The Death of Ivan Ilych And Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy, James Duff Duff, Aylmer Maude, Hugh McLean
Readers rate it 4.0 (44 on Hardcover)
304 pages · Released Apr 1, 2003 · Signet Classics
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The Death of Ivan Ilych And Other Stories parent’s guide: what’s inside
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This is a collection of philosophical short stories by Tolstoy that explore profound themes of mortality, meaning, and morality through existential crisis and ethical dilemmas. While not graphically violent, the stories grapple with death, suffering, and moral decay in ways that require emotional and intellectual maturity to process. The content is literary and reflective rather than sensationalistic, but the bleakness and existential weight make it better suited to older teens and adults.
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From the publisher
Here are some of Tolstoy's extraordinary short stories, from -The Death of Ivan Ilyich—in a masterly new translation-to -The Raid,- -The Wood-felling,- -Three Deaths,- -Polikushka,- -After the Ball,- and -The Forged Coupon,- all gripping and eloquent lessons on two of Tolstoy's most persistent themes: life and death. M... Here are some of Tolstoy's extraordinary short stories, from -The Death of Ivan Ilyich—in a masterly new translation-to -The Raid,- -The Wood-felling,- -Three Deaths,- -Polikushka,- -After the Ball,- and -The Forged Coupon,- all gripping and eloquent lessons on two of Tolstoy's most persistent themes: life and death. More experimental than his novels, Tolstoy's stories are essential reading for anyone interested in his development as one of the major writers and thinkers of his time. As Ivan Ilyich lies dying he begins to re-evaluate his life, searching for meaning that will make sense of his sufferings. In "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" and the other works in this volume, Tolstoy conjures characters who, tested to the limit, reveal glorious and unexpected reserves of courage, or baseness of a near inhuman kind. Two vivid parables and "The Forged Coupon", a tale of criminality, explore class relations after the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 and the connection between an ethical life and worldly issues. In "Master and Workman" Tolstoy creates one of his most gripping dramas about human relationships put to the test in an extreme situation. "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" is an existential masterpiece, a biting satire that recounts with extraordinary power the final illness and death of a bourgeois lawyer. In his Introduction Andrew Kahn explores Tolstoy's moral concerns and the stylistic features of these late stories, sensitively translated by Nicolas Pasternak Slater. - Back cover.
Shelved under
- Translations into English
- Fiction, short stories (single author)
- Continental european fiction (fictional works by one author)
- Russian Short stories
- Fiction
- Classic Literature
- Slavic philology
- Russian fiction
- Russian literature
- Tolstoy, leo, graf, 1828-1910
- Long Now Manual for Civilization
- Weak Character Development
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ISBN 9780451528803 · Signet Classics