num_pages: 114
description: On learning of Ivan Ilyich's sudden demise and death, his former colleagues begin vying for promotion; it seems in neither life nor death has Ivan Ilyich made any lasting impression. And, as Tolstoy takes us back to Ivan Ilyich's early days, it is a life of futility, of emptiness and primarily of spiritual barrenness that is revealed. Yet Tolstoy also reveals how, in the face of serious illness, Ivan Ilyich had made a final resolute gesture to come to terms with his mortality and to embrace his impending death.
language: English
title: The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Devil
titlecomplete: The Death of Ivan Ilyich and The Devil (Hesperus Classics Series)
genres: Classics, Fiction, Russia
ratings_count: 84
publisher: Hesperus Pr