Ivan Ilyich was a very materialistic person. He was a high court judge, failing husband and a father to two. After he got married he had frequent fights with his wife. One day they went to Ivan Ilyich's brother-in-law's house. The next day Ivan Ilyich sets off to get a new job and he gets one. After he establishes it there, earning five thousand rubles, he came back to his brother-in-law's house. His and wife and him now came to an agreement and they both were happy. Ivan Ilyich soon left again in order buy a house in his new city and also since his new job started very soon. When he was establishing his house, he designed it so that his whole family may like it. All is well until he falls down a ladder and hits his head on thee edge of a window. That is when death itself has knocked on Ivan Ilyich's door. Then his body isn't functioning properly especially his kidneys. From then on he gets closer and closer to death, until it takes him. Even though his wife tries to cure him, he isn't sure if it will work. But will he survive, or be taken by death? Read and find out.
Literary Information:
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella, a fictional prose, longer than a short story but shorter than a full length novel. The story said in third-person omniscient point of view. That is visible in the story because the narrator knows everything that is going on. Because the book is written in third person, the thoughts and feelings of the other characters is known to the reader, which other characters don't know' which is dramatic irony. The genre of this book is exemplum, or a book written to specifically tell a moral. Also, this book also falls into the catefories of realistic fiction and phycological novella.
Literary Analysis:
One of the themes of The Death of Ivan Ilyich is that death is inevitable. The reader can understand this because near the end of the book, Ivan Ilyich starts to realize that he is to die and that no medicine can cure him. Until now Ivan Ilyich has been regretting the fact that he cannot die and that dying was meant for others. The style of writing that Leo Tolstoy uses in the book is mostly normal but here and there he uses formal style. That is noticeable because the context is quite hard to perceive. That is partly due to the heaviness of the topic, since the book deals with death and the psychological effects of death on a man that didn't even think of death and dying in his lifetime. This book is one of kind and it is a book that changes you.
Criticism:
Out of five stars, I would give this book a three, maybe a three point five. That is because this book is very comlex and time consuming book. It deals with heavy topics and if anybody wants to get a clear understanding of this book, it will take time and thinking. But the book is good and the storyline is very interesting.
Author Bio:
Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 at Yasnya Polyana in Tula Province. He was the fourth child to be born to Countess Maria Volkonsky and Count Nikolay Ilyich Tolstoy. In 1844, he entered the University of Kazan to study Turco-Arabic literature according to classicauthors.net . Leo Tolstoy did not graduate, but would later try law. Leo Tolstoy wrote his first piece of literature in 1852. It was an autobiography called Childhood in 1852 according to online-literature.com . This was a trilogy, following with Boyhood in 1854 and Youth in 1857. During the Crimean War, Leo Tolstoy was moved to Wallachia to fight against the French, British and Ottoman Empire. This experience later had Tolstoy write Sevastopol Sketches from 1855 to 1865. Sevastopol was the city he defended. Tolstoy got married in 1862 to Sofia 'Sonya' Andreyevna Behrs. They had thirteen children, which five of them died early. In his life, he wrote his most famous works War and Peace and Anne Karenina. Leo Tolstoy had a period of his life called the Spiritual Crisis , a nine-year period following the publication Anne Karenina. This was the period in which he wrote not a word of fiction. Also he wrote The Death of Ivan Ilyich during this period. Leo Tolstoy had lead a hard and profound life. He died on November 9, 1910 at the age of 82.
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If you like this book, you would like these books as well:
War and Peace- by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Karenina- by Leo Tolstoy
Check Out this video if you want to find out more about The Death of Ivan Ilyich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4bfFDnAkA This is a YouTube Video of a professor talking about "The Death of Ivan Ilyich."
The Death Of Ivan Ilyich: By Leo Tolstoy
Summary:
Ivan Ilyich was a very materialistic person. He was a high court judge, failing husband and a father to two. After he got married he had frequent fights with his wife. One day they went to Ivan Ilyich's brother-in-law's house. The next day Ivan Ilyich sets off to get a new job and he gets one. After he establishes it there, earning five thousand rubles, he came back to his brother-in-law's house. His and wife and him now came to an agreement and they both were happy. Ivan Ilyich soon left again in order buy a house in his new city and also since his new job started very soon. When he was establishing his house, he designed it so that his whole family may like it. All is well until he falls down a ladder and hits his head on thee edge of a window. That is when death itself has knocked on Ivan Ilyich's door. Then his body isn't functioning properly especially his kidneys. From then on he gets closer and closer to death, until it takes him. Even though his wife tries to cure him, he isn't sure if it will work. But will he survive, or be taken by death? Read and find out.Literary Information:
The Death of Ivan Ilyich is a novella, a fictional prose, longer than a short story but shorter than a full length novel. The story said in third-person omniscient point of view. That is visible in the story because the narrator knows everything that is going on. Because the book is written in third person, the thoughts and feelings of the other characters is known to the reader, which other characters don't know' which is dramatic irony. The genre of this book is exemplum, or a book written to specifically tell a moral. Also, this book also falls into the catefories of realistic fiction and phycological novella.Literary Analysis:
One of the themes of The Death of Ivan Ilyich is that death is inevitable. The reader can understand this because near the end of the book, Ivan Ilyich starts to realize that he is to die and that no medicine can cure him. Until now Ivan Ilyich has been regretting the fact that he cannot die and that dying was meant for others. The style of writing that Leo Tolstoy uses in the book is mostly normal but here and there he uses formal style. That is noticeable because the context is quite hard to perceive. That is partly due to the heaviness of the topic, since the book deals with death and the psychological effects of death on a man that didn't even think of death and dying in his lifetime. This book is one of kind and it is a book that changes you.Criticism:
Out of five stars, I would give this book a three, maybe a three point five. That is because this book is very comlex and time consuming book. It deals with heavy topics and if anybody wants to get a clear understanding of this book, it will take time and thinking. But the book is good and the storyline is very interesting.Author Bio:
Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828 at Yasnya Polyana in Tula Province. He was the fourth child to be born to Countess Maria Volkonsky and Count Nikolay Ilyich Tolstoy. In 1844, he entered the University of Kazan to study Turco-Arabic literature according to classicauthors.net . Leo Tolstoy did not graduate, but would later try law. Leo Tolstoy wrote his first piece of literature in 1852. It was an autobiography called Childhood in 1852 according to online-literature.com . This was a trilogy, following with Boyhood in 1854 and Youth in 1857. During the Crimean War, Leo Tolstoy was moved to Wallachia to fight against the French, British and Ottoman Empire. This experience later had Tolstoy write Sevastopol Sketches from 1855 to 1865. Sevastopol was the city he defended. Tolstoy got married in 1862 to Sofia 'Sonya' Andreyevna Behrs. They had thirteen children, which five of them died early. In his life, he wrote his most famous works War and Peace and Anne Karenina. Leo Tolstoy had a period of his life called the Spiritual Crisis , a nine-year period following the publication Anne Karenina. This was the period in which he wrote not a word of fiction. Also he wrote The Death of Ivan Ilyich during this period. Leo Tolstoy had lead a hard and profound life. He died on November 9, 1910 at the age of 82.If you like this book, you would like these books as well:
War and Peace- by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Karenina- by Leo Tolstoy
Check Out this video if you want to find out more about The Death of Ivan Ilyich.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al4bfFDnAkA This is a YouTube Video of a professor talking about "The Death of Ivan Ilyich."