The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Rating:
Summary: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Review: The Death of Ivan Ilyich was a wonderful book that dove deep in to the realities of the death of Ivan. The character in the book named Ivan faces the fact that his life is going to be cut short, and he realizes that he never had the good life he wanted. I thought that this book gave a good realization on what death could be like, and what a person could truly go through. This book had a wonderful plot hat really left a person thinking, and wondering what would be in store for them. The book gave the reader a good sense of what Ivan was going through. Through out the book Ivan was denying the fact that he was going to die, and was in a sense going insane form all of his thoughts. In the end of the book, the author showed us how Ivan got over that insanity and how he accepted his fate.

Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece by a master
Review: There are books that must be read and reread, and there are great pieces of literature that really tell as much about the reader as the characters in the story. This story is great literature.

I have read this short story several times, and am amazed at how much changes each time I read it.

A simple plot. A successful judge, moving "up the ladder" (as we all aspire to), has what turns out to be a fatal accident. Over the next few months his health deteriorates and as he suffers he (and each of us as readers) is forced to see himself and the people in his life through a different lens. Slowly he has to grapple with THE great questions: What is life about? Has my life been worthwhile?

The structure is superb. By giving us the story in the sequence he does, Tolstoy forces us to see his point, without being 'preachy' or pedantic. The gentle touch of a genius.

Rating:
Summary: I stand amazed...
Review: There are so many levels upon which this story can be read, yet they are woven so inextricably into this masterpiece that the complexity is staggering. The premise sounds simple: a man who is about to die realizes he has never fully lived. We've all heard this before--in fact, Hollywood likes to drum such messages into our heads on a regular basis. But rarely, if ever, is it portrayed with the exquisite mastery which Tolstoy employed upon writing "The Death of Ivan Ilyich".

Paradoxically, this story is just as much about the life of Ivan Ilyich as it is about his death. This is in order to fully appreciate who he is and the man he has made of himself before disaster strikes. It is also to highlight both the tragic deterioration of his life and the gradual enlightenment of his inmost soul.

In portraying Ivan Ilyich's character, Tolstoy's subtle but inexorable condemnation is devastating. Not a detail is gratuitous: every point further serves to illustrate what is essentially a life without ideals and without purpose. Yet the author does not beat us over the head with this, rather than allowing the clear and unembellished facts to speak for themselves. And the way Tolstoy knew exactly which facts to accentuate creates a psychological depth which is unparalleled.

Many seem to be under the impression that Ivan Ilyich was some sort of villain, and that the story is a warning against corruption and bad behavior. My personal view is that Ivan Ilyich is no worse--although no better--than many people. Perhaps he is of a slightly lesser moral calibre than most, but that does not make him completely evil. To believe that he is evil is to miss the whole point, for this story was meant to be universal, to depict a reality which exists for us all. This is obvious from the way the story begins, with Ivan Ilyich's friends' and relatives' reactions to his death. Like him, they see death as something that can never happen to them, and like him they lead lives which are shallow and superficial in an attempt to avoid the unpleasant realities of life. By the time he dies, Ivan Ilyich has risen above these people by at last coming to the realization of the worthlessness of his life. This has elevated 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."

Therein lies the impact of this story: Ivan Ilyich is Everyman, and the message he represents is applicable at every moment in our lives.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This book truly makes you question what is valuable in your life. The main character is a prominent attorney who realizes only to late that he has lived a shallow life

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional and quick read
Review: This is an exceptional book. On one front, you have an opportunity to explore Tolstoy's mind without devouring one of his more notable (and lengthy) novels (War and Peace, Anna K). That alone should be worth reading the 100 or so pages.

On another front, this work ranks up there as one of the greatest literary achievements since ink found its way on paper. Do not be fooled by the titled. This book is not about death, but about life. After finishing this book, one question loomed frequently in my head: is death nothing more than a state of mind?

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional and quick read
Review: This is an exceptional book. On one front, you have an opportunity to explore Tolstoy's mind without devouring one of his more notable (and lengthy) novels (War and Peace, Anna K). That alone should be worth reading the 100 or so pages.

On another front, this work ranks up there as one of the greatest literary achievements since ink found its way on paper. Do not be fooled by the titled. This book is not about death, but about life. After finishing this book, one question loomed frequently in my head: is death nothing more than a state of mind?

Rating:
Summary: Death brought to Life
Review: This novella is a poignant meditation on death. I can't imagine a tougher subject to think about, let alone write about. With his characteristic humanistic style, Tolstoy depicts the stages of man's death, from cognizance to acceptance. It may not be a completely accurate blanket account of death, but it sure seems to come close to what death might be like. Mortality is always difficult to come to grips with, and Tolstoy handles the subject beautifully, giving us, as he did with War and Peace, not answers but what he feels is the inevitable.

Rating:
Summary: Why search among the dead for one who lives ?
Review: This shattering double novel on the awakening of the soul amidst the decay of the body is one of the rare summits of the world literature.It is, along with a few short novels of Dostoevsky, Melville, Faulkner or Conrad, life altering reading experience of this particular genre. Suffused with what one might term as the Christian spirit, the novelette is astonishingly free from any suffocating dogma or orthodoxy. The parable on mediocre sufferer Ivan Everyman could have been written in Sumer, Iran, China or Greece. It could have been dated 2000 B.C. or 2000 A.D. Wherever human 'pneuma' is thrown against void within & without, wherever shrieking fear of extinction is submerged by terrible cognizance of life lived respectably and meaninglessly- Tolstoy will be there.

Rating:
Summary: Read it for "Ivan Ilyich" alone
Review: This volume contains three novellas by Tolstoy, of which "The Cossacks" was most famous in his own time. Yet, I thought that "The Cossacks" was the weakest of the three.

"Happy Ever After" is the story of a young woman, Marya Alexandrovna, who marries a man (Sergei Mihailovich) twice her age. It's essentially a tale about the dangers of such a union - Sergei Mihailovich is approaching comfortable middle age and wants a settled life, whereas his wife wants to live her life to the full, and to explore the urban social scene missing from her life in the country. Told with sensitivity, it's an antidote to all those nineteenth century novels in which marriage is seen as a happy ending.

I thought "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was superb. A deeply moving examination of trials and tribulations of someone who knows he's approaching death. You can't help but think over how you yourself might cope in such a situation. Would your friends and relatives act in the same way as Ivan Ilyich's? I can hardly remember reading such a skilled yet short piece of writing.

"The Cossacks" however, I thought was exactly the opposite - a flabby, romantic tale in which the rich young man, Olenin, escapes life in the big city to do military service in the Caucasus. There, the Cossacks live between the Russians and the Chechans - at best putting up with the former, but constantly at war with the latter. "The Cossacks" is in part a travelogue, and in sections is interesting because of that. But I found the almost idyllic descriptions of the simple rural, back-to-basics lifestyle too far overdone. Despite being relatively short, it dragged badly.

G Rodgers

Rating:
Summary: Read it for "Ivan Ilyich" alone
Review: This volume contains three novellas by Tolstoy, of which "The Cossacks" was most famous in his own time. Yet, I thought that "The Cossacks" was the weakest of the three.

"Happy Ever After" is the story of a young woman, Marya Alexandrovna, who marries a man (Sergei Mihailovich) twice her age. It's essentially a tale about the dangers of such a union - Sergei Mihailovich is approaching comfortable middle age and wants a settled life, whereas his wife wants to live her life to the full, and to explore the urban social scene missing from her life in the country. Told with sensitivity, it's an antidote to all those nineteenth century novels in which marriage is seen as a happy ending.

I thought "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" was superb. A deeply moving examination of trials and tribulations of someone who knows he's approaching death. You can't help but think over how you yourself might cope in such a situation. Would your friends and relatives act in the same way as Ivan Ilyich's? I can hardly remember reading such a skilled yet short piece of writing.

"The Cossacks" however, I thought was exactly the opposite - a flabby, romantic tale in which the rich young man, Olenin, escapes life in the big city to do military service in the Caucasus. There, the Cossacks live between the Russians and the Chechans - at best putting up with the former, but constantly at war with the latter. "The Cossacks" is in part a travelogue, and in sections is interesting because of that. But I found the almost idyllic descriptions of the simple rural, back-to-basics lifestyle too far overdone. Despite being relatively short, it dragged badly.

G Rodgers