Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession, The

Leo Tolstoy

4.06 out of 5 stars

1,106 ratings by Goodreads

9781501221514: Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession, The

ISBN 10: 1501221515 ISBN 13: 9781501221514

Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio, 2015

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A pairing of Tolstoy's most spiritual and existential works of fiction and nonfiction from the renowned translator of Turgenev and Chekhov.

In the last two days of his own life, Peter Carson completed these new translations of The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Confession before he succumbed to cancer in January 2013. Carson, the eminent British publisher, editor, and translator who, in the words of his author Mary Beard, "had probably more influence on the literary landscape of [England] over the past fifty years than any other single person," must have seen the irony of translating Ilyich, Tolstoy's profound meditation on death and loss, "but he pressed on regardless, apparently refusing to be distracted by the parallel of literature and life." In Carson's shimmering prose, these two transcendent works are presented in their most faithful rendering in English. Unlike so many previous translations that have tried to smooth out Tolstoy's rough edges, Carson presents a translation that captures the verisimilitude and psychological realism of the original Russian text.

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About the Author

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 on his family’s estate in the Tula Province of Russia. The author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina, he died in 1910 at a remote rail station in Astapovo, Russia.

Review

“This wonderful modern edition of Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich appears side by side with the autobiographical Confession in a new translation by Peter Carson―perhaps even more remarkable for having been completed as Carson, a famed editor and previous translator of works by Turgenev and Chekhov, was himself dying.... Death has seldom been more starkly or plainly rendered.... Among the best treatments of death and belief in any art form.... A generous remembrance of Peter Carson by Mary Beard and a note comparing past translations complement an accomplishment in literature that belongs in every library.”
- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“If you had one year to live, how would you spend it? That’s a question most of us wouldn’t know how to answer but for one British publisher and translator it was easy: to translate Tolstoy’s great story about a dying man, The Death of Ivan Illyich....”
- Edward Platt, The Daily Beast

“This volume...for all its somberness of subject, is a vindication of the human spirit.”
- John Sutherland, The Spectator