. While it may not be quite 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich', 'The Devil' is still worth reading. Altogether, a very worthwhile buy.

Moving and progressively grimmer as the story develops
The thoughts and feelings of a man towards his family and those around him as he gets progressively more ill and is then dying from a wasting disease that sounds like cancer. The opening chapters are quite light-hearted with some ruefully amusing reflections on marriage and attitudes towards ones career, but then the mood becomes much darker and he ends being cynical about his family, seeing them as wishing his death to come sooner so they can be free of the burden of caring for him. A short story but one with a lot to say about the human condition and by no means necessarily tied to its Russian background.

Far better than War & Peace and Anna Karenina
Most people think of War&Peace and Anna Karenina, when they think of Tolstoy. This is a shame. The three stories in this book summarise Tolstoy's philosophy on human life and happiness more succinctly than his previous efforts.

Tolstoy believes that human happiness comes by serving other people. His description of Ivan Ilyich dying and repenting over his life is moving and a good example of how Tolstoy weaves his philosophy in story-telling.

Happy ever after is a tale which Turgenev may have written - it is a classic romantic tale written from the woman's perspective. It describes how love can change between two people from a sensuous to a more platonic and stable love.

Final Verdict - do not be put off with W+P or AK, and do not think that they are all Tolstoy has to offer.