The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories

Description

At the age of forty-one, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) underwent a profound spiritual crisis, from which he emerged believing that he had encountered death itself. These seven compelling stories explore, in very different ways, his subsequent preoccupation with mortality. 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' is a devastating account of a man fighting his inevitable end, and asks the existential question- why must a good person be taken before his time? In 'Polikushka', a light-fingered drunk's chance to prove himself has tragic repercussions, while 'Three Deaths' depicts the last moments of an aristocrat, a peasant and a tree, and 'The Forged Coupon' shows a seemingly minor offence that leads inexorably to ever more horrific crimes. And in three tales about soldiers, 'After the Ball', 'The Wood-felling' and 'The Raid', Tolstoy portrays the brutality that all too often accompanies military life.

Count Leo Tolstoy was born on September 9, 1828, in Yasnaya Polyana, Russia. Among his best-known works are the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Tolstoy died on November 20, 1910. Anthony Briggs has written, translated or edited many books and articles on Russian and English literature. A leading authority on Alexander Pushkin, he has also edited five volumes of English poetry. His recent translation of War and Peace has been widely acclaimed. David McDuff has translated a number of nineteenth century Russian prose works for the Penguin Classics series. These include Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot, The House of the Dead, and Tolstoy's The Cossacks. Ronald Wilks has translated The Little Demon by Sologub and, for Penguin Classics, My Childhood, My Apprenticeship and My Universities by Gorky and four volumes of stories by Chekhov- The Kiss and Other Stories, The Duel and Other Stories, The Party and Other Stories and The Fiancee and Other Stories.