Name: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Rating: 4.086397058823529 (272 reviews)
ISBN: 9781455109548

Simon Prebble

Leo Tolstoy

Library Edition

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

It was this living a lie, all around him and within him that did most to poison the last days in the life of Ivan Ilyich.

And he has to take this knowledge to bed with him, along with the physical pain and the terror, often to spend a near-sleepless night because of the pain. And next morning he has to get up again, put on his clothes, go to court, talk, write or, if he doesn’t go out, stay in with every one of those twenty-four hours that make up a day and a night, each one of them an agony. And he has to live like this on the edge of destruction, alone, with nobody at all to understand and pity him.

One glittering drop of hope followed by a raging sea of despair, and nothing but pain, more pain, more anguish, always the same thing.

A Morte De Ivan Ilitch

"Quem dera não fosse tão próximo da morte que buscássemos uma vida feliz. -Sêneca"

Essa obra para mim reflete muito bem essa frase em questão, sobre como apenas no fim é dado a importância do tempo e como você utiliza ele na sua vida. A morte de Ivan ilitch coloca de uma maneira sútil uma dúvida em nossa cabeça se nem ao menos deixarmos de aberta a porta para nosso intelecto:" Eu estou vivedo uma vida que eu estou vivendo como eu quero?". Essa pergunta ecoa em nossa mente e principalmente da do Ivan de uma forma brutal, um divisor de águas que faz com que as ações que foram tomadas, nos fazem questionar se de fato valeram a pena. Um livro tão curto mas tão profundo ao mesmo tempo, faz o leitor criticar se não esta na hora de buscar um novo estilo de vida, um que a pessoa acorde todos os dias com pelo menos um pouco mais de vontade de viver e fazer do dia melhor do que o dia anterior. Termino essa resenha com o conceito do eterno retorno do querido Nietzsche. Se por acaso, lhe fosse proposto reviver sua vida inteira, com os momentos bons e ruins, do mesmo jeito que os fatos ocorreram, você ficaria aliviado? Se o que vem na sua mente não é paz e tranquilidade e sim medo, isso o faz ter um lembrete de aproveitar sua vida e viver do jeito que bem quiser, pois somente assim, a tranquilidade perante ao eterno retorno será um motivo de alívio, quem dera que Ivan Ilitch pudesse ter tido tal conhecimento antes de escolher suas ações... Recomendo muito a leitura do Clássico!

Richard Braga!

"Quem dera não fosse tão próximo da morte que buscássemos uma vida feliz. -Sêneca"

Essa obra para mim reflete muito bem essa frase em questão, sobre como apenas no fim é dado a importância do tempo e como você utiliza ele na sua vida. A morte de Ivan ilitch coloca de uma maneira sútil uma dúvida em nossa cabeça se nem ao menos deixarmos de aberta a porta para nosso intelecto:" Eu estou vivedo uma vida que eu estou vivendo como eu quero?". Essa pergunta ecoa em nossa mente e principalmente da do Ivan de uma forma brutal, um divisor de águas que faz com que as ações que foram tomadas, nos fazem questionar se de fato valeram a pena. Um livro tão curto mas tão profundo ao mesmo tempo, faz o leitor criticar se não esta na hora de buscar um novo estilo de vida, um que a pessoa acorde todos os dias com pelo menos um pouco mais de vontade de viver e fazer do dia melhor do que o dia anterior. Termino essa resenha com o conceito do eterno retorno do querido Nietzsche. Se por acaso, lhe fosse proposto reviver sua vida inteira, com os momentos bons e ruins, do mesmo jeito que os fatos ocorreram, você ficaria aliviado? Se o que vem na sua mente não é paz e tranquilidade e sim medo, isso o faz ter um lembrete de aproveitar sua vida e viver do jeito que bem quiser, pois somente assim, a tranquilidade perante ao eterno retorno será um motivo de alívio, quem dera que Ivan Ilitch pudesse ter tido tal conhecimento antes de escolher suas ações... Recomendo muito a leitura do Clássico!

Death of Ivan Ilyich

Many people have said that this book has brought so much enlightenment into their lives, and I was looking forward to it, thinking that this short book will hold so many secrets. It did not do that for me, unfortunately. It is a story about a man’s life and how he died, just as the title says. It is a short read, which is why I picked it up, but I’m hoping his other works may be more enlightening? 

Olanda

correu atrás da carreira perfeita, de ter tudo e esqueceu do principal, viver! 

Mirra Mendes

By the time he dies, Ivan Ilych has come to understand the worthlessness of his life. Paradoxically, this elevates him above the common man, who avoids the reality of death and the effort it takes to make life worthwhile. In Tolstoy's own words, "Ivan Ilyich's life had been . . . most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Newly designed and typeset in a modern 5.5-by-8.5-inch format by Waking Lion Press.

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The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

Based on the reviews and the praises, I had some expectations from this book...I feel really disappointed. The book was nothing but depressing. Thats it. Its true that Ivan ends up regreting his life methods, but I didnt see any progression apart from him fighting his inner battles. Based on the blurbs and summaries I expected immense reflection on life but I didn't see any of it. Just an angry man with a terrible personal life plunging in the depths of death without doing anything in the limited time he has. There have been much better movies and books revolving around similar novels. Neither the protagonist was someone you could root for nor were the protagonist's family members; the only one being Gerasim. There couldve been more reflection and more layers to this rather than nothing but just depression and dark. 

This book just doesn't do it for me, I am sorry.

Aarush Arora

Based on the reviews and the praises, I had some expectations from this book...I feel really disappointed. The book was nothing but depressing. Thats it. Its true that Ivan ends up regreting his life methods, but I didnt see any progression apart from him fighting his inner battles. Based on the blurbs and summaries I expected immense reflection on life but I didn't see any of it. Just an angry man with a terrible personal life plunging in the depths of death without doing anything in the limited time he has. There have been much better movies and books revolving around similar novels. Neither the protagonist was someone you could root for nor were the protagonist's family members; the only one being Gerasim. There couldve been more reflection and more layers to this rather than nothing but just depression and dark. 

This book just doesn't do it for me, I am sorry.

thank you Tolstoy for triggering an existential crisis 😍

In terms of what this book aimed to do, it definitely succeeded in showing tthe thoughts of a dying man thinking about how useless his life was despite following the social norms and formula to make one "happy". But in terms of making me care about the character, well, I didn't care about him at all, which, honestly just shows how great the point came across. 

Mirror

Shidehdeishidi

Christian Bager Bach Houmann

The Death of Ivan Ilych is short and hard to put down.

It is a classic. A reminder that we will all die some day. It is like having Ivan's life flashing before your eyes, slowing down upon the moments of his death.

sophie <3

Benedict Neo

I think it's really scary to be struck by disease one day out of the blue, and progressively have your health deteriorate, with no cure or hope in sight, and have your own family doubt you, and see other people continue on their lives without you. 

There comes a day when even getting out of bed is no longer possible, you become immobile, you lay down and all you can think about is how you've wasted your life. All your deepest regrets start creeping in, the unspoken words, the dreams that you've put off, the ideal version of yourself that you still have yet to achieve.

It was a good reminder to live every day like it's the last. To not take health for granted because everything can be taken away from you in an instant. Hold those dear to you closely. Don't forget to live a little.

I finished this on a plane back to Iowa after my summer internship with Tesla ended the second time. And it's a time when I still am suffering from GERD, which made me relate to Ivan in a lot of ways. It's a disease that has no cure, that is killing me from the inside and makes me feel like my live is being taken away from me with no cure in sight. I remain optimistic.

Andrew John Kinney

This is my second Tolstoy book after The Cossacks; since I will likely never undertake War and Peace, I'm enjoying Tolstoy in smaller bites. The Death of Ivan Ilyich is thought of as a masterpiece in terms of its depiction of a man coming to terms with impending death, and I agree, almost completely. My only qualification is that the ending will be more satisfying to a Christian than to a non-aligned party. Having been myself a caregiver for a dying parent, the realism of Tolstoy's writing is clear. The realization by Ivan of the meaningless of ambition and rank at the end of life is expertly drawn, as is his growing intolerance of anything less than the whole truth. The shocking realization that life is over, or about to be over, and the dawning regrets that crowd in as a consequence are certainly meant as a cautionary tale by the mystical Tolstoy, as they should be for anyone. 

Highly recommended. By sheer coincidence, I heard the Philip Larkin poem below recited yesterday, and it mirrors the tone of Ivan's progression toward death:

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night. 
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. 
In time the curtain-edges will grow light. 
Till then I see what’s really always there: 
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now, 
Making all thought impossible but how 
And where and when I shall myself die. 
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse 
—The good not done, the love not given, time 
Torn off unused—nor wretchedly because 
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never; 
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here, 
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear—no sight, no sound, 
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, 
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich Library Edition

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