Reviews - The Death of Ivan Ilych: Annotated

5.02k reviews for:

The Death of Ivan Ilych: Annotated

Leo Tolstoy

4.01 AVERAGE

alexstrapps's review against another edition

4.25

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

A short story that simplifies death and human experience down into short sentences. I thought it might be too obvious and not at all subtle with its message but I found that to be quite a nice medium in which to think about death, grief, suffering, life, and how to live it. Tolstoy took these simple concepts and laid them out bare for us to see. At times it was a little repetitive, but overall I enjoyed.

ashreadsnotmuchtho's review against another edition

4.0

dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

drew2718's review against another edition

2.5

Too many classic Russian novels read as though the author first thought of a lesson that he wanted to teach and then thought up characters and a story that could be used to teach that lesson.

knorbi97's review against another edition

4.5

dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

clarawade76's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

darbo's review against another edition

4.0

dark informative reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Tolstoy writes with an everyday mundanity and no extravagant prose which might seem boring on a surface level but if you dig a little deeper, you will find an enrapturing account of Russian life and sociopolitical circumstances in 1880s Russia, especially that of the often despised upper-middle class, which Tolstoy was himself a part of, if not one step above. The subject of the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich is, as the name suggests, Ivan Ilyich who is a member of justice in court. Surprisingly, the title reveals the untimely end of Ivan Ilyich, which the novella takes as its predominant course of action. Ilyich himself recounts his life, including his final moments and what led up to his death. Fascinatingly, he talks about what it means to have the power of choice over other people's lives, very much similar to a recent work of nonfiction that I have read called When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. While the main aims of these two books are very much different, they remind me of each other and show similarities in style and subject.