The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Cyclopedia of Literary Places)
At a glance:
- Author: Leo Tolstoy
- First Published: 1886
- Type of Work: Novella
- Type of Plot: Psychological realism
- Time of Work: 1880’s
- Genres: Psychological fiction, Short fiction, Domestic realism
- Subjects: Values, Self-discovery, Nineteenth century, Middle classes, Truth, Death or dying, Lawyers, Funeral rites or ceremonies, Terminal illness or terminally ill, Materialism, Russia or Russian people
- Locales: St. Petersburg, Russia
Places Discussed
*Russian provinces. Settings in flashback episodes. After a brief introduction set in Petersburg in which it is revealed that Ivan Ilych has died, the story moves rapidly through three anonymous provincial towns of the character’s past. Lacking physical detail, these merge into one another. The very lack of specific character of the places that Ilych inhabits allows Tolstoy to suggest that it is, ironically, the very ordinariness of Ilych’s life that explains its final horror.
As Ilych graduates from the Petersburg School of Law and prepares to take...
[The entire page is 1040 words long]
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