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The Death of Ivan Ilych
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Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his dying so much as a passing thought. But one day, death announces itself to him, and to his shocked surprise, he is brought face to face with his own mortality.
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Paperback, 86 pages
Published
August 3rd 2006
by Waking Lion Press
(first published January 1st 1886)
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"“Death is over," he said to himself. "There is no more death.”
When I picked this book up at a library book sale, I did so without expectation that I would actually enjoy reading it. See, I had mistakenly given up on the masters of Russian literature due to the struggles I had reading a particular novel (I’m looking at you Brothers Karamazov!), assuming they were all inaccessible and there was no point in expending anymore energy trying to make sense of books with characters that go by 3 differe ...more
The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy
Dealing with living might be difficult for many, but dealing with dying-how many of us think about that. This is a very compelling story about the point of life which represents, through an explanation of the life and death of the main character. A tear-jerking page-turner even though you already know how it ends.
Wonderful story. ...more
Dealing with living might be difficult for many, but dealing with dying-how many of us think about that. This is a very compelling story about the point of life which represents, through an explanation of the life and death of the main character. A tear-jerking page-turner even though you already know how it ends.
Death is finished, he said to himself. It is no more!
Wonderful story. ...more
Written in 1886 by Tolstoy, the novella begins at the funeral of Ivan Ilyich. His wife is trying to find out if she is entitled to even more money, and his co-workers are already relishing in their promotional opportunities now that his spot is open. The book covers the backstory of Ivan’s life: his marriage and professional life and his relationship with his children. It covers Ivan’s illness and his thoughts on his life.
This book was particularly interesting for me, because I was dying this la ...more
This book was particularly interesting for me, because I was dying this la ...more
(Book 829 from 1001 books) - Смерть Ивана Ильича = Smert Ivana Ilicha = The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, first published in 1886, is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, considered one of the masterpieces of his late fiction, written shortly after his religious conversion of the late 1870's.
Usually classed among the best examples of the novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich tells the story of a high-court judge and his sufferings and death from a terminal illness in 19th-century ...more
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, first published in 1886, is a novella by Leo Tolstoy, considered one of the masterpieces of his late fiction, written shortly after his religious conversion of the late 1870's.
Usually classed among the best examples of the novella, The Death of Ivan Ilyich tells the story of a high-court judge and his sufferings and death from a terminal illness in 19th-century ...more
Dec 21, 2014
Petra is reviewing books at the speed of light!
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Socrates said that an unexamined life was not worth living. In Kafka's The Metamorphosis poor Gregor Samsa is transformed into a being that cannot take part in the daily round of society and becomes more and more sidelined and ignored by those around him. This book, the Death of Ivan Ilych, has both of these notions contained within it's theme.
Ivan Ilyich is dying. As he grows sicker and fits in less with his fairweather friends and family and their preoccupations with their social lives, they l ...more
Ivan Ilyich is dying. As he grows sicker and fits in less with his fairweather friends and family and their preoccupations with their social lives, they l ...more
Death is nothing but joy and a light. It is not the cusp or a kind of pain, but a beginning and a start. Many ways, it is the actually the end of fear and pain...
"In place of death, there was light."
"So that's what it is!" he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "What joy!"
"Death is finished," he said to himself. "It is no more!".
The Death of Ivan Ilych is a beautiful (yes, Death is beautiful) book written by Leo Tolstoy. It is indeed, as quoted in the blurb, a supreme masterpiece on the subject of death a ...more
"In place of death, there was light."
"So that's what it is!" he suddenly exclaimed aloud. "What joy!"
"Death is finished," he said to himself. "It is no more!".
The Death of Ivan Ilych is a beautiful (yes, Death is beautiful) book written by Leo Tolstoy. It is indeed, as quoted in the blurb, a supreme masterpiece on the subject of death a ...more
Sep 02, 2020
Paul Bryant
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
novels,
russian-lit
The Russians have got me by the throat this pandemical year, Dostoyevsky, Goncharev, Gogol, and now Tolstoy.
This is short, sharp, straightforward and unforgettable. Ivan Ilyich is a modern man with a career, a wife, a family and a house and not quite enough money. Looks like he’s going to lose his job but then in 19th century Russia it’s not what you know it’s who you know so he wangles an even better job and although his wife has for no particular reason he can see become an unreasonable harri ...more
This is short, sharp, straightforward and unforgettable. Ivan Ilyich is a modern man with a career, a wife, a family and a house and not quite enough money. Looks like he’s going to lose his job but then in 19th century Russia it’s not what you know it’s who you know so he wangles an even better job and although his wife has for no particular reason he can see become an unreasonable harri ...more
The Death of Ivan Ilych, written in 1886, was Tolstoy's first major fictional work during his post-conversion. Tolstoy's religious philosophy, which illustrates the values of brotherly love, Christian charity, and mutual support, is the framework for writing this novel. Just as Tolstoy's discovery of the true meaning of life led him to fulfil and accept death, Ivan Ilych's awakening comes through the realisation of death, which ignites fear, anger, contemplation, and eventually acceptance.
Death ...more
Death ...more
“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?”
In Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, awareness of his impending death compels Ilych to think about whether his life had meaning. He reviews his career, family and the passions which guided his life, all the decisions which led him to where he found himself. Even as he knows death is closing in on him, Ilych rejects the possibility that he will die, an ...more
In Leo Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilych, awareness of his impending death compels Ilych to think about whether his life had meaning. He reviews his career, family and the passions which guided his life, all the decisions which led him to where he found himself. Even as he knows death is closing in on him, Ilych rejects the possibility that he will die, an ...more
“What is it for? What have I done to Thee? What is it for?... What do you want?... I am not guilty!... What is it for?... There is no explanation! Agony, death… What for?” Such are the distraught questions Ivan Ilyich asks in his last gasp after a gruelling struggle with a terminal illness caused by a stupid accident. Yet, his has been the average, harmless, unimportant life of a middle-class man with a slightly smug attitude, a mildly irritable character, a few frivolous habits, a moderately su
...more
"Ivan Ilych's life had been most ordinary and therefore most terrible..."
This arresting line is a synopsis of what all of this boils down to. More than likely, in my pre-Emo high school years, had I read all 52 grueling pages of "The Death of Ivan Ilych", and truly understood its exquisite prolonged lingering around the very morbid notion of death, it would have been a brick in my fo(und/rm)ation. Sadly, nowadays I am way more bubbly and optimistic than ever, so I had a healthy distance between ...more
This arresting line is a synopsis of what all of this boils down to. More than likely, in my pre-Emo high school years, had I read all 52 grueling pages of "The Death of Ivan Ilych", and truly understood its exquisite prolonged lingering around the very morbid notion of death, it would have been a brick in my fo(und/rm)ation. Sadly, nowadays I am way more bubbly and optimistic than ever, so I had a healthy distance between ...more
Today I turned the last page of Banville’s Eclipse and was literally hit by the profundity of a book that surreptitiously echoes the mastery of the classic tragedies. My pupils dilated until they watered when I bumped into this paragraph:
“As a boy I knew the stars, and loved to speak their names over to myself, in celestial litany, Venus, Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, the Bears, great and lesser. How I loved the coldness of those lights, their purity, their remoteness from us and all we do and all that ...more
It is a widespread stereotype that Russian classics are mostly long, tedious, boring, a burden to get through, but one only needs to read a short book like The Death of Ivan Ilych in order to be proven wrong. A philosophical, in its beautiful writing almost lyrical account of a dying man's life, Tolstoy will make you think about your own mortality, about happiness, sorrow and most likely your own life as well.
“They had supper and went away, and Ivan Ilych was left alone with the consciousnes...more
Last year the group catching up on classics chose The Death of Ivan Ilyich as one of their monthly short story selections. At the time, I did not have the time to read it; however, a play I recently read had reading Anna Karenina as a major plot line. Wanting an introduction to Tolstoy prior to reading this epic, I decided upon Ivan Ilyich as my gateway to his more celebrated work.
Ivan Ilyich enjoyed an upper middle class life in pre revolutionary Russia. He graduated from a jurisprudence cours ...more
Ivan Ilyich enjoyed an upper middle class life in pre revolutionary Russia. He graduated from a jurisprudence cours ...more
“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?"
The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the greatest tales of redemption and forgiveness I have ever read. What Tolstoy accomplished in the last 10 pages of this novella was amazing.
Tolstoy is at his best writing about the social interactions of human beings. He has such an amazing feel for the things that go on between people; the hypocrisy, the pretending, the way people lie to each other on a daily basis. And he d ...more
The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one of the greatest tales of redemption and forgiveness I have ever read. What Tolstoy accomplished in the last 10 pages of this novella was amazing.
Tolstoy is at his best writing about the social interactions of human beings. He has such an amazing feel for the things that go on between people; the hypocrisy, the pretending, the way people lie to each other on a daily basis. And he d ...more
This work is entirely focused on the meaning of life and death, on appearances and on the investment of love that we give in our lives.
The story begins with Ivan’s presentation, a man who has achieved everything he wanted in life, a high-level job, respect and power as a district "magistrate", a family of good standard and a house rearranged as he wished....
but here comes the pain, or just called by Ivan, "IT" ; it’s just so called initially a strange discomfort in the abdomen, and then it turns ...more
The story begins with Ivan’s presentation, a man who has achieved everything he wanted in life, a high-level job, respect and power as a district "magistrate", a family of good standard and a house rearranged as he wished....
but here comes the pain, or just called by Ivan, "IT" ; it’s just so called initially a strange discomfort in the abdomen, and then it turns ...more
Audiobook....read by Simon Prebble....
....a short 2 hour novella - Thanks to Audible, this was a freebie with my membership....and .... ‘wow’....I was left feeling very sad at the end....somewhat scared too.....
A little share:
Once in a book group discussion-around 20 of us —-sitting at our large table Saturday morning in Barnes and Noble-we were discussing another book ....
.....the topic about death and dying was quite heated. There were those who shared working in hospice...( many sad stor ...more
....a short 2 hour novella - Thanks to Audible, this was a freebie with my membership....and .... ‘wow’....I was left feeling very sad at the end....somewhat scared too.....
A little share:
Once in a book group discussion-around 20 of us —-sitting at our large table Saturday morning in Barnes and Noble-we were discussing another book ....
.....the topic about death and dying was quite heated. There were those who shared working in hospice...( many sad stor ...more
Dec 18, 2018
Piyangie
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
short-story-novella,
russian-lit
The story of The Death of Ivan Ilych profoundly touches on the concepts of life and death. Although I have come across books that talk deeply about life, I cannot say the same about death. And this book quite compensated for that omission.
Tolstoy, through the fictitious character of Ivan Ilych, exposes the concept of death and human feelings when they are confronted with death. Ivan Ilych, a judge, leads an active professional life and performs his social duty well. He is also a husband and a ...more
Tolstoy, through the fictitious character of Ivan Ilych, exposes the concept of death and human feelings when they are confronted with death. Ivan Ilych, a judge, leads an active professional life and performs his social duty well. He is also a husband and a ...more
I was unprepared for how darkly depressing this was. A novella titled “The Death of Ivan Ilych” is likely to confront mortality and include dying and bereavement at least as much as death itself. It is unlikely to be a jolly romp. Plus, it’s Russian. Nevertheless, I would have preferred the ghosts or bloody gore of a horror story - a genre I generally avoid.
Image: Stereotypes: In English lit, heroes die for honour. In French they die for love. In American they die for freedom. And in Russian lit ...more
Image: Stereotypes: In English lit, heroes die for honour. In French they die for love. In American they die for freedom. And in Russian lit ...more
If you are bothered by your own mortality then consider yourself forewarned. It's not just the thought of dying much too young, just when you have gained a level of accomplishment, but also to die in agony, slowly. I've seen it much to close in my life, and to read such a vivid account was difficult. The power of writing, of good writing, can take you many places, even places you don't want to go.
...more
Well written, but grim. Not fun. 3-stars.
Just as David Allen Coe sang the perfect Country and Western song, so might this be the perfect Russian short story / novella.
Tolstoy has all the pertinent Russian elements: death, misery, estrangement, corrupt aristocracy, worthless professional class, strong and noble peasantry metaphorically and actually carrying the rich on their backs, guilt and a moment of clarity before the end.
...more
Tolstoy has all the pertinent Russian elements: death, misery, estrangement, corrupt aristocracy, worthless professional class, strong and noble peasantry metaphorically and actually carrying the rich on their backs, guilt and a moment of clarity before the end.
...more
Almost all of us have come up with the tight situation of facing death, be it an accident, or diagnosis of a fatal disease even a wrong one, or natural hazards, and so on. If not one has at least pondered death, knowing it is one of those experiences that one would go through alone may make it seem more exclusive. I encountered a situation recently, which made me think deeply about death, so I picked this book after watching one of my favourite movies, which is somehow an adaption of the death o
...more
The more Tolstoy I read, the more I appreciate his literary genius and his philosophic thoughts. This was a relatively short book dealing with Ivan Ilyich's realization of his impending death. His life had been mediocre at best and he realizes he hadn't really been happy and had been trying to live an "ideal" life. What awful thoughts to realize when one is so close to death!
...more
This fine novella by Tolstoy starts off by setting the scene of Ivan Ilych´s funeral. Narrated by his former school friend, there is a sarcastic undertone when referring to the behavior of attending individuals, whether family or friends or business partners, who pursue their own agenda instead of mourning the death of Ilych.
The following chapters are dedicated to Ivan Ilych´s dramatic inner world and his thoughts as they change during the course of his terminal illness. He reflects, whether he ...more
The following chapters are dedicated to Ivan Ilych´s dramatic inner world and his thoughts as they change during the course of his terminal illness. He reflects, whether he ...more
I read this novella a couple of weeks ago and I did not write a review right away; I had to put my thoughts in order (they rarely are but, oh well). That only happens after reading an amazing book, brilliantly written, that deals with the human condition like Dostoyevsky's keen eye can deal. This book is about life itself, life in its most virtuous and degrading glory. This masterpiece has no more than 120 pages, but it manages to show many perspectives on different issues concerning the human n
...more
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” ~Dylan Thomas
Ivan Ilych is slipping away and he knows it. His progression (regression?) into darkness is one of introspection and regret. Interspersed amid the episodes of physical pain, brought about by injury and illness, are Ilych’s contemplations on the meaning of life.
Being led inside the head of a dying man isn’t my idea of a good time, but Tolstoy, being Tolsto ...more
Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” ~Dylan Thomas
Ivan Ilych is slipping away and he knows it. His progression (regression?) into darkness is one of introspection and regret. Interspersed amid the episodes of physical pain, brought about by injury and illness, are Ilych’s contemplations on the meaning of life.
Being led inside the head of a dying man isn’t my idea of a good time, but Tolstoy, being Tolsto ...more
My very first Tolstoy. Oh, of course I know of this titan of literature and of course I know one of his most important works, Anna Karenina. However, I had actually considered reading his work(s) in their original language so I started learning Russian back when I had a bit more spare time ... only I got derailed and still am not on a level that would allow me to read such works in Russian. However, a friend persuaded me to at least read a short story of his, even if it is a translated version a
...more
Ivan Ilych is dead.
After a long, agonizing, indeterminate illness, the lively, amiable and intelligent man is no more.
All was going well and life was being lived more or less agreeably, until the moment death came knocking on his door.
Life is there and now it is going and I cannot stop it.
But what is the meaning of life and what is death? Why this torment, this agony? Why should he die while others around him are alive and well.
When I am not, what will there be? There will be nothing. Then whe ...more
After a long, agonizing, indeterminate illness, the lively, amiable and intelligent man is no more.
All was going well and life was being lived more or less agreeably, until the moment death came knocking on his door.
Life is there and now it is going and I cannot stop it.
But what is the meaning of life and what is death? Why this torment, this agony? Why should he die while others around him are alive and well.
When I am not, what will there be? There will be nothing. Then whe ...more
My first dabble in classic Russian literature since A Level Philosophy.... It's not as daunting when you don't have to analyse every sentence!
A short classic listened to via Scribd.
Very much enjoyed this story; easy to follow and I think everyone could take something from this. ...more
A short classic listened to via Scribd.
Very much enjoyed this story; easy to follow and I think everyone could take something from this. ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goodreads Librari...: New German Edition | 2 | 8 | Dec 02, 2022 09:40AM | |
| Goodreads Librari...: book description (done) | 2 | 7 | Nov 08, 2022 09:45AM | |
| Play Book Tag: The Death of Ivan Illych by Leo Tolstoy>3 stars | 1 | 9 | May 23, 2022 01:23PM | |
| Play Book Tag: The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Tolstoy - 3 stars | 2 | 17 | Mar 30, 2022 09:34PM | |
| Play Book Tag: The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Tolstoy - 3 stars | 1 | 7 | Mar 28, 2022 10:00AM | |
| Play Book Tag: The Death of Ivan Ilych/Tolstoy - 5 stars | 6 | 20 | Mar 22, 2022 09:26PM | |
| Play Book Tag: The Death of Ivan Ilych/Tolstoy - 5 stars | 3 | 14 | Mar 18, 2022 11:25AM |
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Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacl
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Articles featuring this book
In this latest installment of our semi-regular Themed Reading adventure series, we tackle the heaviest theme of all: Life and Death!
It’s not...
39 likes · 7 comments
“Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?”
—
245 likes
“Morning or night, Friday or Sunday, made no difference, everything was the same: the gnawing, excruciating, incessant pain; that awareness of life irrevocably passing but not yet gone; that dreadful, loathsome death, the only reality, relentlessly closing in on him; and that same endless lie. What did days, weeks, or hours matter?”
—
149 likes
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