Great Short Works of Leo Tolstoy (Perennial Classics) [Paperback]

This book is the perfect introduction to Tolstoy's work. The stories are simple yet brilliant and the emotions and sentiments stired up are still relevant today.For someone interested in Tolsoy's work this is the best starting point before embarking on his longer works.

Without doubt some of Tolstoy's finest writing and his story telling ablities at their best. Also and excellent introduction to his great novels.

The Death of Ivan Ilych both begins and ends with the death of its title character. In between, the story is told chronologically both backward and forward. At the beginning, his death is announced, his final days of illness and agony discussed, his colleagues and family members introduced, and his funeral accomplished. Time then shifts and there is an outline of the progression of his early years, his education, his early career, his marriage, and the raising of his children. As he graduates from school and leaves his father's house, he is looking forward in time with anticipated success, as indicated when he buys a watch and has the fob inscribed with the Latin phrase, "respice finem" ("look to the end" p. 256). His later major career promotion and its concomitant relocation to a larger house and his care over its furnishing are set forth in greater detail, and the progress is both chronological and up the social ladder, represented concretely by the step-ladder he mounts to hang the curtains in his new house. However, it was that very step up that causes him to slip and bang his hip on a knob, leading to the injury that ultimately kills him. The top of that step-ladder represents the apogee of his success, and is the beginning of his physical decline. The chronology remains forward, as we follow the "progress of his disease." (p. 273 ). Yet for Ivan Ilych, as his illness worsens, time also moves backwards:

Pictures of his past rose before him one after another. They always began with what was nearest in time and then went back to what was most remote--to his childhood--and rested there.

(p. 297). But contrary to what one might expect, the memories of his childhood are not pleasant ones for him. The memories are so "painful" that he would will himself back to the present--to contemplating the button on the back of the sofa. Id. But it is not that his childhood was bad that pained him, it was the recognition that he had lived his life poorly. He compares the progress of his life to the progress of his illness:

Then again together with that chain of memories another series passed through his mind--of how his illness had progressed and grown worse. There also the further back he looked the more life there had been. There had been more of what was good in life and more of life itself. The two merged together. `Just as the pain went on getting worse, so my life grew worse and worse,' he thought. `There is one bright spot there at the back, at the beginning of life, and afterwards all becomes blacker and blacker and proceeds more and more rapidly--in inverse ratio to the square of the distance from death,' [footnote 1] thought Ivan Ilych.

Id. Thus the concept of "progress" is made ironic--while it clearly means movement, it is not always clear in which direction one's progress is leading. The "progress" of Ivan Ilych's illness is leading him to death. However, Tolstoy's seeming contradictions are not limited to one layer of meaning--Ivan Ilych's impending death is what eventually leads him to a real (if brief) ability to live. The blending of the concepts of life and death were adumbrated in the phrase on his watch fob, the double meaning of "the end" that he was most likely unaware when he had it engraved, as well as the description of Ivan Ilych as "le phenix de la famille." (p. 255). The phoenix, of course, is known not only for a splendid rising from the ashes, but also for the necessity of its death.
Ivan Ilych also recoils from looking to the future, which he knows will bring him death. He tries to go on with his former activities that had once "screened" (p. 281) thoughts of death from him, but sooner or later, the pain in his side would gnaw at him, and he would once again be confronted with his own impending death. He simply refuses to accept it. He begins his final three days of profound pain with the words "I won't!" (p. 301). With this, Ivan Ilych feels he is struggling against being pushed into a black bag, and terrified of the death he knows he cannot avoid. He believes his pain is caused by his inability properly to get into the black hole. He knows that difficulty is caused by his refusal to admit his life had not been lived properly. Finally, he feels struck in the chest and side, and the shock of that pain somehow allows him to admit about his life, "Yes, it was not the right thing." Id. He then feels himself slipping into the black hole, and seeing a light at the bottom. Once again we find that it is not always clear in which direction Ivan Ilych is moving. Of course the black hole represents death, but just as clearly it represents a kind of rebirth, where there is a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.[Footnote 2] Ivan Ilych uses the metaphor of a railway carriage to explicate the confusion of his direction:

What had happened to him was like the sensation one sometimes experiences in a railway carriage when one thinks one is going backwards while one is really going forwards and suddenly becomes aware of the real direction.

Id. But his insight is more than just that his life had been lived in the wrong way. He also found the right way; he had to repent his own bad acts, and try to make things better for others. He does this when he says he is sorry to his son and his wife, and waives them out of the room in order to spare them having to watch his agonies. He then looks for the pain, but no longer finds it. He looks for his accustomed fear of death, and it is gone. With his dying, he finds he has conquered death--"'Death is finished,' he said to himself. `It is no more!'" (p.302). Ivan Ilych dies at the end of the story.
The circular structure of this story means the end of the story brings us back to the beginning, and upon re-reading, we see the entire story is encapsulated in the first few paragraphs. Ivan Ilych's death is announced during a break in a legal trial, where Ivan Ilych's colleagues are socializing and relaxing, just as Ivan Ilych had done before his illness. When they hear of his death, they immediately think about how their own career appointments will be affected. Ivan Ilych had been no different:

In the intervals between the sessions he smoked, drank tea, chatted a little about politics, a little about general topics, a little about cards, but most of all about official appointments.

(p. 267, emphasis added). Having read the entire story, we now understand the terrible phoniness of the obituary. If his wife suffers "profound sorrow" (p. 247) at his death, we know it is only because she will be deprived of his salary. He was not her "beloved husband;" Id., rather, "she hated him." (p. 270). [Footnote 3] His so-called friends feel put out by the obligation to attend his funeral. His closest friend is named Peter Ivanovich. The patronymic suggests he is in some sense the son of Ivan Ilych. Certainly he acts just as Ivan Ilych would have if their positions had been reversed. He does his duty, but when confronted with Ivan Ilych's dead body, he refuses to admit that death has anything to do with him, and turns away:

Besides this there was in that expression a reproach and a warning to the living. This warning seemed to Peter Ivanovich out of place, or at least not applicable to him. He felt a certain discomfort and so he hurriedly crossed himself once more and turned and went out of the door--too hurriedly...

(p. 250). This scene reminds us of the passage where Ivan Ilych refuses to see how death is anything more than an abstraction set forth in the old syllogism that Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore, Caius is mortal. Despite the logic, Ivan Ilych refuses to see his own mortality. He thinks that while it was right for Caius to die, for him, "little Vanya, Ivan Ilych, ...it's altogether a different matter." (p. 280).
Also like Ivan Ilych, Peter Ivanovich seeks to distract himself from thoughts of his own mortality by his usual distracting activities. After turning away from the dead body, he finds his colleague, Schwartz, in the next room. "The mere sight of that playful, well-groomed, and elegant figure refreshed Peter Ivanovich." (p. 250). Schwartz is planning a card game, and does not see any reason for the death of Ivan Ilych to intrude upon his fun. The only reason Peter Ivanovich does not immediately join Schwartz, is that Ivan Ilych's widow intercepts him, and he is obligated by duty to attend the funeral service. During the service, he kept himself from looking at the dead body, and refused to give in to "any depressing influence." (p. 254). He is the first to leave the service, and he catches up with Schwartz and the card game. But while Peter Ivanovich thinks he is fleeing death, we know he cannot, and Schwartz's name (it is German for "Black") lets us know that the black bag is in Peter Ivanovich's future, as it was for Ivan Ilych. Thus, although not in the narrative, we are aware that the story will repeat itself with Peter Ivanovich-- although it is not clear that Peter Ivanovich will find the final redemption at the end of his life.

Footnote 1: A theory of relativity that we all understand as we get older.

Footnote 2: That light is reminiscent of the "bright spot there at the back, at the beginning of life" (p. 297) that he was aware of when he contemplated his childhood. In this story, there is a certain identity between birth and death.

Footnote 3: Lest we judge Ivan Ilych's wife too harshly for her lack of sympathy for her husband, it should be remembered it was he who first failed to support her when she was pregnant, and found ways to avoid her when her needs interfered with his ease.