Book Review: The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

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Book Review: The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

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I can honestly say that only a mastermind like Tolstoy could summarize a dying man’s boring life and make it engrossing and fascinating due to its narration and to the exposure of the main character’s (Ivan Ilych) self-reflexive painful thoughts. I would call this a moral story as it depicts the consequences of leading a decorous life – one of appearances. We are shown that with the increase of wealth and the progression of social stability that the character’s health and self-worth increasingly deprecates when artificiality is exposed and the dying man has to face dying alone.

“Those we love never truly leave us, Harry. There are things that death cannot touch.” 

“In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breathe.” 

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