The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories

by Tolstoy, Leo; Edmonds, Rosemary; Edmonds, Rosemary

• ISBN13: 9780140445084
• ISBN10: 0140445080
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-11-07
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Three of Tolstoy's most powerful and moving shorter works are brought together in this volume. 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is a masterly meditation on life and death, recounting the physical decline and spiritual awakening of a worldly, successful man who is faced with his own mortality. 'Happy Ever After', inspired by one of Tolstoy's own romantic entanglements, tells the story of a seventeen-year-old girl who marries her guardian of twice her age. And 'The Cossacks', the tale of a disenchanted young nobleman who seeks fulfilment amid the wild beauty of the Caucasus, was hailed by Turgenev as the 'finest and most perfect production of Russian literature'. Rosemary Edmonds's classic translation fully captures the subtle nuances of Tolstoy's writing, and the volume includes an introduction discussing the stories' influences and contemporary reactions towards them.

Table of Contents

Introduction	7	(4)
Happy Ever After (`Family Happiness')	11	(88)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich	99	(64)
The Cossacks	163