Ivan: the Good (?) Years

The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Session 2

Today, we’ll be discussing Sections II and III of “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” in the translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (pages 47-60.)

The big surprise for a lot of people (and for me, the first time I read it) is that Tolstoy now rewinds to the very beginning of Ivan’s life, and what we perhaps expected (to move ahead to the card game mentioned in Section I) never happens, at least not in scene. (And Pyotr is not the main character, not at all, turns out. The guy in the coffin is!)