The Death of Ivan Ilyich

By Leo Tolstoy

One of the world’s most famous writers, Leo Tolstoy, is probably best known for his epic romantic works “Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace”. In addition to being the author of some of the greatest novels ever written, Tolstoy was also a prolific short-story writer. One of the finest examples of Tolstoy’s shorter narratives is “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, which Tolstoy wrote later in his life. “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” is a tale revolving around a man in his 40s who has spent his entire life climbing the social ladder in Russia. Barely tolerant of his wife and generally indifferent to the other people around him, Ivan has a minor accident hanging curtains in a new apartment that proves to be a terminal injury. As his life slowly and painfully spirals inexorably toward death, Ivan struggles immensely against what he perceives to be an unfair fate. Only in the end does he see how he might have lived differently and authentically. This edition includes a biographical afterword and follows the translation of Nathan Haskell Dole.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Dec 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781420980554

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is the author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Family Happiness, and other classics of Russian literature.

Book preview

Chapter I

In the great building of the law-courts, while the proceedings in the Mielvinsky suit were at a standstill, the members of the board and the prokuror met in Ivan Yegorovitch Shebek’s private room, and the conversation turned on the famous Krasovsky suit. Feodor Vasilyevitch talked himself into a passion in pointing out the men’s innocence; Ivan Yegorovitch maintained his side; but Piotr Ivanovitch, who had not entered into the discussion at first, took no part in it even now, and was glancing over the Vyedomosti, which had just been handed to him.

Gentlemen! said he, Ivan Ilyich is dead!

Is it possible?

Here! read for yourself, said he to Feodor Vasilyevitch, handing him the paper, which had still retained its odor of freshness.

Heavy black lines enclosed these printed words:—

"Praskovia Feodorovna Golovina, with heartfelt sorrow, announces to relatives and friends the death of her beloved husband, Ivan Ilyich Golovin, member of the Court of Appeal,{1} who departed this life on the 16th February, 1882. The funeral will take place on Friday, at one o’clock in the afternoon."

Ivan Ilyich had been the colleague of the gentlemen there assembled, and all liked him. He had been ill for several weeks, and it was said that his case was incurable. His place was kept vacant for him; but it had been decided that, in case of his death, Alekseyef might be assigned to his place, while either Vinnikof or Schtabel would take Alekseyef’s place. And so, on hearing of Ivan Ilyich’s death, the first thought of each of the gentlemen gathered in that room was in regard to the changes and promotions which this death might bring about among the members of the council and their acquaintances.

Now, surely, I shall get either Schtabel’s or Vinnikof’s place, was Feodor Vasilyevitch’s thought. It has been promised me for a long time; and this promotion will mean an increase in my salary of eight hundred rubles, besides allowances.

I must propose right away to have my brother-in-law transferred from Kaluga, thought Piotr Ivanovitch. My wife will be very glad. Then it will be impossible for her to say that I have never done anything for her relations.

I have been thinking that he wouldn’t get up again, said Piotr Ivanovitch aloud. It is too bad.

But what was really the matter with him?

The doctors could not determine. That is to say, they determined it, but each in his own way. When I saw him the last time, it seemed to me that he was getting better.

But I haven’t been to see him since the Christmas holidays. I kept meaning to go.

Did he have any property?

His wife had a very little, I think. But a mere pittance.

Well, we must go to see her. They live a frightful distance off.

That is, from you. Everything is far from you!

Now, see here! He can’t forgive me because I live on the other side of the river, said Piotr Ivanovitch to Shebek, with a smile.

And then they talked about the long distances in cities, till the recess was over.

Over and above the considerations caused by the death of this man, in regard to the mutations and possible changes in the court that might result from it, the very fact of the death of an intimate friend aroused as usual in all who heard about it a feeling of pleasure that it was he, and not I, who was dead.

Each one said to himself, or felt:—

Well, he is dead, and I am not.

The intimate acquaintances, the so-called friends, of Ivan Ilyich could not help having these thoughts, and also felt that now it was incumbent on them to fulfil the very melancholy obligation of propriety, in going to the funeral and paying a visit of condolence to the widow.

Feodor Vasilyevitch and Piotr Ivanovitch had been more intimate with him than the others.

Piotr Ivanovitch had been his fellow in the law-school, and had felt under obligations to Ivan Ilyich.

Having, at dinner-time, informed his wife of Ivan Ilyich’s death, and his reflections as to the possibility of his brother-in-law’s transfer into their circle, Piotr Ivanovitch, not stopping to rest, put on his dress-coat, and drove off to Ivan Ilyich’s.

At the door of Ivan Ilyich’s residence stood a carriage and two izvoshchiks. At the foot of the stairs, in the hallway by the hat-rack, pushed back against the wall, was the brocaded coffin-cover, with tassels and lace full of purified powdered camphor. Two ladies in black were taking off their shubkas. One whom he knew was Ivan Ilyich’s sister; the other lady he did not know. Piotr Ivanovitch’s colleague, Schwartz, was just coming down-stairs; and, as he recognized the newcomer, he stopped on the upper step, and winked at him as much as to say:—

Ivan Ilyich was a bad manager; you and I understand a thing or two.

Schwartz’s face, with its English side-whiskers, and his spare figure under his dress-coat, had, as always, an elegant solemnity; and this solemnity, which was forever contradicted by Schwartz’s jovial nature, here had a peculiar piquancy, so Piotr Ivanovitch thought.

Piotr Ivanovitch gave precedence to the ladies, and slowly followed them up-stairs. Schwartz did not make any move to descend, but waited at the landing. Piotr Ivanovitch understood his motive; without doubt, he wanted to make an appointment for playing cards that evening. The ladies mounted the stairs to the widow’s room; and Schwartz, with lips gravely compressed and firm, and with mischievous eyes, indicated to Piotr Ivanovitch, by the motion of his brows, the room at the right, where the dead man was.

Piotr Ivanovitch entered, having that feeling of uncertainty, ever present under such circumstances, as to what would be the proper thing to do. But he knew that in such circumstances the sign of the cross never came amiss. As to whether he ought to make a salutation or not, he was not quite sure; and he therefore took a middle course. As he went into the room, he began to cross himself, and, at the same time, he made an almost imperceptible inclination. As far as he was permitted by the motion of his hands and head, he took in the appearance of the room. Two young men, apparently nephews,—one, a scholar at the gymnasium,—were just leaving the room, making the sign of the cross. An old woman was standing motionless; and a lady, with strangely arched eyebrows, was saying something to her in a whisper. A hearty-looking, energetic sacristan{2} in a frock was reading something in a loud voice, with an expression which forbade all objection. The muzhik, Gerasim, who acted as butler, was sprinkling something on the floor, passing slowly in front of Piotr Ivanovitch. As he saw this, Piotr Ivanovitch immediately became cognizant of a slight odor of decomposition.

Piotr Ivanovitch, at his last call on Ivan Ilyich, had seen this muzhik in the library. He was performing the duties of nurse, and Ivan Ilyich was extremely fond of him.

Piotr Ivanovitch kept crossing himself, and bowing impartially toward the corpse, the sacristan, and the icons that stood on a table in the corner. Then, when it seemed to him that he had already continued too long making signs of the cross with his hand, he stopped short, and began to gaze at the dead man.

The dead man lay in the drapery of the coffin, as dead men always lie, a perfectly lifeless weight, absolutely unconscious, with stiffened limbs, with head forever at rest on the pillow; and showing, as all corpses show, a brow like yellow wax, with spots on the sunken temples, and a nose so prominent as almost to press down on the upper lip.

He had greatly changed, and was far more emaciated than when Piotr

Reviews for The Death of Ivan Ilyich

[leslie398 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4 1/2 stars. Somewhat disturbing but very moving novella of the thoughts and emotions of a dying man.

[wanderlustlover_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Summer 2018, Audiobook:

I wanted to love this one more than I actually did end up loving it. It's hard to like Ivan Ilych, which I think is a large part of the point of this book. He makes a lot of not-great choices, which alienate him from everyone except coworkers, and doesn't really even engender them to have affection, so much as just genial respect for him. I don't regret picking this up at the steal of a deal sale price, but I am glad I didn't end up paying full price for it.

[paroof · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This novella is a reflection on the meaning or purpose of life. I have no idea why I didn't read it sooner, I should have. It's beautifully written and easy to understand and doesn't even require much time. It's a fabulous introduction to Tolstoy, too.Highly recommended.

[macleod73-292574 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A dark take that exposes the futility of living an unexamined life. The novella deals with the forces of civilization's expectations of us and the horror that life can become if we don't take responsibility for our own destiny.

[ionas_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

There were many good points in Tolstoy's little story, such as the inadequacy of doctors, our focus on becoming persons of power and importance, and our marrying not for love but material reasons.IIvan Ilyich suffered a lot of pain before he died; but the story was not entitled "the illness" or "the pain" of Ivan Ilyich, but "the death of Ivan Ilyich".I found it significant that some time before his death Ivan gained the insight that he had not lived his life correctly; he had been focused on irrelevancies and not the real values of life. He had had promptings from his soul, or God, if you will, about things in his life he should have changed, but these he ignored.He realized now that only his little son whom he had always pitied, loved him. And his servant Gerasim also had compassion for him, but not his wife or others in the family.Ivan had a little medal on his watch chain inscribed "Respice finem" (look to the end). And it is the actual "death" that is significant.Like most people, Ivan had been afraid of death, but as soon as he accepted the pain, he could not find the fear."There was no more fear because there was no more death.""Instead of death there was light, "What joy!" says Ivan.With this story Tolstoy is giving us a crucial message - there is no death, when our body dies, we go into the light.

[la2bkk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Surprisingly readable. Sometimes very funny, other times quite dark. This novella progresses very quickly, and unfortunately ends too soon – which is probably the ultimate compliment to any work. On a deeper level, there may be a serious lesson to learn about appreciating the value of life as opposed to simply living in a superficial state of complacency with the mundane. A fantastic introduction to the works of Tolstoy.

[livelylady · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Brief history of a man's life and death. I thought, unless I am missing something, it was a book of nothing.

[foof2you · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Tolstoy's look at a man who is dying. We do not what has caused Ivan Ilyich long slide to death, yet we know what he thinks and feels about it.

[kittycunningh-815148 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is a 2.5 hour audio book. I quit with an hour to go because I just couldn't stand the tedium any more.I've decided that Russian literature is not my thing.

[lethalmauve · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A tale sadder on its grasp of life than death, Tolstoy’s masterfully written short story The Death of Ivan Ilyich copes with life’s disappointments through work. As much as this work provides luxuries and to an extent a type of happiness, its toxic offer of escapism seeps through everything that seems to be in place. Work becomes life’s sole meaning that the meaning itself, in the end, becomes worthless and nil. Until then it silently rearranges everything into an impending loss and catastrophe; it grabs and shakes until it receives different payments on its dues. Suddenly, it is too late. Hate turns out to be the last guest and death becomes a relief. Of empty relationships along the shoreline of senseless living, The Death of Ivan Ilyich reminds of what we all seem to forget: work is not everything. This short story is accompanied by the equally beautiful Three Deaths where death, together with nature, takes its own course in claiming what it owns. In these two stories, Tolstoy gives death a relevance, a different reputation; its afters possibly better than the (wasted and abandoned) life itself.

[scottjpearson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Throughout recorded time, humans have wondered about the afterlife and its relationship to this life. Tolstoy takes a spin on that and focuses on the interface between the two. What exactly happens as one approaches death? Few have experienced near-death, but no one has experienced death fully. What is dying like?Tolstoy provides his answer in this short depiction of a Russian lawyer Ivan Ilych. He lives a normal, even boring, life and suddenly gets sick. His performance at work suffers, and his family gawks at him. He experiences pain and after much contemplation, decides that there is no meaning in death. He is offered last rites. Eventually, he dies saying to himself, “Death is finished… It is no more!”, and the book ends.Throughout this process, we readers peer into his inner life. We see his uncertainty and curiosity about death. In twenty-first century parlance, he grieves his own death as he comes to accept his mortality. At one point, he thinks, “There is no explanation! Agony, death… What for?” He also reflects on the quality of his life and decides that he lived a good life.Tolstoy offers readers the opportunity to examine their own experience and to accept, albeit incompletely, their own finitude. He writes in the Christian tradition even though much of this work applies to those outside this faith. He takes no position on the existence of an afterlife, either positively or negatively. Instead, he focuses on what a (good?) death consists of and how human nature reacts when approaching death.This classical yet modern statement about how humans approach death helps readers detach from their own emotions towards death. By observing Ivan Ilych, we readers observe ourselves and the prejudices we carry towards death on the basis of our own experiences. Thus, Tolstoy offers us a liturgy of sorts. He allows us to play out the drama over and over in this short novella. In so doing, he seeks to allow us to embrace life more fully. That job is accomplished through his strongly asserted words. The rest is up to us.

[jakebornheimer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Bought and read this book over the weekend in Montreal. I was really enchanted by the portrayal of Ivan's decline and death, being so detailed. I really empathize with his struggle to understand death as a thing that truly applies to / effects him. The descriptive quality (as noted by many other readers) of Tolstoy's prose was readily apparent, and I enjoyed it immensely. For sure, this is one that begs to be re-read. I'm especially interested in revisiting the 1st chapter, which is from the perspective of his "friends" who, greedy for his social position, callously snub his funeral and bereaved wife. Highly recommended for those interested in getting into Russian lit since it is so short and sweet.

[pegmcdaniel · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The subject of this short classic is the process of dying and finally, acceptance of death. It's a look into the mind of a dying man who had lived an ordinary life as a high-court judge, had a family and friends, and had not given much thought about dying some day. After being ill for a long time, he realizes that he will never get well again and uses the time to reflect and question how well he lived his life. Was it meaningful? He struggles with redemption and forgiveness as all of us would in his situation.I felt it was depressing about Ivan's agonizing end. The novel was written in 1886 and was easy to read. Leo Tolstoy put lots of meaning into a short novel and gave me plenty to think about.

[foggidawn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novella opens with a scene reminiscent of the one shown to Scrooge by the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: Ivan Ilyich has died, and his friends, colleagues, and relations gather for the funeral, but also to advance their own interests. Who will be promoted into his old position? Can his wife wrangle a better pension out of the government? And the weekly card game will go on as scheduled, won’t it? The reader then gets a survey of Ivan’s life, from school days, to married life, through career advancements, and through the illness that eventually leads to his death. There’s a lot of focus on the big questions: why death, and why pain? Did Ivan lead the life he was meant to lead? What if he got it all wrong?One gets the sense that Tolstoy was working through his thoughts on these matters. It would be silly to say that I “enjoyed” this book, but I appreciated it (though, when it comes to the Russians, I’ll take Dostoyevsky over Tolstoy any day). It’s a big subject for such a small volume; I’m glad I finally read it, though I probably won’t read it again.

[thecrow2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The book is nothing more about than the life and death of an ordinary everyday man but Tolstoy was able to write this almost like a poem, beautifully and emotionally.

[quibee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful from the start, where a colleague goes to the main character's funeral out of a sense of duty and the small inner dialogues and inner calculations that go on about Iván Ilyich's death, back through the (rather vapid) life of Ivan.Wonderful writing.

[reneepaule · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Nice. Very nice short story. A lot of self-reflection, which is right up my street, as it were.

[greeniezona · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Disclaimer: This book should not be read the day you find out that your grandfather has passed and you were sent home from work because you were sobbing too hard to be intelligible.

Even if you've already finished half of it and there's not much left.

Even if the first chapter, with work acquaintance friends discussing the death, then one showing up to the house to pay his respects, only to feel disaffected and take off for a card game, is actually pretty darkly funny.

Even if what you've read since then has been a pretty matter-of-fact discussion of Ivan's career and life so far, and hasn't really been sad at all.

Because when the turn comes, with the mysterious illness and the search for a diagnosis and the slow decline at home and the alienation from all those who are well and do not understand, who want to go on with their concerns of life and the living...

Well, it's best to put the book down and come back to it in a few days. Go cuddle with the kids on the couch.

Called a masterpiece on death and dying.

I concur.

[thebookjunky · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It is the epitome of a true classic. It is timeless. It is as immediately relevant now as it was when it was published 130 years ago.
Here is the unexamined Life, with its strivings, hypocrisies, bargains, illusions upon illusions, and its screens stopping thoughts of Death.
Then Life is introduced to Death. The screens are relentlessly stripped away, revealing…nothing? “There is no explanation! Agony, death… .What for?”
This is why I read.

[pilgrimjess · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” The book opens at the end of the story when a group of judges are informed that Ivan Ilyich has died. These men rather than mourn his passing instead begin to think of the promotions and transfers that the death will mean. That evening, one of the number travels to Ivan's house to attend his funeral. But whilst there becomes bothered by an expression of disapproval and warning on Ivan's face. The story then shifts more than thirty years into the past and picks up with a description of Ivan's life. As a teenager he attends a Law School where he takes on the habits and mannerisms of his contemporaries who are generally of those with high social standing. Ivan becomes a magistrate and marries Praskovya. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Praskovya becomes pregnant. Suddenly Praskovya's behaviour changes and they begin to argue a lot but rather than face it Ivan buries himself in his work and distances himself from his family. Time passes and Ivan moves up in the ranks and is eventually awarded a higher paying position in St Petersburg where he moves his family to. Whilst decorating the home he bangs his side against the window frame. The injury does not seem serious, but sometime late Ivan begins to experience some discomfort in his left side and an unusual taste in his mouth. The discomfort gradually increases and Ivan decides to see several doctors . However, the doctors all disagree on the nature of the illness and Ivan's physical condition degenerates rapidly. One night while lying alone in the dark, he is visited by his first thoughts of mortality, and they terrify him. He realizes that his illness is not a question of health or disease, but of life or death. Ivan knows that he is dying, but he is unable to grasp the full implications of his mortality. As his health fails Ivan starts examine his life and begins to question whether or nor it was a good one. This only a short novella and in many respects quite black in its outlook but is a very harsh look at how people choose to live their lives and whether or not our ambitions and ideals were real or merely artificial. Whether our official and personal lives can and should truly be kept separate.

[laphenix · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I liked the concept, but quickly grew bored.

[engpunk77 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was one of my favorite stories of all time in 1999. I read it over and over again, thinking it contained and could reveal all the wisdom in the world.

[martinbodek · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I spotted this on a friend's shelf, borrowed it, and read it in an afternoon. I found it to be an interesting - and arrestingly short - contemplation of the end of life and life's worth/value. The introduction was extremely helpful in understanding the context of Tolstoy's complete antithesis regard for life in comparison with his character. I'm not exactly sure why this stands out for historians as a unique book of its kind, as the introduction reveals and reminds that other such literature exists, perhaps better. A good first experience with the author nonetheless.

[trilliams · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Two spoilers: Ivan dies, and this book is great.

[mahallett · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

a good story of a dying man. good introduction

[bayardus-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Until the nature of his injury makes itself known Ivan Ilych ambles through life, succeeding in both his career and personal life (at least he keeps up the facade of success in those realms). Yet Ivan Ilych never exhibits any passion, nor does he examine the path he has taken and where it might lead.

When a foolish accident brings home his own mortality, however, Ivan Ilych is forced to consider all the things he had taken for granted before. His unhappy marriage, his career that he sometimes enjoyed but largely performed for the sake of a salary and social advancement, and his life in general where he never stood for or against anything, all provide grist for Ivan's tormented mind. The nature of life and the inevitability of death spur in Ivan thoughts about dying for the first time. Tolstoy gives us a dying man who is bitter that everyone else is continuing their lives as if "the world was going on as usual." Of course, to everyone except the dying man, it is. He gives us a man who always thought of himself as death's exception. Everyone has probably done something similar, at least at times, because that thought is so much easier to grasp compared to the idea that we are mortal and will be dead someday, our consciousness ending like a candle being snuffed. He gives us a man railing against the cruelty of God while simultaneously railing against God's absence. Finally Tolstoy lets Ivan Ilych begin to examine his own life, and as he does so he realizes that his moments of purest happiness were during childhood, and since then his life has been one big death-spiral, before giving Ivan a moment of forgiveness and what I interpret as divine absolution.

Tolstoy in this book tells what I imagine is a universal tale of a person trying to reconcile themselves with his or her own mortality. We probably have all had the thoughts that go through Ivan's head in our own head at some point in our lives- if anything Ivan Ilych thinks about hasn't occurred to you in at least a general sense before then you probably don't spend much time thinking- but Tolstoy presents these thoughts well. That being said, his writing did not spur any realization about life or death that I didn't have before I began the book. Maybe I contemplate my own mortality more than most people do? I think that, despite the lack of new insight, the book could have been great if the scenes of Iva Ilych's terror and suffering were portrayed with great prose that made the scenes depicted viscerally striking. I didn't find the prose to be particularly impressive, unfortunately, though that may be the fault of the Maude translation. I also thought the ending was a bit of a cop-out, at least if you interpret the ending as his soul receiving forgiveness, as it undercuts the fear of death and the ensuing nothingness that was such an integral part of the story up until that point. I hope Tolstoy really believed in such forgiveness, and didn't include it so as to give a more uplifting ending, because the story would have been better off without it.

If you've never really thought about death, it's worth reading a book that contemplates such a thing. There are plenty to choose from: Death Comes for the Archbishop, Gilead, The Tartar Steppe, or Hamlet just to name a few (death is hardly a rare theme). Still, The Death of Ivan Ilych stands out as perhaps the work most focused on death. Choose it if that sounds appealing to you.

[clara53_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this short novella Tolstoy ingeniously unmasks the raw emotions and the puzzled lamentations of one Ivan Ilyich, a typical personage of his time, as he lies dying while suffering physical and mental agony (the latter being as excruciating as the former), trying to grasp the seeming "unfairness" of his position and finally arriving at some startling realizations about his life. The surrounding characters come under harsh light as they hover around the dying man and reveal their most unattractive human traits, and Ivan Ilyich is finally able to see through the veil of human hypocrisy. Not an upbeat story in the least. But one with a pretty clever insight into human nature. It also does point to the unrelenting frailty of life.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A brilliant short work. He captured the psychology of a dying man and those around him with a great deal of thoroughness. The end of Illych had him questioning so many of the silly societal mores which he had self-imposed, but in the end, his resignation to the peaceful pull of death put the angst behind him. Wonderfully written.

[lilywren · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is my first venture into the land of Tolstoy. As with Camus, I was intimidated by the name 'Tolstoy' and, as with Camus, this should never have been so. The Death of Ivan Ilych is a rather poignant, striking novella written following a time where it is said Tolstoy went through a religious conversion. The book provokes thoughts around mortality and provides us with a harsh lesson in 'live life well'.Despite the book title, the story focusses upon the life which Ivan Ilych felt he had lived and the process of dying he goes through rather than the death itself. It is striking, emotive and, at times, frighteningly remorseful. It's that 3am in the morning kind of stuff. If you're the kind of person who lies in bed agonising over your mortality, that funny twitch in your arm, pain in your chest or asking yourself "Why is John's car far superior to mine?" "Is the cat ill running around like that or just being a cat?" then the themes running through this wonderful novella will certainly chime.Ivan Ilych is a well-respected judge who receives an unspecified diagnosis but deduces that he is terminally ill. As his condition deteriorates, we witness Ivan Ilych struggling to come to terms with his condition and the fact that he is dying. He begins to look back on his life with some sadness and regret."Lately in that loneliness in which he found himself....in these late days of horrific loneliness Ivan Ilych lived only by his memories of the past. One after another he imagined scenes from his life. He would always begin with the most recent and proceed to the earliest, to his childhood, and settle there." p.92Such memories proved painful to bear. On looking back through his life, Ivan Ilych realises that as he grew older, more removed from the innocence of childhood, as the worries of life, his career and family took hold, the more superficial and shallow his life had become."...the further back he looked, the more life there had been in him; both the more sweetness to life, and the more of life itself....There had been one point of light far back at the start of everything, and ever since everything had gotten blacker and blacker, and moved quicker and quicker." p.93Ivan Ilych starts to look on his friends, colleagues and wife with the same feelings of bitterness, regret and hate which he has for life and himself. The only moments of tenderness and understanding he finds are in Gerasim, the butler's assistant, who is able to emphasise and understand his needs as Ivan Ilych views others around him as looking inwards to their own needs."His marriage...so accidental, and such a disappointment, with his wife's bad breath, and her sensuality, and their hypocrisy. His moribound professional life, the obession with money...The further on in years the more deadening it became. In perfectly measured steps I went downhill imagining I was on my way up.... In public opinion I was on my way up, and the whole time my life was slipping away from under me....and now it's all over, and it's time to die."p.88The inevitability of death pervades the book and feeds into this readers mortality. As Ivan Ilych struggles to come to terms with his life, dying and death so the reader is also carried along and forced to ask questions of his/her own mortality and life. The fact that Ivan Ilych is terminally ill is, for want of a better word, irrelevant. Death is inevitable - we are all dying, we will all face death and this is the only thing we can be sure about in life. The important lesson we should learn is how to spend our time wisely as we move towards this inevitability.I'm so glad that this is my first experience of reading Tolstoy. It's a quick, compelling read with so much feeling and emotion packed into the 104 pages of this edition. It is without doubt a fantastic masterclass in writing where we are witness to emotions being laid bare for all to see.

[marsap_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story begins with three friends and colleagues of a man named Ivan Ilych learning of his death. No one seems deeply affected by this, but one of them, Peter Ivanovich, goes to the wake at Ivan's house that night out of a sense of obligation. From there Tolstoy allows us to view Ilych’s life and his subsequent death, a wasted and meaningless life. In addition we become witness to the hypocrisy and the pointlessness of the lives of those around him—except for his young butler—who has an understanding of life and death that Ilych does not. What is particular tragic about this novella is the loneliness and isolation and the feeling that the life that Ilych has lived was meaningless—worse than death. This book allows us to explore how we live our lives, what is important in that life—and what is a “good life.” 3 out of 5 stars.