The Death of Ivan Ilych
The Death of Ivan Ilych
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Desc: Hailed as one of the world's supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying The Death of Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist a high court judge who has never given the inevitability of his dying so much as a passing thought. But one day death announces itself to him and to his shocked surprise he is brought face to face with his own mortality. How Tolstoy asks does an unreflective man confront his one and only moment of truth? This short novel was an artistic culmination of a profound spiritual crisis in Tolstoy's life a nine-year period following the publication of Anna Karenina during which he wrote not a word of fiction. A thoroughly absorbing and at times terrifying glimpse into the abyss of death it is also a strong testament to the possibility of finding spiritual salvation.