The Death of Ivan Ilyich

by Leo Tolstoy, Lynn Solotaroff (Translator), Ronald Blythe (Introduction)

book data

4,045 ratings, 3.84 average rating, 278 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		28%
4		36%
3		27%
2		6%
1		1%

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published

October 1999 by Bt Bound (first published 1886)

details

Library Binding

isbn

0808576380 (isbn13: 9780808576389)

description

By the time he dies, Ivan Ilych has come to understand the worthlessness of his life. Paradoxically, this elevates him above the common man, who avoid…more

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Feb 06, 2009

julieta rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

bookshelves: favorites, rusinskis, siglo-xix

Read in February, 2009

Pobre Ivan Ilich. Se le fué la vida en nada y se dió cuenta un momento antes de morir.
Porque se entera de que todo ha sido una mentira, qué puede ser más terrible que eso? Es de una tristeza profunda y cansada, llena de desilusión y de tiempo perdido.
Se enferma sin darse cuenta, pensando que estaba viviendo una vida ideal.

Cada paso que damos nos acerca a un acierto, o a un error.

Le cuesta aceptar que “no ha vivido su vida como debía”, porque es como...more

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Feb 27, 2008

Jasmine rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in February, 2008

I think this is the deepest story I've ever read. Tolstoy masterfully tells the story of the life, death, and suffering of Ivan Ilyich, and in the process forces his reader to inwardly reflect on their own life, death, and accomplishments. Tolstoy mainly draws a portrait of the empty life of Ivan Ilyich filled with relationships devoid of any real bond, and weaves this in with Ivan Ilyich's personal suffering and anguish as he reflects on the materialistic life he led. Tolstoy really challenges ...more

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Oct 07, 2007

Núria rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

bookshelves: 2006, 4-muy-buenos, decimononicos, literatura-rusa, mios

Read in August, 2006

Después de la hazaña que supuso leer 'Guerra y paz', con tantas digresiones e irse por las ramas y batallitas del abuelo cebolleta, me ha sorprendido ver que Tolstoi es capaz también de escribir un relato al que no le falta ni sobra nada, con los elementos justos, con un principio de economía envidiable. Y al ser tan corto y conciso, es aún más duro y efectivo.

Dado el título, supongo que no spoilearé a nadie si cuento que el libro empieza con el entierro de Ivan Ilich. Vemos ...more Después de la hazaña que supuso leer 'Guerra y paz', con tantas digresiones e irse por las ramas y batallitas del abuelo cebolleta, me ha sorprendido ver que Tolstoi es capaz también de escribir un relato al que no le falta ni sobra nada, con los elementos justos, con un principio de economía envidiable. Y al ser tan corto y conciso, es aún más duro y efectivo.

Dado el título, supongo que no spoilearé a nadie si cuento que el libro empieza con el entierro de Ivan Ilich. Vemos como ni los amigos ni los familiares realmente se apenan de la muerte del bueno de Ivan (la mujer sólo se preocupa de la pensión que podrá conseguir), como el ritual de ir a dar el pésame y todo el funeral es sólo una obligación social que se tiene que cumplir para guardar las formas, pero de la que todos se quieren escapar lo más rápido posible. Casi sería cómico sino fuera trágico.

Después de esto se nos cuenta, con los cuatro datos esenciales, la vida de Ivan Ilich. Él nunca había aspirado a nada más que tener una vida fácil, agradable y decorosa. Y realmente lo consiguió: prosperó en el trabajo, se casó y tuvo hijos, y se compró y decoró una casa (me encanta el pasaje en el que describe como él se dedica a decorar la casa, como parece que esto, lo de ir acumulando objetos materiales para su casa, es lo único que realmente le ha ilusionado en toda su vida). Hasta que un día empieza a encontrarse mal, empieza el peregrinaje por médicos y curanderos, y al final nace la certeza de que va a morir.

Él nunca se había imaginado realmente que un día iba a morir y le cuesta aceptarlo, pero lo peor es saber que está totalmente solo, que va a morir solo, que nadie de su familia ni sus amigos le quieren realmente. Y entonces repasa su vida y ve que siempre ha estado completamente vacía, que nada tiene sentido. Es una obra realmente dura. Y buena. Me ha encantado.

Es pequeña y modesta, pero tiene aún más profundidad y complejidad de la que aparenta. Y además es perfectamente funcional porque consigue los objetivos que se marca de forma admirable. Me gusta porque, a pesar de que el protagonista es un burgués gris (o precisamente por esto), es de lo más fácil acabar identificándose con él. Tolstoi describe magníficamente la psicología de Ivan Ilich, expone hasta el más mínimo detalle los procesos por los que pasa su mente, y nos transmite toda la angustia, el miedo, la soledad y la desesperación que siente. Ahora mismo es el único libro que pueda recordar que mira de frente a la muerte. Realmente deprimente. Te puede arruinar la vida.(less)

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Jan 30, 2009

Bruce rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in January, 2009

Each time I reread Tolstoy’s little novella, The Death of Ivan Ilych, I read it differently. As a college student I read it as a description of an experience for someone elderly, an experience distant, almost unreal, so far in the future as to be strange, almost surreal. Reading it again during my years as a practicing physician, I was impressed by Tolstoy’s perceptiveness of the stages of grieving, the writings of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross being then all the rage, and how my patients had simi...more

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Sep 24, 2007

Jonathan rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in September, 2007

With "Master/Man" and "Ivan," Tolstoy's batting an unanticipated perfect 1.000 in the newly rehabilitated Anheuser-Busch Jonathan Stadium.
(Unanticipated because I'd assumed it would always be Fyodor for me.)
Does this mean it's time to tackle Anna K.?
After that, should I also consider reading Leo Tolstoy's great novel, Anna Karenina?
...
[Coughs]
Hello?
[Clears throat.]
Is this thing on or what?

(Hey there, Schmoopy.)

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Mar 03, 2009

Andrew rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in March, 2009

The characters in this story didn't have that Tolstoy/Dostoevsky hook in their motivation that slapped me in the face (hook...slapping in the face... perhaps I mixed my metaphors...). It probably wasn't the point. Ivan Ilych, the character and not the book, was almost too simple for me but perhaps it was Tolstoy's intent. He again attacks the hypocrisy and shallowness of the Russian Europeanized culture. Except in this case it is the major thrust of the book as opposed to one of his many ele...more

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Oct 06, 2008

Mr. rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Tolstoy's brief novella 'Death of Ivan Ilyich' is one of the most compact and brilliant meditations on the meaning of death in literature. Tolstoy's breathtaking naturalism is truly miraculous. Ivan Ilyich is respectful administrator who is dying a painful death from a malignant tumor. Much as Kafka would later do in 'The Metamorphosis,' the dying man's suffering is nothing more than an annoyance for his friends and family. He spirals into a decline of intense suffering as he must stare into the...more

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Jul 07, 2008

Bree rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: Somebody who is too happy with their life and want's to be depressed

Seriously, I don't get the hype about Tolstoy. I read this book and hated pretty much every minute of it, even when I was trying my damnedest to like it. It was just so damn pedestrian. Some wealthy guy that realizes on his deathbed that his half-assed life pursuing money and position and being married to a woman he can barely stand was a waste. He idolizes the simple peasant who is the only person who is kind to him as he dies and realizes what a better life this poor noble man had than him...more

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Mar 04, 2009

Karen rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

bookshelves: classics, russian

Read in March, 2009

There are about 10 works of literature that I think about almost on a daily basis. This novella is one of them. Tolstoy pens a story about the basics of life and does so with a satirical yet understated tone. We meet a man who is bogged down in the pettiness of day-to-day cares until the spectre of death hangs over him, causing him to question the meaning of life, the meaning of his life. In this novella, time and space constrict to leave the title character stripped of all the vanities that d...more

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Nov 14, 2008

Ryan Mishap rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

bookshelves: novel

Read in January, 1991

Another one of those times when my brain said I should be reading classics and I listened. I can't even recall the main plot of this book, but I think the point was that bureaucracy sucks (the life out of you).
I know, not very helpful, but like anyone needs a review of freakin' Tolstoy or anything. That's what those big books of literary criticism are for. Try your library.

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Jun 24, 2007

Cody rated it:

(review of isbn 0451514858)

bookshelves: general-fiction

One of my favorite aspects of Tolstoy's writing is his ability to create such deep, fully formed characters (the reason Anna Karenina is so bloody long). In The Death of Ivan Ilyich his attention is focused so sharply on Ivan, and specifically on his inner life, that the character nearly takes on a physical presence. Despite the title, the novella is much more of a meditation on life than death, as - in his dying days - Ivan begins to live for the first time. It is very beautiful and poetic, per...more

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Nov 14, 2009

pinknantucket rated it:

(review of isbn 0141023600)

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Well, I must say I do feel proud of myself having read some Tolstoy, even if it was only a little shortie like this one. Perhaps one day I will manage to read War and Peace – not this Readathon, though. Interesting that the publishers (Penguin) felt the need to have a testimonial on the front cover from Zadie Smith (‘Every time I read it, I find my world put under an intense, unforgiving microscope’). Not to belittle Smith, but it does seem a bit like getting Michael Leunig to talk up Remb...more Well, I must say I do feel proud of myself having read some Tolstoy, even if it was only a little shortie like this one. Perhaps one day I will manage to read War and Peace – not this Readathon, though. Interesting that the publishers (Penguin) felt the need to have a testimonial on the front cover from Zadie Smith (‘Every time I read it, I find my world put under an intense, unforgiving microscope’). Not to belittle Smith, but it does seem a bit like getting Michael Leunig to talk up Rembrandt’s paintings, in hopes of making them seem hip and modern, when their work is a different kettle of fish altogether.

Spoiler alert: Don’t read on if you don’t want to know what happens. Still here? Sure you want to know? Okay: Ivan Ilyich dies. There, I’ve said it. I know this seems kind of obvious, given the title of this book, but I confess it came as a bit of a surprise.

Now, Tolstoy writes with an unerring sense of the satirical (in people’s actions, thoughts, motivations and so on), which kind of tricked me into thinking this book might be amusing, and that maybe Ivan Ilyich managed to cheat death somehow, or at least died with a fair amount of panache – perhaps also I was still in the grip of "The Master and Margarita". Also I thought maybe his wife had some kind of secret plot to kill him going on, when in fact Ivan Ilyich just becomes ill and dies, fairly straightforwardly, but not pleasantly. (This red herring I gleaned from the blurb on the back cover, which I accuse of being slightly misleading).

No, this book details a man’s realisation that his death in unescapable, not just something that happens to other people, and in this realisation begins to question whether anything about his life was at all worthwhile. At the end of this book I had a slow, dim, small sort of epiphany. I’d always heard that Russian writers were pretty heavy going, but assumed it was something to do with the writing style and a cast of thousands with complicated Russian names. But it is the unflinching grimness of the subject matter, not the writing or the style, that is the source of the heaviness. The book was in fact exceptionally easy to read. It is, as Zadie Smith implies, pretty intense. It’s very good. But don’t read it at two o’clock in the morning, whatever you do.(less)

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Oct 25, 2009

Andrew rated it:

(review of isbn 0146001451)

Read in October, 2009

A man dies slowly and in great agony. He ponders the meaning of life, and this increases his anguish: even worse than the physical pain of a slow, lingering death is the spiritual anguish of realising he has wasted his life.

Tolstoy's main target here is dishonesty and hypocrisy. This is established from the opening scene, when Ivan Ilyich's death is announced, and the reaction of his colleagues is to think about how this will affect their promotion chances, while speaking the usual l...more A man dies slowly and in great agony. He ponders the meaning of life, and this increases his anguish: even worse than the physical pain of a slow, lingering death is the spiritual anguish of realising he has wasted his life.

Tolstoy's main target here is dishonesty and hypocrisy. This is established from the opening scene, when Ivan Ilyich's death is announced, and the reaction of his colleagues is to think about how this will affect their promotion chances, while speaking the usual lines about it being a "sad business" and so on. Even his widow, Praskovya Fiodorovna, is more concerned about herself than her dead husband: after telling a mourner about his three days and nights of incessant screaming, she says "Oh, what I have gone through!" Then she tries to find out how she can increase the government pension money due to her from her husband's death.

Then Tolstoy takes us on a quick tour back through Ivan Ilyich's life, showing us that he also participated fully in this dishonesty, concerning himself with appearances and advancement. In every decision, even marriage, he is heavily influenced by what other people will think. With each promotion in his career as a judge, he attains more power and money, but it's never enough. At each stage he simply spends more money imitating people higher in the social scale than he is, and wanting to attain that next level. It's not coincidental that he sustains his fatal injury while climbing a ladder to show a workman exactly how he wants a new curtain to be hung. The novel is saturated with vanity, pettiness and materialism, and they cause Ivan Ilyich's spiritual and physical death.

Long before Kubler-Ross, Tolstoy hit on the stages of grief in the character Ivan Ilyich. He goes through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, although not always in that order. He often swings violently between the different emotions, depending on his own state of mind and on outside events like a doctor getting his hopes up.

The only examples of honesty in the book are in children (both Ivan Ilyich's own childhood and his young son Vassya) and in the character of Gerassim, the butler's assistant. Vassya and Gerassim don't lie to him or see him as an inconvenience - they display simple human affection and love for him.

Indeed, love seems to be what Tolstoy is saying life is all about - not romantic love necessarily, but a broader kind of love for your fellow human beings and for God. This is what was missing from Ivan Ilyich's life as he immersed himself in petty advancement and the acquisition of meaningless accoutrements. This deathbed revelation at first causes him great agony as he rages against all the lost time, but in the end it's what allows him to find peace.(less)

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Aug 07, 2009

Angie rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

I read this in high school, and frankly, I think I was mostly bored. I read this in college and thought, "Wow, this is really a pretty good piece of literature." I read it a couple of days ago, now that I am an adult with children and so many more worries and responsibilities, and thought, "Terrifying." Also, I thought, as I'm sure Tolstoy intended his readers to think, about how I should try to make my life meaningful---treat those I love better, don't focus on things tha...more

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Jun 03, 2009

Chelsea rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in October, 2008

Another book I read in European History in college. Definitely not my favorite Tolstoy work. Depressing (typical Russian book attribute it seems) because Ivan Ilych did nothing with his life and only realized at the end of his life that it was all worthless when it was too late to do anything about it. "Ivan Ilych's life had been most ordinary and therefore most terrible." I had to write a paper on that sentence, and it pissed me off because if he was unhappy or just following the comm...more

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May 13, 2009

Matt Wion rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in May, 2009

recommends it for: Anyone and Everyone

I first read this book when I was 19 and have since returned to it several times. Currently I use it in an intro to philosophy course that I teach - so I find myself reading it 1-2 times per year.

This simple and short tale is about the death of a judge named Ivan Ilych. Specifically, it is about his coming to face his death as he slowly dies from some unspecified terminal ailment.

The book can be read as chilling description of the recognition and process of dying. Tolstoy...more I first read this book when I was 19 and have since returned to it several times. Currently I use it in an intro to philosophy course that I teach - so I find myself reading it 1-2 times per year.

This simple and short tale is about the death of a judge named Ivan Ilych. Specifically, it is about his coming to face his death as he slowly dies from some unspecified terminal ailment.

The book can be read as chilling description of the recognition and process of dying. Tolstoy convince us that we have entered the psyche of a dying man, and Ivan Ilych’s awareness of his approaching death is truly frightening ... Tolstoy forces us to watch a man slowly die and demands that we apply this experience to ourselves.

There is more of course.

Until he is confronted with his mortality and imminent death, Ivan Ilych is a vain little man. Concerned only with conforming to the status quo and doing that which is socially approved, Tolstoy informs us that Ilych's life was "most simple and commonplace - and therefor most horrifying."

The central theme of this little novella is that our denial of our mortality - our pushing ourselves away from the fact of death - is intimately bound up with living inauthentically. Ivan Ilych and his entire social circle completely distances themselves from the fact that they will die, to the extant that they even feel, at a raw emotional level, that it will never really happen to them!

It is only when he recognizes that he is dying that Ilych is finally able to see that his life was empty and inauthentic - and only when he fully admits to this inauthentic life does he finally experience freedom, joy and love.

Have finally, albeit at the very end of his life, lived authentically Ivan Ilych dies in peace and achieves a kind of victory.

Tolstoy tells us that the corpse of Ivan Illych wore an expression that served as “a reproach and a reminder to the living.” A reproach no doubt to the living to stop being dishonest, to come to terms with their mortality, and thereby to be forced to live authentically.

Despite the novella’s dark tone and somber themes it concludes with a strong note of optimism and joy. A truly rewarding read! Indeed, so much is packed into this short little novella that much more could be said. The best thing I can say, however, is read it yourselves and prepare to be deeply moved and powerfully challenged.
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Jul 05, 2007

Eric Simpson rated it:

(review of isbn 0553210351)

bookshelves: fiction

Read in September, 1995

Ivan Ilyich's death in Tolstoy's novel speaks to more than the certainty and inevitability of physical cessation. Ilyich is dead as the novel opens, and the announcement of his death spreads and envelopes the entire novel. Yet this is not the entire breadth and scope of what the author reveals. Revelation occurs as the novel progresses and Ivan Ilych's awareness of his wasted life grows. Not only has Ivan Ilych died, but he has always been dead, and having died, he now lives.

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Mar 28, 2009

Cheri Ellefson rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

This is my first read of Leo Tolstoy. I enjoy gritty - what some may call depressing - writing that makes me look deeper into my own life, and Tolstoy accomplished this for me in The Death of Ivan Ilych.

I like a comment one reviewer made, that it was like Tolstoy himself came within the grips of death and survived to write about it. What suffering! And what's worse, I am not sure: that his family, doctor and friends 'put up' with illness, metaphorically patting him on his head, as i...more

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Jan 18, 2010

Amy rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

I recommended this book for our book club based on the review from a teenager at my children's Christian school. He raved about it, specifically about the Christian threads woven into it. It was a quick read--I read it in a couple of hours. In my research of Tolstoy before our book discussion, I learned that he wrote this shortly after his conversion to Christianity. Without giving the story away, I will say that it is very powerful, and I cried a lot at the end! We discussed at book club how it...more

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Jul 02, 2009

Daniel Villines rated it:

(review of isbn 1600964338)

Read in July, 2009

A Short Story Experiment for Tolstoy and Hemingway Fans Alike

Hemingway’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (1954): “How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.”

The reading of this story (and the other) was prompted by a passage written by Jeffrey ...more A Short Story Experiment for Tolstoy and Hemingway Fans Alike

Hemingway’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech (1954): “How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.”

The reading of this story (and the other) was prompted by a passage written by Jeffrey Meyers in his biography, Hemingway, A Biography, which states…

“Hemingway matched his own short story against Tolstoy’s finest work in that genre when he consciously imitated and transformed ‘The Death of Ivan Ilych’ (1886) in ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’” Page 275

So did he or didn’t he? And if he did, who did it better?

The following is an attempt to answer the first question. Specifically, is there any merit to the claim that Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” is a rework of Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich?” Upon reading both stories I would conclude that the premise is plausible.

In “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” Tolstoy studies and captures the experiences of a dying man, Ivan Ilyich, who has never considered the prospect of death. While the story was written over 120 years ago, I believe that the reactions and emotions that are expressed in the story to be true. In fact, the emotions that are expressed by Ivan Ilyich represent the most significant difference between the two stories.

Hemingway could have found Tolstoy’s story irresistible for it’s subject matter. It likely provided Hemingway a means to explore how man faces death and it also provided Hemingway an opportunity to merge the realization of death with the stoic (grace under pressure) attitude of the typical Hemingway hero. In true Hemingway fashion, he seems to have placed the Tolstoy story on the burner, boiled the story down to the key elements of his intensions, added salt to taste, and produced “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”
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