The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories is a collection of
stories that emerged from a profound spiritual crisis, during which
Leo Tolstoy believed that he had encountered death itself. This
Penguin Classics edition is translated with an introduction by
Anthony Briggs, David McDuff and Ronald Wilks. These seven
compelling stories explore, in very different ways, Tolstoy's
preoccupation with mortality. 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is a
devastating account of a man fighting his inevitable end, and asks
the existential question: why must a good person be taken before
his time? In 'Polikushka', a light-fingered drunk's chance to prove
himself has tragic repercussions, while 'Three Deaths' depicts the
last moments of an aristocrat, a peasant and a tree, and 'The
Forged Coupon' shows a seemingly minor offence that leads
inexorably to ever more horrific crimes. And in three tales about
soldiers, 'After the Ball', 'The Wood-felling' and 'The Raid',
Tolstoy portrays the brutality that all too often accompanies
military life. The translations by Anthony Briggs, David McDuff and
Ronald Wilks capture Tolstoy's powerful, vivid prose. This edition
also includes a new introduction by Anthony Briggs discussing
Tolstoy's breakdown and the effect this had on his writing, as well
as a chronology, further reading and notes. Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
was born at Yasnaya Polyana, in central Russia. He led a life of
wasteful idleness until 1851, when he travelled to the Caucasus and
joined the army with his older brother, fighting in the Crimean
war. After marrying Sofya Behrs in 1862, Tolstoy settled down,
managing his estates and writing two of his best-known novels, War
and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1878). In 1884 Tolstoy
experienced a spiritual crisis, becoming an extreme moralist,
rejecting the state, the church and private property. His last
novel, Resurrection (1900), was written to raise money for the
Doukhobor sect of Christian spiritualists. If you enjoyed The Death
of Ivan Ilyich, you might like Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and
Punishment, also available in Penguin Classics.
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