The Death of Ivan Ilych
Ratings135
Average rating4.2
I'm not sure if the translation I read just wasn't great, but the whole thing just kind of fell flat for me. I thought the latter third or so was pretty interesting, but most of it was kind of a chore for me to read and didn't really keep my interest.
This book deals with the death of well, Ivan Ilych and its focus is mainly on the inevitably of death, how people deal with it, the frustrations and sufferings of the protagonist, how he himself copes or at least tries to with death, as well as his regrets about a life wasted.
To me, while the book is excellent especially with how well it deals with the character's thoughts about death, him slowly realizing that there is no coming back from what he is suffering and how he first tries to play the seriousness of his disease down. It does that very well.
But there is another element, a universality of Ilych's experience that is evident in the sufferings of people around us and this book just describes it to perfection.
A succinct, masterfully written novella true to its title. Tolstoy brings so much humanity into the story and characters, revealing all the things people notice and think but never speak about. Reminds me of Our Town a bit. Both are slightly removed from our time, but remain completely relevant. Ivan Ilych begs the reader to look at themselves and their world, what they care about and the consequences of their choices. The selfish perspectives we all seem to be stuck with are exposed, and their fruit is as ugly as you'd expect.
I really enjoyed it, so much that I'm eager to start a longer work of his. Gotta ease my way into War and Peace with Revelations or something.
Powerful meditation on how death comes for us all, and how the world's customs and “propriety” don't prepare us for the ultimate things.
“Why fear death? Be scared of living” - Laura Marling
Extremamente angustiante. É uma grande espiral da morte e do sentimento de se estar morrendo. Muito bem escrito, a gradação da decadência é lenta e excruciante.
When I saw that The Death of Ivan Ilych is considered one of the finest examples of a novella, and since this is the first time I've ever participated in Novellas in November...I felt led to read this book.
And I agree—it is definitely one of the best novels I've ever read. Ivan Ilyich is a judge in Russia, and his life is spent gaining position socially and at work. He neglects others and he neglects himself.
And then, unexpectedly, he becomes ill and begins to decline, a decline that leads to his death. As he moves closer and closer to death, he regrets all of the important things he failed to do, all the ways he acted without regard to others.
Re-read this classic examination of death and dying. A reflective read sure to cause some to reassess.
The most compelling study of the inner life of a dying person I have yet read. Tolstoy continues to prove himself a master of the human mind and spirit.
Reading this book is what I imagine DMT feels like.
It's about an old russian man in the 1860s who's slowly dying because he bumped his appendix against the wall hanging some curtains, but the twist is that the guy happens to be Larry David