This novella serves as an excellent 'taster' of Tolstoy's work, for those who may be a little daunted by his vast epics.

On learning of Ivan Ilyich’s sudden demise and death, his former colleagues begin vying for promotion; it seems in neither life nor death has Ivan Ilyich made any lasting impression. And, as Tolstoy takes us back to Ivan Ilyich’s early days, it is a life of futility, of emptiness and primarily of spiritual barrenness that is revealed. Yet Tolstoy also reveals how, in the face of serious illness, Ivan Ilyich had made a final resolute gesture to come to terms with his mortality and to embrace his impending death.