The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Leo Tolstoy
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Narrator: Oliver Ford Davies

Unabridged: 2 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Naxos

Published: 11/26/2007

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

Drawing on the experience of his own struggle to find enlightenment and a deeper spiritual understanding of life, Tolstoy in The Death of Ivan Ilyich takes us on the final journey towards death with Ivan Ilyich, who, falling victim to an incurable illness, ponders on his own life – its shallowness and lack of compassion, wondering what is the meaning of it all. At times sombre, at times 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. Translated by Aylmer and Louise Maude.

About Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 at Yasnaya Polyana in central Russia and educated privately. He studied Oriental languages and law at the University of Kazan, then led a life of dissipation until 1851, when he went to the Caucasus and joined an artillery regiment. He took part in the Crimean War, and on the basis of this experience wrote The Sevastopol Stories, which confirmed his tenuous reputation as a writer.

After a period in St. Petersburg and abroad, where he studied educational methods for use in his school for peasant children at Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy married Sofya Behrs in 1862. The next fifteen years was a period of great happiness: the couple had thirteen children, and Tolstoy managed his estates, continued his educational projects, and wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

A Confession marked a spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life; he became an extreme moralist, and in a series of pamphlets written after 1880, he expressed his rejection of state and church, indictment of the weaknesses of the flesh, and denunciation of private property. He published his last novel, Resurrection, in 1900.

Tolstoy's teaching earned him many followers at home and abroad, but also much opposition, and in 1901 he was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church. He died in 1910.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Lisa of Troy on February 18, 2024

Written in 1886 by Tolstoy, the novella begins at the funeral of Ivan Ilyich. His wife is trying to find out if she is entitled to even more money, and his co-workers are already relishing in their promotional opportunities now that his spot is open. The book covers the backstory of Ivan’s life: his......more

Goodreads review by Paul on September 02, 2020

The Russians have got me by the throat this pandemical year, Dostoyevsky, Goncharev, Gogol, and now Tolstoy. This is short, sharp, straightforward and unforgettable. Ivan Ilyich is a modern man with a career, a wife, a family and a house and not quite enough money. Looks like he’s going to lose his......more