The Death of Ivan Ilyich - Softcover

Tolstoy, Leo

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1512381322 ISBN 13: 9781512381320

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

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.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

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.

About the Author:

Nikolai Tolstoy is a highly recognized and acclaimed historian and biographer. He was the sole beneficiary of his stepfather's will and is one of the trustees of O'Brian's estate.

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1512381322
• ISBN 13: 9781512381320
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 92