The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories: Family Happiness; The Kreutzer Sonata; Master and Man (Signet Classics)

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Murder, greed, lust, vanity, love-four of Tolstoy's most famous and essential stories in one volume.

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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 death 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 the 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.

Translated by Lynn Solotaroff

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Meditation on Death.......2007-08-26

I really enjoyed The Death of Ivan Ilyich...well, I don't know if "enjoyed" is the write word, but it is a remarkable novella. There's a wonderful intro written by Ronald Blythe. In the intro Blythe writes about Tolstoy's great fear of death that eventually turned into an obsession with death that lead to the creation of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, his meditation on the subject.

The book opens immediately after the death of Ivan Ilyich. Ivan was a judge and when his co-workers find out about his death, the first thing they begin to talk about is who will take his place. This scenes is followed by his funeral where we meet his wife who is in mourning. The book then goes on to introduce us to Ivan and his wife in the early days of their marriage and paints a picture of a marriage that was all bright colors on the outside, but rather dark behind closed doors. Ivan soon finds out that he has a "floating kidney" and his health slowly deteriorates over the next few months eventually leading to his death.

The beauty of this book is that the plot is given away in the title. Ivan dies...you know the book ends with his death. Tolstoy's masterpiece lies not so much in the actual storyline, but in the thought process, the philosophy, and the atmosphere behind it. The only way I can describe the feel of this book is claustrophobic. From the minute that Ivan learns and recognizes that he is dying, the feel of the story is one of collapsing, closing in. It becomes a story of seeing the world fly by so fast that you can't grasp on to anything to stay in it. It's quite sad actually, but so wonderfully told by Tolstoy and becomes one of the most haunting stories I've ever read in it's final pages.

I'm glad that I've finally gotten around to this one and look forward to revisiting Tolstoy in the future, most probably with Anna Karenina.

"Gentlemen!" he exclaimed, "Ivan Ilyich is dead!".......2007-07-03

Navigating through all the cultural debris coming at us in the year 2007 is no easy task. New hot novelists, must-see flicks, terrific new musical groups, new new new. Yet, here is a story that's over 120 years old, but it speaks right now to the core of our humanity. What does it mean to be alive? What is death? What is pain? What does it mean to be good? What is love? And what is God? This short novel asks these questions again and again, but not as a didactic, philosophical exercise. Instead, Tolstoy weaves these eternal questions into the fabric of a human life, a life that is so plausible and simple that it could easily be yours or mine.

Ivan Ilych is a seemingly good man who makes reasonable choices. He follows the rules. He has faults. He has responsibilities. His marriage begins with promise and slowly slips into unromantic routine. He has a childhood which he remembers well. He is a father. He has friends. He finds meaning in his work. Then he gets sick, not all at once, but slowly. We watch him slowly dissolve as the pain bears down on him relentlessly. The doctors are useless. His wife is a nuisance. His children are irrelevant. No one understands. He becomes isolated and lonely except for one simple servant who selflessly cares for him. What is this death, Ivan asks again and again. Why me, he asks. Has my life been a lie? Have I led a bad life? How can I be free of all this misery? Perhaps none of this is really happening to me.

So Tolstoy, the great, mighty Tolstoy, examines every angle of the dying man's psyche, until finally Tolstoy reaches into the spiritual depths of the man. Is there redemption? Is there release?

One must read this masterpiece from this great artistic genius to fully appreciate Tolstoy's mortal and spiritual depths, and in doing so, perhaps we will better appreciate our own.

Sad.......2007-06-13

Having never faced death, I would not know for sure, but it strikes me that anyone in that situation would ask themselves some vital questions. If you knew it was coming you would want to know what it was all for, whether you did everything you wanted and most of all whether you could look back ad say to yourself: no regrets, I'm satisfied my life was what it should have been. Just after reading this book, I had an experience which sharply contrasted with Ivan Ilych's experience. The daughter of a lady I know well, died, aged 37. When speaking to her, one of the first feelings she expressed was how her daughter had lived a life without regret, how they could all look back on happy memories and good times in their family.
First and foremost I found this story incredibly sad, but it is probably also incredibly commonplace in terms of how many people live their lives. People need to read these types of stories to make them think and realise important issues about the way they live their lives, not merely for themselves but also for others.

Timeless.......2007-05-27

I had never read any of Tolstoy's works before this book. Admittedly, when I opened the pages of this book I expected the experience of reading this story to be mostly academic, never imaging the story of the death of a 19th century Russian lawyer written by an author from 19th century czarist Russia could have much relevance to life in a 21st century western civilization. I figured Tolstoy's perspectives would likely have reflected the beliefs, thoughts and cultural norms of his day and his country. I couldn't have been more wrong.

The story begins with the friends of Ivan Ilyich visiting his family and paying him his final respects after his painful and slow death. As they expressed their sorrow outwardly and demonstrated the appropriate display of grief, Tolstoy describes how inwardly they were thinking that such pain and death could never happen to them and how it is relatively inconvenient to have to deal with such an event, wondering if they'd be able to make the obligatory evening card game after the funeral. The story then steps back in time and relates how Ivan Ilyich's life was cruising along just as he had hoped it would, comfortably and without too much personal upheaval, other than learning to cope with the inconveniences of a less-than-comfortable marriage and trying to overcome debt acquired by living above his means. His idea of success in life came primarily through professional accomplishments and feeding his ego by garnering the approval of 'high society'.

Then the story turns to his illness and the process of dying a painful and slow death. Tolstoy writes of the thoughts of a man who begins to re-evaluate his life as he lies on his death bed, realizing his end is imminent and not too far off. Ivan Ilyich attempts to reconcile with his soul the decisions he's made in his life, where he's placed his priorities, how he's treated his family and whether he's accomplished anything of lasting significance. It is in these writings that Tolstoy bridges the gaps of time and culture. Whether from old Russia or modern day western civilization, each and every individual in this world might potentially find themselves querying their soul with the same questions and introspection as Tolstoy presents through the death bed of Ivan Ilyich. The theme of his writings as he presents them in this story are not bound by culture, beliefs, geography or time.

I also think this story is the type of story that is read and related to with very different perspectives by each reader according to the individual reader's experiences in life (as are so many other great stories). What this story says or means to one person will be much different from what another person will take from it. Speaking personally, I read this book after having just experienced the death of an infant relative, the 2 month old daughter of a brother. Such an experience in and of itself causes great personal reflection and definitely influenced how I related to the words of Tolstoy and the Death of Ivan Ilyich.

It's a short and relatively easy read. I recommend it.

Um...........2007-04-22

I chose to read this novella for a school project. I chose it because it seemed to have a good plot, etc. When I started reading it, I thought to myself that it was just "a slow beginning" which many wonderful books sometimes have. Unfortunately, most if not all of this books contents were dull and uninteresting. This is MY personal opinion of this book. Also, DON'T choose this book for a school project if you're trying to get a glimpse of the Russian culture, because there is really nothing here. Just a rich lawyer dying very slowly. That's basically it.

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)

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Cynical and honest
not simply autobiographical
Love and war, romance and idealism
Tolstoy at his worst
Tolstoy

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Oxford World's Classics)
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0192838091

Book Description

`To love him was not enough for me after the happiness I had felt in falling in love. I wanted movement and not a calm course of existence. I wanted excitement and danger and the chance to sacrifice myself for my love.' Leo Tolstoy, known to the world for his famous novels, also created throughout his sixty-year career as a writer a significant body of works of shorter ficiton. These fictions, like his novels, tend toward a uniqueness in form, even as they explore a set of themes common in the longer works. The four novellas selected here stand closest to the novels, and represent Tolstoy at his creative best, exploring in a specific and focused way his characteristic themes: life understood as a journey of the discovery of identity and vocation, the meaning of one's life in the face of death, and the redemptive role of suffering and compassion. Family Happiness (1859) traces the psychology of failed married love yet is written against the tradition of the novel of romance, marriage and adultery. The Kreutzer Sonata (1889) recounts a husband's addictions, jealousy, sinister guilt and subsequent isolation, while The Cossacks (1863) focuses on the experiences of a young Russian on in the Caucusus whose quest for romantic love becomes one for the love of 'the whole of God's world'. Finally, the superbly crafted Hadji Murad (1905) juxtaposes the military and civilian worlds, and relates a tale of the human violation of the natural through a series of parallel episodes. Written over a period of almost fifty years, these works display Tolstoy's changing views on art and sexuality, women and marriage, nationalism and ethnicity, war and empire. All four novellas develop, each in its own unique way, the central Tolystoyan theme of love. This edition, which updates a classic translation, has explanatory notes and a substantial introduction based on the most recent scholarship in the field.

Customer Reviews:

Cynical and honest.......2006-10-18

Tolstoy in lecture mode gives a cynical account of courting, romantic love, and a recognizably painful depiction of jealousy. While it may lack the sweep of his major works, there is still much to be mulled in this short work.

not simply autobiographical.......2006-09-12

I think that the reviews here are a little bit off and essentially betray themselves by insulting the writer, and without reason praising his earlier works as a means of battering this later one. first of all, nobody who wants to simply spew out his own life and endoctrinate his readers puts his own views into the mouth of a character who is carefully portrayed as out of his mind. calling Tolstoy Pozdnischef would be like calling the Underground man or prince Mishkin Dostoevsky...similarities, yes just like there are always similarities between a great idea and a stupid one [or put it the other way around]. True, the kreutzer sonata is very autobiographical, but not in a self serving way, and the killer is not tolstoy. The story does not argue for abstinence necessarily either and there is a very high regard for ideal marraige... only tolstoy has to show what he thinks that is by counter example. the kreutzer '' resembles in no way the sort of fundamentailist, "we know you are going to hell and there is no arguing with us", techniques we hear about in the news which other reviewers have it sounding like [why can reviewers do this so easily today concerning late Tolstoy?..because it is easy to bash anykind of sexual morality today unless it happens to be the morality of not getting physically, and hence physically demonstrably, sick]. tolstoy shows [rather than sheethes in political language]the flaws of an institution [marraige]which, as current debates and troubles with marraige show, are very on spot or at least of major interest; if he is wrong in the story the kreutzer sonata, then it should be clear to readers from a quick look at current marraige and life in practice [ i don't know anybody who seriously thinks marraige in general is in a good state right now]. at best the story is not just an unmasking of rhetorical figures, but a careful psychological portrait of decline into mental instability, much easier to follow than say Raskolnikov's. if tolstoy eventually did adopt extremist views, at least in the story here he shows you the problem; that's all he can do--and you don't have to draw the same conclusions that tolstoy may have drawn to appreciate his depiction of something...which he also happens to tell with great passion and drama, and with considerable insight into the working of art, including his own work. just for the heck of it i'll add that i don't share tolstoy's late life philosophy but admire any day a writer who could take a very great piece of music like the kreutzer sonata and translate it's unique intensity into a perhaps equally great novella.

Love and war, romance and idealism.......2006-07-06

The reviews of the "other stories" indicate that different editions contain different stories besides "The Kreutzer Sonata." I refer to the Oxford World Classics version. It begins with "Family Happiness," which I found rather long-winded in its depiction of a rather naive young woman's realization of the enduring love of child and husband will supplant her earlier infatuation with her husband as a lover. "The Kreutzer Sonata" follows logically, and the afterword included here must be read too, for it shows Tolstoy attempting to convolutedly explain why couples should refrain from copulating and even procreating. His link to Jesus's teaching to support his view shows both Tolstoy's ingenuity and his fringe thinking, to say the least. Still, he makes a spirited argument that shows his Christian anarchism which so enflamed his later writing and thinking.

With "The Cossacks" we find a romanticized depiction of a love triangle of sorts between a Russian officer, a local girl, and her village suitor. It too takes too long to develop, but it has its moments, best seen when Tolstoy looks up from his characters and shows us the culture of the frontier in the Caucasus mountains fought over still today. This leads to the somewhat more rugged and lively last novella, "Hajid Murad," in which the titular Chechen chieftain must decide between saving his son who has been taken hostage and rebelling against the Russians who have compromised his tribal rebellion. It lags, but it does manage to give snide glimpses of the cruelty of Nicholas' regimen and the 1851-2 state of a situation that 150 years later still has not found the Russians victorious over these peoples.

All in all, lots of philosophizing, even more turgid dialogues with rather pampered Russian officers and their ladies, and a heap of sentimentality that goes with the territory of most 19th-century fiction. The updated Maude translation used here in the last three stories still feels musty and stuffy to me, but perhaps this is to convey the feel of a slightly antiquated level of discourse to our ears.

Tolstoy at his worst .......2005-10-30

The title story, " The Kreutzer Sonata" is Tolstoy at his preaching, hypocritical, immoral worst. By the time he writes this the great works so filled with love of life are behind him. Here his tirade against sexuality seems a set- speech and not a part of the story of a living character. As for the blanket condemnation of sexuality this is Tolstory narrowly condemning his own monstrous appetites in this area.
All in all nothing in these four works is really reminiscent of the Tolstoy who has such a feeling for his characters and their experience.
Another ironic side of this is that Tolstoy did not at all follow his own prescription to Puritanism and even in advanced old age was reportedly bothering his wife, among others, in order to supply his own needs.
The story is an illustration of how even the greatest creators are not uniformly so, and often have mixed among the gold works of tremendous mediocrity.

Tolstoy.......2005-08-05

This is one of Tolstoy's better works, unlike "The Death of Ivan Ilych", which I thought was absolutely boring and pointless--to read about someone's death with no story line but more of a case study. If you havn't read Tolstoy before, these selections are an intresting start.

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)

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Three stories of despair
A Searing Read...
The hollowness of modern life
As a suggestion....
Story great, edition not

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions)
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0486278050

Book Description

"The Kreutzer Sonata" portrays an intense conflict between sexual desire and moral constraint. "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a simple, moving tale of peasant life with a moral lesson; the hero of "The Death of Ivan Ilych," after a lifetime of struggle, finds faith and love only as he faces death. Explanatory footnotes.

Customer Reviews:

Three stories of despair.......2004-10-08

The highlight of this book for me had to be re-reading "The Death of Ivan Ilych" again after all these years. I read it for the first time years and years ago as required reading in middle school and this is the first time that I have come back to it since that time. I found myself unsurprisingly better equipped to read and appreciate this story now and was exceptionally pleased to have read it again.

This edition contains three short stories that were written after Tolstoy made his conversion to intense Christian beliefs. They are interesting to read together, particularly given the common theme about characters with mistaken ideas about what will bring them contentment.

"How Much Land Does a Man Need?" is a parable which examines greed and contentment through the story of a peasant who believes that he would be satisfied with his life if only he had a little bit more land.

"The Death of Ivan Ilych" tells the history of an outwardly prosperous but spiritually empty man who dies at the age of 45 after a fall in his home.

In "The Kreutzer Sonata" a man on a train relates to a fellow passenger what the circumstances were that led to the murder of his wife.

It is, at the very least, important to read these stories. The Kreutzer Sonata is particularly important in the history of literature. At its release, it was banned throughout much of Europe for indecency and has been inspiring debate about feminist issues and women characters in literature ever since that time.

The translation used in the Dover Thrift edition is competent, but has its awkward moments and is occasionally clunky and obtuse. I might personally recommend buying a different edition if you are planning a purchase.

A Searing Read..........2000-12-28

and should be required for married couples to read together. It should make for some fascinating conversation.

Tolstoy adopts a scorched-earth policy in this novel which deflates the "sanctity" of marriage. The protagonist is a man on the edge, and it seems Tolstoy was there with him in the writing of this incandescent novella.

Chris McCandless, the ill-fated Alaskan voyager who died in a hunting shelter while trying to escape the ties of civilization, was reading this novel very close to his death. See the nonfiction "Into the Wild" for information on this...

I'm sure most of you have read the other two selections in this anthology, so I'll limit my comments to Kreutzer. This novel made my pulse race, a physical reaction I haven't had to a novel in quite a long time.

The hollowness of modern life.......2000-08-28

This little book contains three short stories: "How much land does a man need?", "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", and "The Kreutzer sonata". Although the stories are widely different, they share a common theme. All three expose the hollowness of modern life, with sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit reference to the Christian alternative Tolstoy espoused.

The first two are rather simple didactic tales, juxtaposing materialism, greed, and vanity with Christian sincerity and humility. I think a person's appreciation of these two stories hinges, to a great extent, on the reader's assessment of Tolstoy's solution to the unbridled greed and nauseating superficiality which he witnessed and we even moreso witness today.

The last story, The Kreutzer Sonata, is surely the best and the one with the most universal appeal. This follows from Tolstoy's uncanny ability to infiltrate human psychology and expose people for the frail and undignified beings we really are. In this story, he strives to reveal the self-deceit of marrying for "love" as opposed to marrying with an understanding of marriage as primarily an obligation to God. It seems that to Tolstoy, a life without repentance and duty to God must amount to a life where one is merely subject to the passions, a life that no one can want, just as described by "Schopenhauer and the Buddhists". Like Nietzsche, he is trying to tackle the problem of absence of meaning (posed by Schopenhauer), but he suggests the opposite of Nietsche's active nihilism. His purpose is to offer a life of sincerity, humility, and repentance; a life in accordance with the teachings of Jesus.

As a suggestion...........2000-05-08

If you are looking to read the classics from a different perspective, this is an interesting story to read from a feminist theoretic perspective. I highly recommend reading "Intercourse" by Andrea Dworkin, as she includes an analysis of "The Kreutzer Sonata" in her book that provides a complex view of this story. Very interesting.

Story great, edition not.......1999-10-13

Just returned from Book Discussion Group. Found Dover translation to be far inferior to Penguin Classic.

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The Kreutzer Sonata And Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

1890. Russian author, considered one of the greatest of all novelists. Tolstoy's major works include War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Contents: Kreutzer Sonata; Ivan the Fool; A Lost Opportunity; Polikushka; and The Candle. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing, LLC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0548021988

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: IndyPublish.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Wildside Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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When Pozdnyshev suspects his wife of having an affair with her music partner, his jealousy consumes him and drives him to murder -- "You imagine that I am wandering from my story. Not at all. I am always giving you an account of the events that led to the murder of my wife. The imbeciles! They think that I killed my wife on the 5th of October. It was long before that that I immolated her, just as they all kill now. Understand well that in our society there is an idea shared by all that woman procures man pleasure (and vice versa, probably, but I know nothing of that, I only know my own case). Wein, Weiber und Gesang. So say the poets in their verses: Wine, women, and song!" Also included in this collection are "Ivan the Fool," "A Lost Opportunity," "'Polikushka,'" and "The Candle."

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy
Manufacturer: Wildside Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 080959689X

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Large Print)

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Large Print)
Count Leo Tolstoi
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1425045928
Release Date: 2006-12-01

Book Description

This compilation contains set of short stories by Tolstoy written under the influence of intense Christian beliefs. They are interesting to read, as they are based on common theme discussing characters who have mistaken ideas about what will bring them contentment. These are evident of Tolstoy's uncanny ability to break into human psychology and then expose them to their weaknesses. Must read!

The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Short story index reprint series)

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The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories (Short story index reprint series)
Leo Tolstoy , and Benjamin R. Tucker
Manufacturer: Books for Libraries
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Binding: Hardcover

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