The Death of Ivan Ilych

by Leo Tolstoy

‘It’s as if I had been going downhill when I thought I was going uphill. That’s how it was. In society’s opinion I was heading uphill, but in equal measure life was slipping away from me ... And now it’s all over. Nothing left but to die!

‘So nice, and so simple,’ he thought. ‘But what about the pain?’ he wondered. ‘Where’s it gone? Hey, pain, where are you?’

‘Oh, here it comes. So what? Bring on the pain.’ ‘What about death? Where is it?’