After the sudden death of Ivan Ilych Golovin, a Court of Justice official, his colleagues react with thoughts of promotions rather than grief, and the story traces back through Ivan Ilych's conventional rise through the legal bureaucracy to the mysterious illness that slowly kills him, isolating him in physical agony and existential dread until, in his final hours, he finds a strange peace.
Books mentioned in The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1)
Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugene Scribe and Ernest Legouve: “"No, have you seen her before?" "Yes, in Adrienne Lecouvreur." Praskovya Fedorovna mentioned some roles in which Sarah Bernhardt was particularly good.”
Books that mention The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1)
American Pastoral by Philip Roth: “Ivan Ilych's life, writes Tolstoy, summarizing, right at the outset, his judgment of the presiding judge”