During a lunch-break of my Greek intensive, I pulled out The Death of Ivan Ilyich to have with my lentil and tomato salad. It was a bold move, and I was rewarded by a few compliments from fellow diners. ("So you like Classics, eh?", "What's it about? Death?" and "Tolstoy? He's the one that wrote War and Peace, right?")
I'd hacked my way through Anna Karenina in a month, in Berlin. So I was ready for it to be slow going, at first. Tolstoy always picks up, once you get yourself into the prose, and the slow, measured pace, and the Russian names that are always hard to keep straight; my cheap Wordsworth edition of Anna Karenina was impossible to put down, after a while.
Ivan Ilyich, 5 pages in, is slowly developing. So far, I know it's about Ilyich, a lawyer, and his death. And, as always, with all deaths, the effect of a death upon the living.
(D'uh!) (Well, no spoilers, at least.)
My favourite sentence, so far, is this:
The past history of Ivan Ilyrich's life has been straightforward, ordinary and dreadful in the extreme.
It's wonderfully economical, and packs a punch at the end, doesn't it?
Ok! More updates as I plod. (Trying not to look askance at the Agatha Christie Novel that's Book Number 3!)
- Bei-En
Heya, I can guess who wrote this (Benji?) but it'd be cool if you signed off with the post's author.
ReplyDeleteEC
Yes, I just picked up on that myself, Elizabeth! So I duly fixed it on Bei-En's behalf! Perhaps I should have used the opportunity to sign it as someone else just to confuse people - Charlie Manson?
ReplyDeleteSamuel
Oh, but are you sure, EC? And does it matter? Can the authors not have some licence for our own sort of fun?
ReplyDeleteNever look askance at that particular Christie, it's a classic of Western literature that is famous for a very good reason (it will be obvious why when you get to the end, and whatever you do, don't read the end first...)
ReplyDelete