Other editions of book The Death of Ivan Ilych

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 death 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. How, Tolstoy asks, does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth?This short novel was the artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life, a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction. A thoroughly absorbing and, at times, terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death, it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.

The brilliance of this story is in how a normal bureaucrat, a judge in this case, has a small accident that winds up gradually taking his life. As he deals with this incident, with hope at first and then despair, he comes to terms with his family, his life, and the mediocrities that we all suffer with, except for the exceptional few. This story rings a particularly poignant note for those in early middle age facing the next part of their lives. This story is considered Tolstoy's best.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich was first published in 1886. It is a novella by Leo Tolstoy. It is one of Tolstoy's most celebrated pieces of late fiction. This work stems in part from Tolstoy's anguished intellectual and spiritual struggles which led to his conversion to Christianity. Central to the story is an examination on the nature of both life and death, and how man can come to terms with death's very inevitability. The novella was acclaimed by Vladimir Nabokov and Mahatma Gandhi as the greatest in the whol

One of the most perfect works by the author of War and Peace, The Death of Ivan Ilych is one of Leo Tolstoy's most celebrated pieces of late fiction. Dealing with the tyranny of the bourgeois niceties, the weakness in the human heart, living without meaning and death. Ivan Ilych Golovin has spent his life chasing after wealth and status to the deliration while ignoring his family. After a minor accident Ivan isn't going to recover and it is clear that he is going to die. Contemplating his life Ivan Ilych realizes that he has lived an empty existence as he finds himself totally alone.

Drawing on the experience of his own struggle to find enlightenment and a deeper spiritual understanding of life, Leo Tolstoy takes us on the final journey towards death with Ivan Ilyich, who, falling victim to an incurable illness, ponders his life in its shallowness and lack of compassion, ultimately wondering about the meaning of it all.At times somber and satirical, Tolstoy s novel raises questions about the way we live and how we should strive even at the end to seek final redemption. It is a powerful masterpiece of psychological exploration and has influenced writers as diverse as Hemingway and Nabokov.This version is translated by Aylmer and Louise Maude.

Leo Tolstoy's novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich begins shortly after Ivan Ilyich's death. A small group of legal professionals, court members, and a private prosecutor have gathered in a private room within the Law Courts, and while looking through a newspaper one of them reads the following; "Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina, with profound sorrow, informs relatives and friends of the demise of her beloved husband Ivan Ilyich Golovin, Member of the Court of Justice, which occurred on February the 4th of this year 1882. The funeral will take place on Friday at one o'clock in the afternoon." Immediately members of the group begin to think how Ilyich's passing will affect their positions and status; They thank God it didn't happen to them and ponder on the implications of how they might benefit from their colleagues demise, each one of them oblivious of the fact that death will come to them all. ¬ The story takes us back and we see Ivan Ilyich in the prime of his life. He has studied law and is now a judge. He performs his work with a cold discipline and he is a social climber who has become devoid of emotion. He lacks empathy and any concern for his fellow man, seeking only to reach the top where he can look down upon his peers. One day Ivan has a fall whilst decorating his new house. He sustains an injury and although he doesn't know it, the injury will cause him to become ill and he will die as a result. During his illness he becomes bad tempered and bitter and refuses to believe he is coming to the end of his life. He gets little sympathy from his family and his only solace are his conversations with Gerasim, a peasant who stays by his bed and gives him honesty and kindness. Reflecting on his current situation and his past life Ivan's worldview begins to change. He realizes the higher he climbed in his noble profession the more unhappy he became, and looking back he realizes how meaningless his life had been. Slowly Ivan comes to term with his immanent death and finally he sees the light. He begins to feel sorry for those about him busying themselves living a life of habit unable to see how artificial their existence is and that they are not living a good life at all. Finally after his illumination he dies in a moment of exquisite happiness. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is Tolstoy's attack on the smug satisfaction of a middle and upper class population, who in his mind live artificial meaningless lives, lives of separateness unaware of their creator and what lies before them after death. Tolstoy's critic Vladimir Nabokov summed it up when he wrote; "The Tolstoyan formula is: Ivan lived a bad life and since the bad life is nothing but the death of the soul, then Ivan lived a living death; and since beyond death is God's living light, then Ivan died into a new life - Life with a capital L."

The indignant and frightened thoughts of a good man who is, suddenly and inexplicably, dying: this is the crux of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, composed by Leo Tolstoy in the period just following his vehement conversion to a more virulent form of Christianity. A sharp criticism of the mediocre – and in Tolstoy’s view, meaningless – life being played out by an emerging middle class in Russia, Ivan Ilyich was written as a kind of warning against complacency masked as contentedness and a call for his readers to contemplate the possible meaninglessness of their own lives.

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 avoids the reality of death and the effort it takes to make life worthwhile. In Tolstoy's own words, "Ivan Ilyich's life had been . . . most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Newly designed and typeset in a modern 5.5-by-8.5-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

A novella by Leo Tolstoy, one of the masterpieces of his late fiction. Ivan Ilyich Golovin, a high court judge in St. Petersburg with a wife and family, lives a carefree life and like everyone he is aware of, he lives a life spent almost entirely in climbing the social ladder, and his life begins to amass more hypocrisy as it goes on. Enduring life with a wife whom he often finds too demanding, he works his way up to be a magistrate focusing more and more on his work as family life becomes more miserable. While hanging curtains for his new home one day, Ivan Ilyich falls awkwardly and hurts his side. As Ilyich's discomfort increases, his behavior towards his family becomes more irritable. His wife finally insists that he visit a physician. The physician cannot pinpoint the source of his malady, but soon it becomes clear that his condition is terminal. He is brought face to face with his mortality, and realizes that although he knows of it, he does not truly grasp it.