The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy (1886, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. 2009)

            Leo Tolstoy. 1828 to 1910

            At 76.                                    While an Officer in the Russian

                                                          Army during the Crimean War, at 20

Since beginning The Reading Life in July 2009 I have read  War and Peace, Anna Karenina as well as a few short stories by Leo Tolstoy.  Having recently watched an episode of the BBC adoption of   War and Peace, I have taken on a desire to read it for the forth time, hopefully this year.  

In addition to the major novels, the highly regarded translation team of Richard  Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have published a volume including "The Death of Ivan Illyich" (some treat it as a novella) and ten other short works of fiction. 

Ivan Illyich is a moderately successful Russian official working in the judiciary, in the provinces.  He is reasonably happy in his marriage, sometimes enjoys the petty power his job gives him, enjoys a good meal and a drink and loves to play cards.  He is also dying.  No one, especially his wife, wants to acknowledge this.  The story is  a disturbing very insightful look at the metamorphoses that often accur in a long marriage.  Tolstoy has a very deep understanding of the marriage of Ivan and his wife.  

We see Ivan trying to come to terms with his mortality.  We also learn a good bit about the politics of the life of a judge in Czarist Russia.  

This is a very fine  work of art, worthy of the world's greatest novelist.  If you have been married a while you will be pushed into pondering your relationship.  I am so glad I have experienced "The Death of Ivan Illyich".  

Mel u