The Death of Ivan Ilyich

A stand-alone edition of Tolstoy's most famous novella, in the award-winning Pevear and Volokhonsky translation.

This translation was first published in 2009 in The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories, and now appears in stand-alone edition for the first time. Ivan Ilyich is a man who has spent his life focused on his career as a bureaucrat and emotionally detached from his wife and children; after an accident he finds himself in mid-life on the brink of death, which he sees as a terrible injustice. Face to face with his mortality, Ivan begins to question everything he has believed about the meaning of life. A masterpiece of psychological realism and philosophical profundity, Tolstoy's most famous story is an intense and moving examination of death and the possibilities of redemption.

Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was born in central Russia. After serving in the Crimean War, he retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world fame.

Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated works by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, and Gogol. They were twice awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize (for their versions of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina). They are married and live in France.