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    The Death of Ivan Ilych
    The Death of Ivan Ilych
    The Death of Ivan Ilych
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    The Death of Ivan Ilych

    By Leo Tolstoy and Reading Time

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    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
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherReading Time
    Release dateApr 1, 2019
    ISBN9782379261466
    Author

    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.

    Read more from Leo Tolstoy

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    Reviews for The Death of Ivan Ilych

    4/5

    54 ratings20 reviews

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    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      This book is the portuguese translation of the russian original Смерть Ивана Ильпча. This is a terrible book. Admittedly a masterpiece, but a terrible work nevertheless: the portrait of a high level judge's life from the moment he discovers he has an incurable illness until his innescapable death. One probably needs a genius of Tolstoy's stature to be able to produce such a portrait, at once engaging and depressing, of human suffering and decay.
    • 3/5
      Blow by blow account of the thoughts of Ivan Ilych as he lays dying, wallowing in his own misery and self-pity and ruminating over the meaningless of his life. As usual, I can't really get inside the Russian mindset, and the only really effective parts of the book for me are some of Tolstoy's observations about home decorating (seriously). I'm sure I will think about this from time to time, however; and when I find my self on MY death bed, I won't be reading Tolstoy.
    • 5/5
      Powerful, powerful book about the range of emotions the main character goes through as he learns that his time on earth is dwindling quickly.
    • 4/5
      I wish I'd gotten one of the many collections of Tolstoy's novellas rather than just The Death... I would recommend you do so yourself if you're interested in this great Russian writer.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Very well written novella by Tolstoy. I was worried after "Anna Karenina" Tolstoy might have lost his way as he became older. However this was much more like the Tolstoy I remember from "War and Peace". A very affecting study of one man's life and death.
    • 3/5
      Leo Tolstoy examines death up close. The story went exactly where I expected it to: old man regrets follies of life on deathbed and turns religious. I felt like this was more a fable or morality tale than a real showcase of human emotions.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      a good story of a dying man. good introduction
    • 2/5
      this book was supposed to be a bout a man's review of his life and his relationship with God. At the end of the book I was still wondering what he'd really learned from all of this. There was no grand revelation for me. I do think he realized what his family should have meant to him, but other than that there was nothing. I was very disappointed and wonder what I was supposed to get from the book.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      A Russian judge finds the meaning of life through death and struggles with the reality of his own mortality. I was quite taken aback by the relevance of this work even today. I found myself on numerous occasions pondering whether I have lived my own life the right way and what I can do to live better in the future.
    • 3/5
      I liked the concept, but quickly grew bored.
    • 5/5
      Oh non-Gothic, gothic horror. Oh sweaty relief. (ew)

      I wish I'd been a writing sort in high school--the books I read then were arguably more interesting than the ones I read now, brief Michael Crichton preoccupation excepted.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Word I wasn't expecting to read in this bleak masterpiece: pasties. (Hugh Alpin translator, UK's Hesperus Press)
    • 5/5
      Two spoilers: Ivan dies, and this book is great.
    • 4/5
      Think over whether you live the life that you want to live or simply do the "correct" things unquestionably.

    Book preview

    The Death of Ivan Ilych - Leo Tolstoy

    Ilych

    Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

    (Translator: Louise and Aylmer Maude)

    Published: 1886

    Categorie(s): Fiction, Short Stories

    Chapter 1

    During an interval in the Melvinski trial in the large building of the Law Courts the members and public prosecutor met in Ivan Egorovich Shebek's private room, where the conversation turned on the celebrated Krasovski case. Fedor Vasilievich warmly maintained that it was not subject to their jurisdiction, Ivan Egorovich maintained the contrary, while Peter Ivanovich, not having entered into the discussion at the start, took no part in it but looked through the Gazette which had just been handed in.

    Gentlemen, he said, Ivan Ilych has died!

    You don't say so!

    Here, read it yourself, replied Peter Ivanovich, handing Fedor Vasilievich the paper still damp from the press. Surrounded by a black border were the words: Praskovya Fedorovna Golovina, with profound sorrow, informs relatives and friends of the demise of her beloved husband Ivan Ilych 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.

    Ivan Ilych had been a colleague of the gentlemen present and was liked by them all. He had been ill for some weeks with an illness said to be incurable. His post had been kept open for him, but there had been conjectures that in case of his death Alexeev might receive his appointment, and that either Vinnikov or Shtabel would succeed Alexeev. So on receiving the news of Ivan Ilych's death the first thought of each of the gentlemen in that private room was of the changes and promotions it might occasion among themselves or their acquaintances.

    I shall be sure to get Shtabel's place or Vinnikov's, thought Fedor Vasilievich. I was promised that long ago, and the promotion means an extra eight hundred rubles a year for me besides the allowance.

    Now I must apply for my brother-in-law's transfer from Kaluga, thought Peter Ivanovich. My wife will be very glad, and then she won't be able to say that I never do anything for her relations. I thought he would never leave his bed again, said Peter Ivanovich aloud. It's very sad. But what really was the matter with him?

    The doctors couldn't say—at least they could, but each of them said something different. When last I saw him I though he was getting better.

    And I haven't been to see him since the holidays. I always meant to go. Had he any property?

    I think his wife had a little—but something quite trifling.

    We shall have to go to see her, but they live so terribly far away.

    Far away from you, you mean. Everything's far away from your place.

    You see, he never can forgive my living on the other side of the river, said Peter Ivanovich, smiling at Shebek. Then, still talking of the distances between different parts of the city, they returned to the Court.

    Besides considerations as to the possible transfers and promotions likely to result from Ivan Ilych's death, the mere fact of the death of a near acquaintance aroused, as usual, in all who heard of it the complacent feeling that, it is he who is dead and not I.

    Each one thought or felt, Well, he's dead but I'm alive! But the more intimate of Ivan Ilych's acquaintances, his so-called friends, could not help thinking also that they would now have to fulfill the very tiresome demands of propriety by attending the funeral service and paying a visit of condolence to the widow.

    Fedor Vasilievich and Peter Ivanovich had been his nearest acquaintances. Peter Ivanovich had studied law with Ivan Ilych and had considered himself to be under obligations to him. Having told his wife at dinner-time of Ivan Ilych's death, and of his conjecture that it might be possible to get her brother transferred to their circuit, Peter Ivanovich sacrificed his usual nap, put on his evening clothes and drove to Ivan Ilych's house.

    At the entrance stood a carriage and two cabs. Leaning against the wall in the hall downstairs near the cloakstand was a coffin-lid covered with cloth of gold, ornamented with gold cord and tassels, that had been polished up with metal powder. Two ladies in black were taking off their fur cloaks. Peter Ivanovich recognized one of them as Ivan Ilych's sister, but the other was a stranger to him. His colleague Schwartz was just coming downstairs, but on seeing Peter Ivanovich enter he stopped and winked at him, as if to say: Ivan Ilych has made a mess of things—not like you and me.

    Schwartz's face with his Piccadilly whiskers, and his slim figure in evening dress, had as usual an air of elegant solemnity which contrasted with the playfulness of his character and had a special piquancy here, or so it seemed to Peter Ivanovich.

    Peter Ivanovich allowed the ladies to precede him and slowly followed them upstairs. Schwartz did not come down but remained where he was, and Peter Ivanovich understood that he wanted to arrange where they should play bridge that evening. The ladies went upstairs to the widow's room, and Schwartz with seriously compressed lips but a playful look in his eyes, indicated by a twist of his eyebrows the room to the right where the body lay.

    Peter Ivanovich, like everyone else on such occasions, entered feeling uncertain what he would have to do. All he knew was that at such times it is always safe to cross oneself. But he was not quite sure whether one should make obseisances while doing so. He therefore adopted a middle course. On entering the room he began crossing himself and made a slight movement resembling a bow. At the same time, as far as the motion of his head and arm allowed, he surveyed the room. Two young men—apparently nephews, one of whom was a high-school pupil—were leaving the room, crossing themselves as they did so. An old woman was standing motionless, and a lady with strangely arched eyebrows was saying something to her in a whisper. A vigorous, resolute Church Reader, in a frock-coat, was reading something in a loud voice with an expression that precluded any contradiction. The butler's assistant, Gerasim, stepping lightly in front of Peter Ivanovich, was strewing something on the floor. Noticing this, Peter Ivanovich was immediately aware of a faint odour of a decomposing body.

    The last time he had called on Ivan Ilych, Peter Ivanovich had seen Gerasim in the study. Ivan Ilych had been particularly fond of him and he was performing the duty of a sick nurse. Peter Ivanovich continued to make the sign of the cross slightly

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