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The Death of Ivan Ilych & Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics) |  | Author: Leo Tolstoy
Creator: David Goldfarb
Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $7.95
Buy New: $1.50
as of 11/27/2009 03:17 CST details
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Seller: ladychief03
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 487101
Media: Paperback
Pages: 400
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 1593080697
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781593080693
ASIN: 1593080697
Publication Date: December 15, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The Death of Ivan Illych and Other Stories, by Elizabeth Gaskell, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars Biographies of the authors Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events Footnotes and endnotes Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work Comments by other famous authors Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations Bibliographies for further reading Indices & Glossaries, when appropriateAll editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.
Chief among Tolstoy’s shorter works is The Death of Ivan Ilych, a masterful meditation on the act of dying. The first major fictional work published by Tolstoy after a mid-life psychological crisis, this novella reflects the author’s struggle to find meaning in life, a challenge Tolstoy resolved by developing a religious philosophy based on brotherly love, mutual support, and charity. These guiding principles are the dominant moral themes in The Death of Ivan Ilych, an account of the spiritual conversion of a judge—an ordinary, unthinking, vulgar man—in the face of his terrible fear about death.
Also included in this volume are Family Happiness, an early work that traces the arc of a marriage; The Kreutzer Sonata, a frank tale of sexual love that shocked readers when it first appeared; and Hadji Murád, Tolstoy’s final masterpiece about power politics, intrigue, and colonial conquest.
David Goldfarb teaches Polish, Russian, and Comparative Literature at Barnard College and Columbia University. He has written about Witold Gombrowicz, Bruno Schulz, Zbigniew Herbert, Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz, Mikhail Lermontov, and Nikolai Gogol.
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| Customer Reviews:
A Wonderful & Unique Tolstoy June 10, 2008
Johnny (Boston, MA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
'The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories' by Leo Tolstoy
All stories contained in this small volume are truly wonderful, however, I've chosen to focus on `Family Happiness' - the first short novel (or novella) in this issue - solely due to the fact that is unique amongst Tolstoy's writings. This narrative is written from the feminine perspective - a young girl named Masha's - which sets it apart from Tolstoy's unparalleled catalogue.
It is a tale of love, the evolution of marriage and the stresses found in so many relationships. Masha marries an older man, twice her age and a guardian figure, who has thus far experienced what he considers to be all of his life adventures and by the beginning of the narrative is well settled into a staid and happy existence. After an awkward beginning to their marriage, Masha experiences a world completely new to her - cosmopolitan and society based - as opposed to the country life she had heretofore experienced. As her life experiences expand, the way she views her husband becomes altered and she struggles to understand how their love has changed and whether or not it can ever return to what it once was. Consequently, Masha must face the future with the man she has always loved and struggle to accept this new reality, recognizing the evolution of her life.
Perhaps, Tolstoy's true feelings on marriage are on display in `Family Happiness'. The story evolved from his own relationship with a woman, significantly junior to he. However, Tolstoy did not marry her, and this story may demonstrate why. This is truly a wonderful novella that I'm sure you'll remember well after you turn the last page.
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