/ssrg/ Short Story Reading Group: The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Pomodoros technique, desu. Helps me read more and it will probably help you too.

Tolstoy is a top notch writer but the sad fact is that his religious epiphany really damaged his work. Everything he wrote before that is solid gold, Family Happiness especially, and everything he wrote afterwards is just too cloyingly moral. This is one of the better post-religious stories (though the best is Master and Man) but I just can't get over the general feeling that he's forcing his art to go in the direction he wants it to. It's all superego, to use some superficial Freud.

One of his last works, Hadji Murat (published posthumously) is intriguing. It's like a callback to his earlier war stories, as well as being a historical novel. It's far leaner in scale than War and Peace, and more understated in its morality.

As for Ivan Ilyich, I think it's very well observed, a story that is more easily related to as we get older and attend funerals, and think about matters of death. Tolstoy suggests we reject trusting in vanity and sensuality before love and nature - look also at his short story Three Deaths.

oh good, i though you had given up OP when i didn't see a thread. Don't know any of these stories so each one is a surprise lets do it.

>tfw Dover thrift book still hasn't arrived

>Not having Prime
But seriously theyre readily available online

Last words were more impressive for me in the english translation. "Is he gone? No, the death is gone". In Russian it souded less memorable, for some reason..

Are many still reading, or planning to read yet?

Still reading

I'll read it tomorrow

I have sat bedside to two people on their deathbed. One was my grandfather, who went very violently, and I actually saw him take his last breath, from prostate cancer. The other was an elderly woman dying from complications of a heart attack (basically her heart was failing) who was a good friend.

Both were aware they were dying and both had very despairing moments. My grandfather said "Why does dying have to hurt so much?" and the other, a lifelong Christian, questioned her faith in and the existence of God.

The similarity of their passings was the final peace before they finally passed on. And like Tolstoy depicts, I think it is a relief that death, the experience of, is ending. Soon death shall be over, and suffering, and fear.

Especially to my grandfather, who yelled and screamed and eventually, grew quieter and quieter, until he took in his last breath and passed away as I was looking at him, not even realising he passed.

What I think Tolstoy is trying to convey is death makes you wish for peace, and you realise this peace through suffering death.

This is fucking bullshit, listing a novella for a short story thread. This is why we can't do these fucking reading clubs.

Thank you for sharing that with us.

It's part of the The World's Greatest Short Stories (Dover Thrift Editions). I agree it's technically a novella. You can easily skip any story you do not enjoy.

Most of the reading clubs are for extremely long works, so I don't see how this novella is proof they won't work.

A single day's reading load for The Count of Monte Cristo or the War and Peace group is longer than this story. This group is given 6 days for it.

I'm reading a book by Vonnegut first, I'm a pleb and need a foundation before I jump into this stuff.

None of these stories are so deep that a newcomer to Veeky Forums can't jump right in. In fact I'd say these are a perfectly starting place because they introduce you to a variety of authors like Tolstoy, D.H. Lawrence, Joyce, Woolf, Kafka, Hemmingway, and Melville. You can then seek out their longer works if inclined, and at least have some familiarity with them.

Although this is a slightly longer work, I'd recommend joining in for at least the shorter ones like next week's in addition to Vonnegut. Short stories are a great way to expand the breadth of authors you have knowledge of, and all the stories here are critically acclaimed.

Short stories are the perfect interrupt when reading longer works. Even if you don't enjoy one, it's over soon enough that it hardly matters.

I downloaded it and I'll read it asap, Vonnegut's books are never that long anyway.

And you're right, this is how I got into Mishima after reading Patriotism.

I suspect the OP has some kind of ulterior motive, why does the short story collection you chose have so many woman writers?

I feel this too, he seems to be really stressing everyone to read the book.

I have the book right next to me but haven't started yet

Might read it over the next 2-3 days

Seriously? Keep that gender crap out of Veeky Forums.

I do have Prime but for some reason it's been delayed for like a week now. Maybe they ran out of stock.

Is there a chart/image of the schedule for this?

>so many woman writers
3 out of 20

Fuck off back to /pol/.

Found a site which sells the book new for only $4.11 shipped.

bookdepository.com/The-Worlds-Greatest-Short-Stories-James-Daley/9780486447162

I've added an epub of The World's Greatest Short Stories to the Mega.nz link.

Nice, that'll save me the trouble of downloading individual stories.

I've just began reading guys

Any progress?

Sorry for your losses.
When she was passing away and questioning her faith, what was the outcome? Did she believe in heaven at the end?

I saw her about two days before her death, which is when she said it. It was almost just a passing comment, she said something along the lines of "I won't ever see (husband) again. There is no God, there is nothing." She never mentioned anything like that ever again.

Finished the first chapter, I like Dostoyevsky's writing so far, it's my first book of his.

Wtf, not funny at all, buddy.

I don't get what's there to be funny?
Am I not reading fast enough?

This is a thread on Tolstoy mate

Read ~60 pages, 30 to go. Will finish it tonight. Reading it in french, had a copy lying in my bookshelf for years.

Oh I was confusing the two, I'm still reading BTW.

I don't agree with this at all, at least for this story. Tolstoy can be somewhat preachy, which personally doesn't bother me too greatly, but I thought the religious/spiritual allusions in this were relatively subtle considering this was published just after his conversion. I'd say he focused more on the individualistic lifestyle of Ivan and his senpai/friends than the lack of religion.

I wouldn't call this an enjoyable read but it was certainly rewarding. Can relate to the awkwardness and/or self-consciousness that wakes can inspire. It's difficult and scary to relate to the dying man... looking back of past mistakes can be difficult, but on your death bed it must be absolutely awful.

What really ticked me off was how the doctor handled his illness. How awful it must have been back then to have to out so much faith in doctors, yet it seems to have been some breach of societal rules to even ask "how bad is it?" The doctor obviously isn't even sure, but even with the limitations of medicine the way he handles the diagnosis adds to the misery of the work. Of course even today we have ways of knowing that someone will die within the next year, but I think it's a comfort to at least know what is killing you. Back then, you just had to wait, and guess, and try to put your legs in a comfortable position.

It felt almost Kafkaesque in that regard, not being able to ask the doctors whether it is bad or if he is going to die.

Gonna have to pass on this one as it's quite long and I have shit to read for uni.

Besides I read it like 3 years ago and didn't really like it that much (I remember fuck all from it though). I will hopefully join for the next one

Why dont you spend less time on here and more time on reading one of the greatest stories ever written?

Because I already did and it was not that great in my opinion.
And I already spend a shitload of hours reading and writing for uni every day so I need to take a break and shitpost every now and then.

Pleb

>Uni
>Muh Uni
>Muh gender studies
Fuck off, kiddo.

Just finished reading it. I loved the story but I'm pretty bummed out. I don't want to end my life with superficial friends, a wife who hates me, and children who disappoint me. But it seems terribly likely.

>tfw no Gerasim

We all die alone, user. Ivan's wife loved him, so did his children but nobody could understand what he was going through, nobody can relate to a dying man, making Ivan feel like nobody loves him.

Nobody loved him, he was a functional unit due to the way he lived. That's the point of the story.