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The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics)
 
 
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories (Wordsworth Classics) (Paperback)

by L.N. Tolstoy (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd; New Ed edition (1 Dec 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1840224533
  • ISBN-13: 978-1840224535
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 64,225 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #26 in  Books > Fiction > World > Russian
    #28 in  Books > Fiction > Short Stories > World > Russian

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Product Description

Product Description
This book comes with an introduction and notes by Dr T.C.B. CookCount. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) is best known for "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", commonly regarded as amongst the greatest novels ever written. He also, however, wrote many masterly short stories, and this volume contains four of the longest and best in distinguished translations that have stood the test of time. In the early story "Family Happiness", Tolstoy explores courtship and marriage from the point of view of a young wife. In "The Kreutzer Sonata" he gives us a terrifying study of marital breakdown, in "The Devil" a powerful depiction of the power of sexual temptation, and, in perhaps the finest of all, "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", he portrays the long agony of a man gradually coming to terms with his own mortality.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Catastrophic, 5 Nov 2006
By Luc REYNAERT (Beernem, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
These stories give an excellent view of Tolstoy's vision on the real nature of man, his place in our world, on sex, marriage and women, on man's ultimate destiny and on morals.

For Tolstoy, man as a species is barely more than an animal incapable of controlling his `animal passion'. More, `it is perhaps better that people should be pure animals, then they would not suffer from death and disease.'
In `The Devil', the main character commits suicide because he cannot control his sexual drive ('his swinish life'). In `The Kreutzer Sonata', the main character knows his wife `only as an animal and nothing can restrain an animal.'

To have sex is `necessary for physical health', but the solution lays in no way in marriage.
In `Family Happiness', the novelty of the first years of marriage (`the wild delight') turns into routine. Pure love for her man becomes `love for her children and the father of her children.'
But in `The Death of Ivan Ilyich', `conjugal love was in reality a very intricate and different business.' And, in `The Devil', marriage is not less than sin, `a deviation from the doctrine of Christ'.
`The Kreutzer Sonata' is not less than the killing of marriage as an institute.

For sex one needs a partner. Here, L. Tolstoy shows his serious misogyny. In `The Devil' it is crystal clear who the devil is and who constantly reminds the main character of his sexual drive. In `The Kreutzer Sonata': `that the women of our society have other interest in life than prostitutes, but I say no.'

The only solution then is chastity and celibacy, in other words the extinction of mankind. Tolstoy has absolutely no problem with this outcome, for in any case science tells us that mankind is doomed with the death of the sun!
Chastity and celibacy makes of man still more an island. In `The Death of Ivan Ilyich', the main character `cried at his awful loneliness, the cruelty of people, the cruelty and the absence of God.'

If celibacy is Tolstoy's ideal of humanity what should man do? `Family Happiness' gives us the answer: `in life there is only one certain happiness - living for others.'
As science has proven, pure altruism is a synonym for evolutionary death.

This extremely emotionally driven short stories reveal clearly Tolstoy's demons and his catastrophic vision on mankind.

Not to be missed.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection of stories about the human condition, 29 Sep 2007
By John Hopper (London, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
A very good collection of short stories, worthy as an introduction to Tolstoy for those who aren't ready to tackle War and Peace or Anna Karenina. They have much to say about the human condition, the nature of love and desire, marriage, family relationships and death, and as such have relevance for readers in many countries and cultures.

Family Happiness is probably the least good of the quartet, lacking the passion and drama of the other three stories. It is a study of the changing nature of love in the marriage between a young girl and an older man (though he is only in his late 30s!).

The Death of Ivan Ilyich is one I have just read separately, so I did not re-read it in this collection. For the sake of completeness here though: this concerns the thoughts and feelings of a man towards his family and those around him as he gets progressively more ill and is then dying from a wasting disease that sounds like cancer. The opening chapters are quite light-hearted with some ruefully amusing reflections on marriage and attitudes towards ones career, but then the mood becomes much darker and he ends being cynical about his family, seeing them as wishing his death to come sooner so they can be free of the burden of caring for him.

The Kreutzer Sonata is a very powerful story about the breakdown of a marriage, with some very advanced for the time (1889) views on how marriages evolve and how couples can grow to take each other for granted and eventually become actively hostile without wanting to grow apart. Tolstoy's postscript, published following the banning of the story in Russia and elsewhere, and concerning the moral superiority of celibacy, somewhat detracts from the dramatic impact of the ending, though.

The Devil is a powerful tale about how a nobleman's passion for the object of a former fling with a peasant wife destroys his seemingly happy marriage through obsession. There are two endings, the published one where he kills himself and the alternative one where he kills the object of his obsession.

An excellent collection, some of the best Russian literature of its type.
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