The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories By Leo Tolstoy

brian

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Sumati

The story of Ivan Ilyich was like wine — it goes down smoothly, but leaves a biting, succulent and lasting impression. The book is a deep and moving scrutiny of loss and absolution, in which the writer explores the dichotomy between the artificial and the authentic life. This book is probably the best account of the physiological and psychological panic, a man feels when so close to his own death.

“Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.”

Ivan Ilyich is the story of a respected, gregarious and a healthy middle aged court justice who suddenly sickens and dies. He leaves behind a wife (a woman Ivan disliked), two grown up children, and a few startled friends/acquaintances whose reaction to his death range from better-him-than-me to how-will-this-affect-my-career-prospects. The novella examines the reactions of the wife, children and friends at Ivan’s funeral, but the bulk of the story summarizes Ivan’s life and his battle with death.

'I'll probably get Shtabel's or Vinnikov's job now,' thought Fyodor Vasilyevich." also "'I'll have to request a transfer from Kaluga for my brother-in-law now,' thought Pyotr Ivanovich.’the wife will be delighted. And now she won't be able to say I've never done anything for my relatives.'"

At the beginning of the book, Ivan’s death is announced,the effects of which are clearly seen amongst the colleagues. Who are Fyodor Vasilyevich and Pyotr Ivanovich? Well, they are you and I. Individuals who react to death in selfish, materialistic, and fearful ways.

Can it be that I have not lived as one ought?" suddenly came into his head. "But how not so, when I've done everything as it should be done?”

In the eyes of the world, Ivan Ilyich was the epitome of success but in his own eyes he was a failure. Ilyich realizes that his entire hunt to befit himself into the shades of the society left him with absolutely no knowledge for coming to terms with death. Ultimately, the values of society left Ilyich with nothing of any true worth, with no idea of what his life should be. The modern society compels us to gloss over the reality of death. Society’s illusory and ludicrous norms force us to become strangers from life and death as well.

“The very fact of the death of someone close to them aroused in all who heard about it, as always, a feeling of delight that he had died and they hadn't.”

The brilliance of the book reflects when it brings light upon the dehumanizing aspects of our society. The doctor’s indifference towards the dying Ivan is nothing different than the insensitivity with which Ilyich treated the many that passed through his court during his career as a judge. Here, Tolstoy reminds us about the inability to recognize that other people’s lives are as significant as our own, is society’s greatest ill.

“And suddenly, it became clear to me that all this should not exist. Not only that it should not exist, but that it does not exist, and if this does not exist, then there is no death or fear, and the former rending in me is no more, and I am no longer afraid of anything. Here the light shown fully upon me, and I became what I am.”
At the very end Ilyich glimpses the joy of an authentic life and warns the reader of the dangers of living an unawakened life. Ivan’s last breath hopes that we can experience more than just a brief minute of this joy. Therefore, live fully!

Life is itself a memento mori and death is the proof reminding us that only by accepting our death can we hope to live an authentic life. According to Tolstoy, we must go against the grain and contemplate what the value of our lives can be when they will eventually end in death, if we are to find any meaning in a society that has taken so much of it away from us.

E. G.

Chronology
Introduction & Notes, by Anthony Briggs
Further Reading

--The Raid
--The Woodfelling
--Three Deaths
--Polikushka
--The Death of Ivan Ilyich
--After the Ball
--The Forged Coupon

Notes

marta the book slayer

Using this novel as my introduction to Leo Tolstoy's work. I'll be updating my review as I read through each short story. Out of all the short stories, I really enjoyed
The Death of Ivan Ilych and
The Forged Coupon.

3.5/5

The Raid ✰✰✰½
The story takes place in the Caucasus region and begins with a conversation between the narrator and a military captain about bravery.

‘Yes,’ I said, ‘it seems to me that in every danger there is a choice, and the choice that springs from a sense of duty, for example, is courage, while a choice made under the influence of base feelings is cowardice.

The narrator originally seems intrigued by the idea of participating in battle and questions why people willingly fight. We follow this narrator and meet a couple of key characters. One in particular peaked my interest. He is described as a charismatic man who in reality has a noble heart. He nurses one of his enemies to health after shooting him.

And how that man suffered, just to appear in his own eyes the way he wanted to appear, for his fellow officers and the soldiers could never see him the way he wanted to be seen.

Overall, I'm incredibly impressed by this short story and believe it was a strong start. I might have to get used to the lack of riveting plot I'm used to with fantasy novels and instead focus on the hidden meaning of the narrative.

The Woodfelling ✰✰✰
Through the perspective of a cadet, we meet a cast of characters once again fighting a battle in Caucasus. We learn that some are fighting in battle just to get recognition because returning to Russia without it would be unspeakable. The situation in Russia is regarded as fantastic by one person, but it is contrasted in the following chapter as a soldier's family has not responded to his letters and he assumes they're too poor to reply or want him to come home. The ending is a bit sad and overall I think the story captures the range of people you would meet in battle.

His last moments had been as bright and calm as his whole life. He had lived too honestly, too simply, for his unquestioning faith in the heavenly life to come to falter at the moment of truth.

Three Deaths ✰✰½
Finally encountered the first female characters in this collection of short stories. As expected this story is about three deaths, though the last one is not as obvious as the first two. Incredibly short and quick read that I enjoyed.

Polikushka ✰✰✰✰
So far the best short story I have read, however, it was considerably longer than the others. The main character, Polikey, is a man that has been a thief most of his life due to the influence of the man that raised him. Now poor, married, and a father of three children, Polikey is a drunk and continues to steal. After being caught by the mistress and begging for forgiveness, she gives Polikey an opportunity to show he has changed by tasking him with picking up a huge sum of money from a nearby village. Polikey does not know that the mistress has determined that his spot in the army will be taken by the nephew of another poor serf Datlov. An unfortunate circumstance occurs, forever changing the life of Polikey and Datlov. The ending chapter was a bit confusing, however, this short story was still a great read.

The Death of Ivan Ilych ✰✰✰✰✰

The past history of Ivan Illyich's life had been straightforward, ordinary and dreadful in the extreme.

Phenomenal from start to finish. This short story begins when Ivan's colleagues learn of his death. All are selfishly thinking of who will take his job, but are reminded that they must pay respects at his funeral. We meet Ivan's family at this funeral, but are taken back to the beginning of Ivan's life in the third chapter. Following along from his birth up to his death we learn that not all the riches in his life bring the happiness he so desperately desired. Once again, this was an outstanding short story; it is no surprise that this is his one of his most well-known works.

After the Ball ✰✰
Ivan discusses the events that occurred the night of a ball. He begins the tale as a love story, how enamored he was with the colonel’s daughter. Riding on a high back in his home, he decides to return her glove and heads to her place. Here he sees a frightening scene that changes his feelings and demonstrates the unsettling feeling of whether actions can truly be justified.

The Forged Coupon ✰✰✰✰½
Absolutely loved this one from start to finish. A 15 year old boy forges a coupon to pay back a debt he has with his friends. Initially we follow along with this forged coupon, and eventually we start seeing the drastic outcomes and how people's lives change from this simple illegal act. Although a lot more religious than the previous short stories, this one had my attention from the start.

Amin Alizadeh

من فقط از توصیفات زیاد رمان ها و داستانهای روسی کلافه میشم! وگرنه بقیش عالیه :))

Ludovica

Primo libro che leggo di Tolstoj... bella scrittura!

Amirsaman

(این ریویو را من برای درس اخلاق پزشکی می‌نویسم و بنابراین از دوستان گودریدزی بخاطر اظهار فضل‌های موجود در آن عذرخواهی می‌کنم!)

داستان تولستوی ماندگار است چون درباره‌ی نقصان علم پزشکی در قرن نوزدهم روسیه نیست (که از درمان یک آپاندیس عاجز بودند‌‌ و دارویی برای هپاتیت نداشتند). و نیز درباره‌ی چگونگی رنج کشیدن یک بیمار در حال مرگ نیست.
داستان تولستوی از انسانی سخن می‌گوید که خواهان یافتن معنا برای دردش است‌. و پاسخ؟ هیچ معنایی در کار نیست!
در نیمه‌ی اول داستان، تولستوی با طنزی گزنده سبک زندگی بورژوایی قرن نوزدهمی را به سخره می‌گیرد؛ آن انتظار برای ترفیع و موقعیت اجتماعی، آن دوستی‌های کاذب، این مبنا بودن ثروت برای تعیین خوشی و غم، ازدواج‌های بی‌عشق و طبقاتی، تئاتر رفتن‌ها ‌و مهمانی‌های از سر پز، و شغل‌هایی که برای فرار از تنهایی انتخاب می‌شوند.
و شاید همین --به تعبیر من-- «زندگی نااصیل» است که در روزهای قبل از مرگ، ایوان ایلیچ را به این نتیجه می‌رساند که زندگی بی‌حاصلی داشته.

برای ایوان ایلیچ، قضیهْ بیماری کبدی نیست، بلکه خود مرگ است‌. (و برخلاف تفسیرات معمول این داستان، بنظرم ایوان ایلیچ از همان ابتدا مرگ را می‌پذیرد و کشاکش انکار روانکاوانه‌ای در کار نیست.)
در مقابل، برای دکترها هم، «انسان بودگی» ایوان ایلیچ مهم نیست، بلکه خود بیماری اصل است (تشخیص بین آپاندیس و هپاتایتیسْ دغدغه‌ی ذهن پزشکان است و نه زندگی ایوان ایلیچ).

و اما نکته‌ای که داستان تولستوی بسیار بر آن تاکید ��ی‌گذارد، مفهوم تنهایی دم مرگ است. تولستوی، برخلاف نوربرت الیاس، تنهایی دم مرگ را محدود به بعد فیزیکی صرف نمی‌کند؛ بلکه می‌گوید فرد محتضر نیازمند همدم است. و آن هم نه همدمی‌کردنی مصنوعی (مثل تیم درم��ن یا خانواده‌ی وی)، بلکه کسی که از سر حقیقت با او مواجه شود: «بله تو داری می‌میری، و مهم نیست سال‌ها نوکرت بودم، بلکه حالا من بدنی سالم دارم و همین مرا برتر از تو قرار می‌دهد.» و ارتباط با همین بدن‌ها�� سالم راستگو است که حس زندگی را در ایوان ایلیچ زنده نگه می‌دارد.
در عوض، زندگان، برای فراموش کردن ترس از مرگ، آرزوی خلاصی از بدن ناقص همسر/پدر/همکار را دارند (که یادآور اضمحلال قریب‌الوقوع خودشان است).

بعد از ده سال به تولستوی برگشتم؛ آن هم با ترجمه‌ی کاظم انصاری که زحمت نسخه‌ی جنگ و صلح مرا هم او کشیده بود.
پرسپکتیو سوم شخصی که بر ذهن همه‌ی اشخاص داستان احاطه دارد. گاهی جزییات بسیار کوچکی را تعریف می‌کند و گاهی --بنابر اتوریته‌ی خودش-- یک واقعه‌ی ظاهرا مهم را تنها با یک فعل توصیف می‌کند و تمام. به عبارتی در داستان روسی، راوی حرفی برای گفتن دارد و همین باعث می‌شود نکاتی از قصه را تعریف کند که مناسب پیام مدنظرش است.

Nick

What a great collection of Tolstoy’s shorter fiction. Here are my star ratings for each story/novella:

The prisoner of the Caucasus - 5
The diary of a madman - 3.5
The death of Ivan Ilyich - 5
The Kreutzer sonata - 5
The devil - 4
Master and man - 4.5
Father Sergius - 5
After the ball - 3.5
The forged coupon - 3
Alyosha the pot - 3
Hadji Murat - 5

I thought Father Sergius was the best, followed closely by Hadji Murat and Ivan Ilyich.

Lee Klein

Got this for the title story/novella but came away more impressed/interested by the last long story, "The Forged Coupon." It's a baton passer, like Linklater's "Slacker" at first, before it settles on a handful of characters. Really loved it structurally, how it dramatized a chain of connections and consequences, and didn't mind that it introduced a rural Russian serial killer into the mix -- but since this is late Tolstoy, Stepan the Killer of course finds God, not the church but the true spirit of the Scriptures, astounding everyone how infected (Tolstoy keyword) he was by one of his victims who calmly informed him that he'd be damned by what he was about to do (cut her throat). Of all the Tolstoy stories read so far, it's this one I'll definitely re-read and study.

"After the Ball" is worth a re-read too, the story of how one night changed the narrator's life, when he witnessed a colonel's grace in one setting and soon after his cruelty in another -- it changed his life because he would've married the colonel's daughter if he hadn't witnessed the colonel's brutality and decided he was better off passing on the colonel for a father-in-law.

"The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is notable in part for its structure, starting with the titular character's death and then backtracking to his life, lightly mentioning the knob that bumped his side and caused some difficult to diagnose kidney damage. The story infects you with his suffering, the sense that everyone around you is aware of something they don't directly say, and it ends with a sort of luminous release into joy as he dies.

These final three stories are worth the price of admission -- doubly clear compared to "The Cossacks" thanks to the maturity of the writer and also I think the translator. I sense that Briggs errs on the side of clarity and traditional syntax in a way that makes these stories seem more like fables. Same was true with his translation of W&P.

I don't have much to say about the other stories in the collection because I didn't read them -- I'd start them, find it difficult to engage/latch on, skip to the next one, and then the next one, before I finally got to the one I'd bought the book for ("Ivan Ilyich"). I'll probably re-read the title story in a different translation at some point to compare and try to return to the first few stories at some point when I can read them while walking instead of ready for sleep in bed.

Viv JM

My edition of “The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories” was the Vintage book, translated by Pevear and Volhokonsky. It contains the following stories:

The Death of Ivan Ilych
The Prisoner of the Caucasus
The Diary of a Madman

The Kreutzer Sonata
The Devil

Master and Man
Father Sergius
After the Ball

The Forged Coupon
Alyosha the Pot
Hadji Murat
(those that are underlined, I have reviewed separately – follow the link for the review)

There are some definite repeated themes - namely sex, death and religious redemption. Mostly, the first leads to the second or the third!

As with any collection of stories, there are some I like more than others. I think my favourites would be “Master and Man” and “The Forged Coupon”. I found “Hadji Murat” a bit of a slog.

NightLights

My first Tolstoy.

Narges

به نظرم حس درد کشیدن و انتظار برای مرگ رو خیلی خوب تشریح کرده بود ، اینکه هممون حس میکنیم مرگ برای بقیه اس نه ما
این بقیه آدمان که میمیرن نه ما .... هیچ کدوممون تا وقتی مرگ واقعا سراغمون نیاد عمیقا باور نمی کنیم که ماهم باید بمیریم
وقتی تموم شد آرزو کردم کاش علت مرگم بیماری نباشه ، دوس ندارم درد بکشم و بمیرم :(
واقعا مرگ غیر منتظره و تصادفی رو ترجیح میدم

amin akbari

به نام او
‌
تنهاییِ دمِ مرگ

برای خودم هم تعجب‌آور است.
کتابی را چهار بار بخوانی و باز با خود بگویی که باید برای یکبار دیگر هم که شده، آن را بخوانم.
حکایتِ من و داستانِ بلند و بلندمرتبه مرگ ایوان ایلیچ نوشته لف تالستوی کبیر چنین است.

آخرین جمله‌ای که "ایوان ایلیچ" -یا بهتر است بگوییم روح او- بر زبان می‌آورد، این است:
"مرگ تمام شد، دیگر مرگی وجود ندارد"
و این یک جمله چکیده هر آن چیزی‌ست که تالستوی را بر آن داشته تا این داستان را بنویسد.
مرگ ایوان ایلیچ داستان مرگِ ایوان ایلیچ نیست بلکه داستان زندگی اوست، اویی که در آستانه مرگی ناگهانی و گریزناپذیر قرار گرفته است.

ایوان ایلیچ در اوج قدرت و موفقیت با مرگ –این حقیقت انکارناپذیر- روبرو می‌شود، او یکی از مقامات بلندپایه دادگستری است و در آستانه ورود به طبقه اجتماعی بالاتر قرار دارد. او سالها بی‌وقفه تلاش کرده تا به این جایگاه برسد و حال وقت آن رسیده که از ثمره این سالها را بچشد، و اما مرگ به ناگاه سر می‌رسد. داستان شروع بیماری او تمثیلی از زندگیش است، او برای نصب پرده اتاق پذیرایی خانه جدید مجللش از نردبان بالا می‌رود، به ناگاه از آن سقوط کرده و از ناحیه پهلو درد شدیدی را احساس می‌کند، دردی که درمان نمی‌شود و تا مرگ همراه اوست.

تالستوی در این داستان ما را از مرگ نمی‌ترساند هنر او این است که به این مقوله مهم از این زاویه تکراری نگاه نمی‌کند او ما را از به ناگاه رسیدن مرگ می‌ترساند او ما را از زندگی کردن در زیر سایه مرگ می‌ترساند. تمام انسانها هرچند که می‌دانند مرگ سرنوشت محتوم آدمی‌ست ولی به آن باور ندارند و وقتی که خبر درگذشت دیگران را می‌شنوند، به مانند اطرافیان ایوان ایلیچ، در دل خود خوشحالند که مرگ به سراغ دیگری آمده نه آنها.

ولی این تنها هنر تالستوی در این داستان نیست. او به شکل بی‌رحمانه‌ای شخصیت اولش را در آستانه مرگ، تنها رها می‌کند. مردی که تمام کوششهایش در زندگی در جهت ارتقای وضعیت خانواده‌اش بوده حال در دوران بیماریِ سخت خود وبال آنهاست:
«این مطلب بیش از همه ایوان ایلیچ را شکنجه می‌داد. می‌دید که اهل خانه –مخصوصاً همسر و دخترش که دائماً در سفر بودند- هیچ چیز را درک نمی‌کنند، از اندوه و افسردگی و بهانه‌جوئی او ملول و کسل می‌شوند، مثل اینکه او را مقصر وضع ملالت‌بار و اندوهناک خانه می‌دانند»
باری «ایوان ایلیچ ایوان ایلیچ روزهایِ آخر عمر خود را در آن شهر پرجمعیت و در میان افراد خانواده و دوستان و آشنایان بی‌شمارش تنها به سر می‌برد.»

ولادیمیر ناباکف –داستان‌نویس و منتقد مشهور روس- معتقد است که تالستوی در هنگام توصیف اندیشه یا موضوعی که می‌خواهد مطرح کند آنقدر با تأنی و تکرار به حواشی پیرامونی آن مطلب می‌پردازد که آن را در ذهن مخاطب جا انداخته و او را با خود همراه می‌کند و اصطلاحاً سیبِ مطلب را پوست می‌کند.
و او در مرگ ایوان ایلیچ به واقع همین کار را می‌کند جزئیاتِ فراوانِ این داستانِ نه چندان بلند نه تنها زائد نیست بلکه در خدمت مفهومِ غایی مورد نظر تالستویِ است و به همین خاطر ملال آور نیست. او به مانند دیگر نویسندگان کلاسیک توصیف نمی‌کند که استاد توصیفگری و تصویرسازی به حساب بیاید بلکه از حواشی می‌گوید و آنقدر می‌گوید که مخاطب را به متن رهنمون سازد تمام داستانهای بلند او دارای چنین ویژگی‌ست و مرگ ایوان ایلیچ گل سرسبد آنهاست.

من این داستان را چهار بار خوانده‌ام اول بار با ترجمه صالحرحسینی که هم به دلیل ترجمه نه چندان خوب و هم به دلیل کم‌سن و سال بودن خودم چندان از آن نفهمیدم پس از آن با ترجمه سروش حبیبی قدر و قیمت این شاهکار به دستم آمد و در آخر با خواندن ترجمه حمیدرضا آتش‌برآب شیفته آن شدم. و حال با ترجمه کاظم انصاری . و با احترام به آن عزیزان این ترجمه بیشتر از ترجمه‌های دیگر به دلم نشست. متاسفانه این ترجمه در بازار موجود نیست و امیدوارم انتشارت جامی هرچه زودتر آن را تجدید چاپ کند.

Scriptor Ignotus

I have something to say, which, for lovers of literature, might be borderline blasphemous. I read Tolstoy, and…and…

He’s okay.

Just okay. He didn’t rock my world. He didn’t change my life. His prose is good, but not magnificent; his characters are relatable, but not unforgettable; his stories are interesting, but not quite compelling. I didn’t come away from these stories convinced, as so many are, that Tolstoy is the greatest writer who ever lived. In fact, of the four great Russian writers I recall having read—Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Turgenev, and Lermontov—I would put Tolstoy in third place, in front of Turgenev, with Lermontov marginally better than him and Dostoyevsky leagues ahead of anyone else.

Granted, I am a Dostoyevsky fanboy, and I haven’t read Tolstoy’s two great novels: Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Maybe if I read either of those works, my tune would change dramatically, and I’d be embarrassed for having written this review. Maybe I’m just a Philistine. But I’m a Philistine who calls them like he sees them.

There’s an interesting variety to the stories in my edition. There are war stories, like “The Prisoner of the Caucasus” and “Hadji Murat”; there are meditations on death—the final frontier of the soul’s journey—and our struggle to find peace and redemption in the face of it, in “The Diary of a Madman” and “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”; there’s an extensive diatribe against…erm…sex(?) masquerading as a novella in “The Kreutzer Sonata”; and there’s a little common-man hagiography called “Alyosha the Pot”, which, despite being only a few pages long, I found to be the most evocative work in the collection.

I’m sorry, Tolstoyists. Coke is better than Pepsi, Tupac is better than Biggie, and Dostoyevsky is better than Tolstoy.

Westside!

Hadrian

Ivan Ilyich had been a colleague of the assembled gentlemen, and they had all liked him. He had been ill for several weeks; it had been said that his illness was incurable. His post had been kept open for him, but there was an understanding that, in case of his death, Alexeev might be named to his post, and to Alexeev’s post either Vinnikov or Shtabel. So that, on hearing of Ivan Ilyich’s death, the first thought of each of the gentlemen assembled in the office was of what this death might mean in terms of transfers or promotions of the members themselves or of their acquaintances.

In the preface, one of the translators, Richard Pevear, reveals that Tolstoy described his own narrative technique for Hadji Murat as like a
peep show. "Behind the glass now one thing shows itself, now another." I might think of this collection the same way. First an adventure story in the Caucasus, then a discomfiting story about death, then an unfinished draft, and so on. On the one hand, this work from the last thirty years of his life is full of his moralizing and his longing for salvation. And on the other, his uncanny eye for sensory detail and brilliant characterization.

For example, take the Kreutzer Sonata, where

But like any collection of short stories or essays, they are uneven. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is truly memorable. Others are unfinished drafts, put aside, forgotten, or abandoned. Still others are simple fables, where the moral message overwhelms whatever detail he remembers to include. But this is still worth a read. The translation works, although I cannot judge if it is at all faithful to the original Russian.

leynes

This is a clear case of It's not you, it's me! I simply wasn't ready for this. When I couldn't participate in the War and Peace-readalong due to my busy schedule, I decided to compensate by reading a short story collection by Tolstoy instead. I thought it would be quick and fun. I couldn't have been more wrong. It turns out that Tolstoy is much more philosophical and political than I expected, and since I have no knowledge whatsover on Russian history and culture, it was extremely hard for me to follow along.

On a very subjective note, I have to say that I found the stories (except for The Forged Coupon) extremely boring and drawn-out. The characters weren't memorable and I didn't connect to any of them. I really had to force myself to keep on turning the pages.

But on a more objective note, after having done more research on each short story and the author himself (turns out Tolstoy almost got murdered by a bear once... like whuaat?), I understand their core message a lot better, and thus appreciate the collection as a whole a lot more.

Tolstoy in his later years was famously a man with a mission. From the 1880s he sought more directly to understand the turmoil of contemporary Russia which escalated after the assassination of Alexander II in 1881 and in his lifetime culminated in the Revolution of 1905. No solutions, Tolstoy felt, could be found either for the problems individuals or society faced without due consideration of issues about property and ownership, the meaning of spiritual enlightement, the formulation of ethical ideals, and identifying sources of goodness and evil. Tolstoy's later works of fiction, such as the stories collected here, reflect sustained soul-searching about the value of literature.

The concern of how people live only intensified as his own spiritual crises in the late 1860s and 1870s brought a life-changing sense of his own mortality. Having lived as a young man for himself, and then been the family man on his country estate, Tolstoy had begun to lvie for others and for God. He convinced himself that social activism and the promotion of what he called 'a good life' were his true vocation.

The first short story in this collection, The Two Old Men, deals with the ethics of character. In Tolstoy's fiction man and woman are social animals, subject to the pressures of class, the village, the family unit, and peer group. Through his virtually daily interaction with peasants at his school, on the estate, and in his restless rambling about the countryside, Tolstoy collected dozens of anectodes and tales that in his view distilled the moral essence of the Russian peasantry.

The Two Old Men emanates from that world, situating the timelessness of Christian pilgrimage within the modern world of steamships and itineraries. At the centre of the story are two peasant heroes, one rich and one poor, whose pilgrimage provides the horizontal structure for the episodes they experience. One of them, in his exemplary selflessness, acquires the reputation of a saint, while the other finely balances material and spiritual concerns. Both are treated affectionately by Tolstoy and reflect his ideal of Christian humanism.

The second story, How Much Land Does a Man Need?, deals with capitalism and the evils of property. Tolstoy repeatedly denounced money as an evil when coveted for itself. Tolstoy's concern regarding the dangers of property-ownership stem from his belief that once you own property you are obliged to defend it, and once the need arises for defence violence must follow.

Like other stories in this volume, this one pits individual determination against accident. The story considers the paradox that the more one strives after material security, the greater the risk that everything will be forfeited. The story is attuned to the psychological stress of ownership when an individual negotiates between an old idea of sufficency and a seductive image of wealth.

Harmony both for the individual and society could be achieved if and only if individuals achieved an inner state of control over their wants. Impulses to the good and bad might be temporarily held in check, but human nature put human beings at the mercy of combinations of personality and circumstance that could wreck nouble intentions.

The next two stories, The Forged Coupon and Master and Workman, deal with questions of justice and how causality and motivation can determine one's actions. In Tolstoy's later works, no heroes make any great claims for controlling events, and the focus of the narrator is on seeing events as they unfold, sometimes bewilderingly. One key question for Tolstoy is whether randomness leads anywhere, whether the destination might be accidental and still have moral significance.

The Forged Coupon takes up the problem of unintended consequences and illustrates the shift in emphasis from agency to accident, and to seeing the whole picture in terms of the butterfly effect, where distant rather than proximate causes contribute to a sequence. Part 1 is structured as a chain of seemingly unrelated events that all derive from a single mishap at the beginning. Or do they? The story could be driven by coincidence that is unfortunate but fatal.

In Master and Workman Tolstoy reveals the fluidity of identity as a set of impulses and responses that are fixed in the timelessness of the present as lived through. A landowner and servant set out on a short jounrey by sled. They lose their way briefly during a sudden snowstorm, and subsequently regain the right path only to be led fatally off course by recurring bad weather. (The blizzard has served Russian writers well to represent overwhelming force, whether elemental nature, fate, or an oppressive state.)

At one level, this is a tale of two individuals whose class relations, socio-economic status, and expectations determine their response to the storm and to their fate, controlled to some unknowable degree by luck. And yet at the same time, in its use of an elemental setting the story also has the universal quality of a fable whose precise lesson can be suggested but not entirely fixed.

In the last two stories, Alyosha Pot and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy processes his struggle to square the circle of life and death, of meaning and erasure. Does death necessarily make life senseless? Tolstoy, who often assumed extreme positions before arguing his way back to a more nuanced view, clearly found the conclusion that 'there is nothing worse than life' intuitively and intellectually unacceptable. The need to go out and meet and make life, rather than allow life to come to one passively, defined his philosophy.

In Alyosha Pot Tolstoy uses his art to capture the thoughts and feelings of the meekest of men, a hero who is only seemingly simple but incarnates an ideal of wise resignation and selfless love. Alyosha's emotional intelligence, however, is beyond the reach of his masters who, coarse and unsympathetic, refuse him the right to marry.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is an unflinching depiction of social hypocrisy. Yet Tolstoy uses this tale also to raise the possibility that Ivan Ilyich's resignation to death also occasions a spiritual awakening. The light he sees instead of death is limitless and indefinable.

This collection is packed with a lot of brilliant ideas and so much food for thought that I will take my time to properly digest them. Whilst the stories were no particular joy to read and definitely too fastidious for me, I still had a lot of fun researching them and learning a bit more about Tolstoy himself.

Steve R

In one of his war stories from Sevastopol, Tolstoy casually remarks that he seemed to be constantly observing ‘the familiar figures of my men who I could not help study down to their last detail.'

I think it was this overriding interest in what makes human beings tick: their beliefs, their actions, their ambitions, their fears – that made Tolstoy such a great writer. He was constantly questioning, constantly wondering what it was all about, and trying to finally figure out how to live. Both Pierre in War and Peace and Levin in Anna Karenina have this quest-driven element to their personalities, as do many of his secondary characters in almost all of his great novels and the central ones in most of his short stories.

Having read both volumes of his Collected Short Fiction, I’d read all the stories in this volume previously, but with Tolstoy, rereading never fails to repay one’s effort, and it is also interesting to see how the editor put together his collection. In this case, Anthony Briggs has assembled stories which relate to what he argues in his introduction represented a critical turning point in both Tolstoy’s life and his writings: an premonition of impending death which he experienced in a hotel room in the late 1860s, and which was so terrifying that he wrote his wife about it. All of the stories in this collection deal either directly or tangentially with this relatively morbid subject.

But they do so in a fundamentally moral way: for is it not one’s impending death that hones one’s efforts to make one’s life worthwhile, and prods one to answer the fundamental moral questions with which life continually confronts us?

His descriptions of nature are breathtaking, his ability to draw characters outstanding, and his ability to develop plots of engaging interest never fails. But it is his questions, and particularly his moral questions that I found most important in this rereading. For instance:

- Can it be that there is not enough space for man in this beautiful world, under those immense starry heavens?
- Is it possible that man’s heart can harbour, amid such ravishing natural beauty, feelings of hatred, vengeance, and the desire to destroy his fellows?
- Does maturity essentially consist in one’s ability to accept and not fear death?
- Does maturity involve putting away all forms of affectation arising from one’s worries about how one is viewed by others and merely accepting oneself for what one is?
- How much of one’s essential existence depends on one’s choice to fall into one of the three basic types of personalities: the submissive, the domineering or the reckless?
- Is it true that there is an indirect relationship between those who are about to die and those who care for them that it the poor among the former will be quiet and cooperative with the latter, but the well to do will have vituperation and spite in their treatment of those who surround them?
- Does the respect one receives from others depend on one’s essential character and skills, or more in the self confidence and bravado with which one carries oneself?
- Is it possible for someone of weak moral fibre to change the ill-starred nature of their actions or, no matter how sincere they are in their desire to do so, will their black-sheep nature nonetheless wield influence over their fate?
- Is money truly cursed? Is it not amazing how frequently it seems to bring misfortune rather than pleasure to those who obtain it?
- Are all highly trained professionals, especially doctors and lawyers, essentially actors, in that they often know next to nothing about they are dealing with, but nevertheless put on well established airs and well practised mannerisms which make them appear superior?
- Should one prefer city life since it is ‘tasteful, comfortable, clean and luxurious’ over life in the countryside which is ‘crude, cheerless, impoverished and messy’?
- Is it true that following the principles detailed in the Gospels within the New Testament and the simple, morally uprighteous pattern of life that Jesus exemplified, is a guide which is capable of turning the vainglorious away from their self delusions, the miserly and selfish towards generosity and sympathy and even murderers into saints?
- Was Maria Semyonova right when she advised the tailor ‘It’s better not to change, but to live in the way you’ve always lived.’

Tolstoy is one of the most comfortable writers I’ve ever read: it is a sheer relaxing delight to read his prose as he almost instinctively knows how to balance description, action and dialogue while engaging his reader. But above and beyond these attributes, it is as a moral questioner that he is truly one of the most penetrating of all writers.

Highly recommended.

Nazanin

خب، روی جلد کتاب نوشته شاهکارهای کوتاه

(البته اگر "شاهکارک "هم میبود چندان جفایی نه در حق کتاب و نه در حق تولستوی نشده بود )

ابتدا که سونات کرویتسر رو خوندم به نظرم خیلی جالب اومد و بعد که مرگ‌ ایوان ایلیچ تمام شد نظرم نسبت به داستان اول تقویت شد
اما با خوندن "بابا سرگئی" هم سونات و هم مرگ ایوان ایلیچ با یک فاصله زیاد بعد از این داستان قرار گرفتند

بابا سرگئی را تا حد�� می توان شیخ صنعانِ عطار قلمداد نمود
و از نگاهی دیگر و بدون هیچ گونه شعاردادن، ریا و کبر و نخوت را مانع رهایش درونی بیان می کند

:در مقدمه اثر چنین آمده
انسانی که در میان دو تلاش غیر طبیعی و یا به تعبیر صادقانه، طبیعی ترین تلاش ها! خرد و خمیر می شود

" شاید بتوان خیلی خلاصه " خام بدم پخته شدم سوختم
را در مورد کاساتسکی یا همان سرگئی عنوان نمود
یک فرمانده گارد جاه طلب و موفق که در اثر یک اتفاق ناگهان مسیر زندگی اش به کلی متحول می شود و در این مسیر به تدریج نسبت به درون خویش آگاهی می یابد
یک آگاهی هولناک
"...هرچه بیشتر تسلیم این شیوه زندگی می شد احساس می کرد که چگونه تدریجا، حقیقت باطنی به ریا و ظاهرسازی مبدل میگردد و چگونه چشمه آب حیات خشک می شود و رفته رفته کارهایی را که انجام می دهد بیشتر به خاطر مردم انجام می دهد تا به خاطر خدا
این سوالی که از آنچه انجام می دهد چه مقدارش برای خداوند و چه مقدارش برای مردم است، پیوسته رنجش می داد و هرگز نه تنها نمی توانست بلکه جرئت نداشت به آن جواب بدهد"

:و بعد با خود می گوید
" من به بهانه خداپرستی برای مردم زندگی می کردم
آیا کمترین آرزوی صادقانه برای عبادت خدا در دل من وجود داشته است؟
برای کسانی که مانند من زندگی کرده اند خدایی وجود ندارد، باید به جست و جوی خدا بردم..."

در مجموع کتاب خوبی بود و از ترجمه بسیار روان و شیوایی هم برخودار بود

سه داستان خوب
از یکی از بزرگترین داستان نویسان همیشه تاریخ
با جملات و پیامهای قابل اعتنا
آن هم با ترجمه ای دلنشین

اگرچه داستان دوم را به اندازه دو اثر دیگر از نظر محتوایی دوست نداشتم (سلیقه ای) اما در کل کتابی بود که به نظرم حتما و حتما ارزش خواندن را داشت

Fatima Al-Quwaie

ضمن كتاب مصرع إيفان إيليتش وقصص أخرى (دار الجمل، ترجمة سامر كرّوم). مختارات تضيء على الجانب المؤمن في كتابة تولستوي، الذي يضخّم العلاقة الجدلية بين الإنسان وفحوى وجوده، مشخصناً بصورة ذكية وجهة نظره، عبر جعل أبطال قصصه كائنات متأزمة وإنجيلية في آن، تخضع للقدر مستسلمة للفناء، جاهزة للمثول أمام البارئ.

في حكاية إيليتش هناك بيئة أدبية شيّدها تولستوي لتحريك الأسئلة الفلسفية والمتقاسمة في كل الأجيال حول الموت. تجارب كالألم والموت لا تعاش ولا تُجس إلا فردياً رغم أنها تؤلف المصير الجماعي للبشر. لكن من خلال القصة يظهر جلياً أن الناس لا يريدون أن يروا الموت، لا يريدون أن يكونوا جزءاً من تجربة رجل يحتضر كـ إيليتش. كأن لا وقت لديهم لذلك. يسابقون الحياة، ويجاهرون بذلك حول امرئ يسابق الموت وحيداً.

لعل مفتاح عبقرية الروائي الروسي ال��ذ ليو تولستوي أنه كان مزيجاً مدهشاً بين المفكر والفنان، لديه ما يقول من تأملات وأفكار، ولديه أسئلة تشغله وتؤرقه، ولكنه يعرف كيف يطرح ذلك بفن، ويدرك أن أفضل ما يفعله لخدمة فكرته، أن يُخلص أضعافاً مضاعفة للفن الذي يكتبه.

Ian D

Ο διάβολος = 5*
Πολικούσκα = 4*
Πατήρ Σέργιος = 3.5*
Οικογενειακή ευτυχία = 4*
O θάνατος του Ιβάν Ίλιτς = 4.5*
M.O. = 4.2

Συμπέρασμα: Ο Tolstoy είναι τόσο μεγάλος συγγραφέας όσο μας έχουν πει. Ακόμα και σ' αυτή τη συλλογή διηγημάτων, όπου η έκταση δεν επαρκεί για να ξεδιπλώσει τη συγγραφική του ιδιοφυία, φαίνονται ξεκάθαρα τα στοιχεία που θα αγαπήσουμε σε μεταγενέστερα ή προηγούμενα έργα του. Η απεικόνιση της ανθρώπινης αδυναμίας, είτε αυτή εκφράζεται ως σαρκικό πάθος, ως εθισμός, ως αναζήτηση συγκινήσεων, ειτε ως φόβος μπροστά στο θάνατο. Ο θάνατος. Τιμωρός αλλά και λυτρωτής. Για κάποιους επιλογή, για κάποιους αδικία. Κι όλα αυτά υπό την υπέροχη πένα του Ρώσου κλασικού που με κάνουν να ντρέπομαι, σχεδόν, που έφτασα σε τέτοια ηλικία για να πιάσω Tolstoy στα χέρια μου. Γιατί αυτό που δε μας είπαν είναι το πόσο προσιτή και ρέουσα είναι η γραφή του Lev Nikolayevich. Θα επανορθώσω.

John

What a wonderful collection of stories. All of them were excellent with the theme of death. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is thought provoking about how we view death. The device to use of short chapters as his death draws near and his reflections of his life works well. The judge who is dying is a person who lives the moment and is unreflective. Then he reflects on his life and questions whether it had any value. Some of us will all be in his position one day.

My favourite story was the Forged Coupon and the ripple effect it had on the characters. The Raid and Woodfelling stories of the randomness of death in war was well done. Tolstoy truly was an exquisite writer.

Neil R. Coulter

I picked this up earlier this year for a book-club read of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, and then I continued dipping into it throughout the year to read the rest of the stories. The first couple of stories (The Prisoner of the Caucasus and The Diary of a Madman) are relatively light, but then starting with The Death of Ivan Ilyich, it’s one brilliant story after another. Tolstoy has a way of plainly writing the deepest, most complex aspects of human nature. It’s sometimes such an accurate portrayal of humanity’s worst impulses that it’s hard to read—but worth confronting and contemplating. I’ll need to reread Hadji Murat sometime, as I wasn’t patient or engaged enough to fully get into all the historical detail. Having just rewatched The Bridge on the River Kwai as I was reading Hadji Murat, however, I was struck by the parallels in the two war stories. Tolstoy’s story could almost end with a character repeating, “Madness . . .”

Michael

Ivan Ilych’s life revolved around his career; as a high court judge he takes his job very seriously. However after he falls off a ladder, he soon discovers that he is going to die. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella that deals with the meaning of life in the face of death. A masterpiece for Leo Tolstoy written after his religious conversion in the late 1870s.

Something that was fascinating about The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the drastic change in writing style when comparing it to Anna Karenina and War and Peace. I am not just referring to the length, but that does play a big part. I have read somewhere that Tolstoy intentionally made Anna Karenina and War and Peace so long because he wanted to replicate life and the journey the characters face. Allowing the reader to experience every decision and moral dilemma that the character is facing, exploring the growth or evolution of each and every person within the novels.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich takes a more focused approach, dealing with major questions revolving around the meaning of life, death and spirituality. Leo Tolstoy had a major conversion in the late 1870s and the questions in this novel were the questions he was asking himself. Whether or not Ivan Ilyich found the answers he was looking for is up to the reader but it is believed that Leo Tolstoy was still looking for the same answers well after finishing this novella.

There is a lot of pain and torment that appears in this book, which reflects the authors search for answers and that is what really stood out for me. Not only was I reading a spiritual/existential struggle of the protagonist but Tolstoy’s own feeling really came out within the pages. This is what makes this a masterpiece that explores the tortured artist in great detail. I don’t want to say much more, this is the type of book people have to read and make their own mind up about the themes presented, but it is worth reading.

This review originally appeared on my blog;
http://literary-exploration.com/2015/...

Bryan--The Bee’s Knees

Fantastic collection of stories, including The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, and Hadji Murat among others. Generally, I find it hard to rate a single-author short-story collection five stars because either the quality varies, or too many of the stories sound similar. But with this collection, there are no duds, and there is also a wide variation in the types of stories. Highly recommended.

Maha

و ما الحياة الدنيا الا متاع الغرور. أليس أكثرنا ايفان ايليتش؟ (مصرع ايفان ايليتش)

Charles

This contains 4 of Tolstoy's short stories, although all four are relatively long tales. I found them all a bit slow for my tastes but there is some very good stuff here that hits pretty hard. The first story is "Family Happiness," about a love affair developing between a young woman just coming of age and a considerably older man. It details the build up of passion in the relationship that then matures into a more long-term emotional bond. I found it quite good, although longer than necessary.

Then we have "The Death of Ivan Ilych," the best story I've read by Tolstoy, and one that wrings the last measure of emotion out of the reader as Ivan Ilych lies dying. A very good story. Next we have "The Kreutzer Sonata," a kind of treatise on love. Despite having the story told second hand rather than being shown, I found the tale about a man's developing jealousy and the murder of his wife to be compellilng.

The last tale here is "Master and Man," which was--in my opinion--definitely second rate and not up to the quality of the other three. A rich man who is concerned only with accruing more wealth forces one of his workers to take him out in a blizzard so that he can make a business deal. They get lost in the snow twice and find their way to a village, but rather than take the hint the man heads out again and the expected happens. They get completely lost and must try to survive the night in freezing conditions. I felt sorry for the worker and the horse pulling their buggy but absolutely no sympathy for the rich man and could only hope that he would die as quickly as possible.

Jeff

My introduction to Tolstoy was for a book group specifically reading Ivan Ilych, but I consumed the other short stories in this collection as well. Tolstoy’s obsession with death prevails throughout, but it was never too dark to appreciate the literary value. I know that I will seek out more of his works on my own.

I have the impression that the multitude of characters in War and Peace are previewed nicely in A Forged Coupon, a chain-of-events story that leads to suffering and redemption. Polikushka may be the most tragic of these tales, as we are told Ivan’s fate in the title and first paragraph, but all of the stories focus on unnecessary deaths and torments.

The language, characters, and scenic details are beautiful, and a non-Russian-speaker can only wonder how much more is lost in translation. This made me want to dive right in to one of Tolstoy’s best-known, behemoth novels, but I know that time commitment must wait for now.

I will find him again soon!

Tatiana

The story "The Death of Ivan Ilych" is one of my favorite stories ever written. Everything about it is so true. Tolstoy had that knack of speaking plain truth about subjects like death and war that we almost instinctively idealize for ourselves in our thoughts and writings, so that the simple truth, when we read it, hits us like a powerful revelation. This narrative of one man's journey from a busy, full middle class life into sickness and then his final slide into death is like death itself, both mundane and profound. The image of Ivan Ilych's black bag shall be a part of my mental landscape forever.

Francesca

3.5⭐️ La prima storia (quella che da il titolo alla raccolta) e “Il diavolo” mi sono piaciute tantissimo. Le altre due sono molto diverse, sinceramente non mi aspettavo per niente delle storie a modi “parabola”. Non mi catturano in generale, e queste in particolare mi sono sembrate mooooolto lunghe. Però comunque si intrecciavano bene alla tematica ricorrente della brevità della vita, della difficoltà di viverne una significativa senza perdersi negli eccessi o nella routine.

Title	:	The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories
Author	:	Leo Tolstoy
Rating	:
ISBN	:	0451528808
ISBN-10	:	9780451528803
Language	:	English
Format Type	:	Paperback
Number of Pages	:	304
Publication	:	First published January 1, 1886

The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy

The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories Reviews

The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories Reviews

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