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  • Published: 2 May 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241251768
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $9.99

The Death Of Ivan Ilyich

Little Black Classics




Laying humanity bare, these two devastating stories ask: is it possible to have a good death? And what does it mean to truly live?

'It is only a bruise'
A carefree Russian official has what seems to be a trivial accident...
One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.

  • Published: 2 May 2016
  • ISBN: 9780241251768
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 128
  • RRP: $9.99

Other books in the series

About the author

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy was born in central Russia in 1828. He studied Oriental languages and law (although failed to earn a degree in the latter) at the University of Kazan, and after a dissolute youth eventually joined an artillery regiment in the Caucasus in 1851. He took part in the Crimean War, and the Sebastopol Sketches that emerged from it established his reputation. After living for some time in St Petersburg and abroad, he married Sophie Behrs in 1862 and they had thirteen children. The happiness this brought him gave him the creative impulse for his two greatest novels, War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877). Later in life his views became increasingly radical as he gave up his possessions to live a simple peasant life. After a quarrel with his wife he fled home secretly one night to seek refuge in a monastery. He became ill during this dramatic flight and died at the small railway station of Astapovo in 1910.

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