The Death of Ivan Ilych (The Art of the Novella)

About this book

There is no explanation. Written eight years after the publication of Anna Kareninaa time during which despite the global success of his novels Leo Tolstoy renounced fiction in favor of religious and philosophical tractsThe Death of Ivan Ilych represents perhaps the most keenly realized melding of Tolstoys spirituality with his artistic skills. Here in a vibrant new translation the tale of a judge who slowly comes to understand that his illness is fatal was inspired by Tolstoys observation at his local train station of hundreds of shackled prisoners being sent off to Siberia many for petty crimes. When he learned that the sentencing judge had died Tolstoy was roused to consider the judges thoughts during his final daysa study on the acceptance of mortality only deepened by the death during its writing of one of Tolstoys own young children. The final result is a magisterial story both chilling and beguiling in the fullness of its empathy its quotidian detail and the beauty of its prose and is as many have claimed it to be one of the most moving novellas ever written. The Art of The Novella Series Too short to be a novel too long to be a short story the novella is generally unrecognized by academics and publishers. Nonetheless it is a form beloved and practiced by literatures greatest writers. In the Art Of The Novella series Melville House celebrates this renegade art form and its practitioners with titles that are in many instances presented in book form for the first time.