“There was no deceiving himself: something terrible, new, and more important than anything before in his life, was taking place within him of which he alone was aware.”
In this first episode of a new series, Stephen Blackwood reads Leo Tolstoy’s classic novella, ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich.’ A masterful text from one of history’s great writers, it tells the story of a man whose fatal illness forces him to confront the shallow assumptions of his life and the slowly encroaching, inevitable reality of death. ‘Ivan Ilyich’ is a timeless meditation on the fundamental content of life: finding purpose, loving others, and understanding our finitude.
The translation Blackwood is reading from—easily found online, if you'd like to follow along—is by Louise and Aylmer Maude.
Timeline
- 0:00 - Intro
- 6:19 - Chapter 1
- 27:02 - Chapter 2
- 45:47 - Chapter 3
- 1:02:45 - Chapter 4
- 1:19:29 - Chapter 5
- 1:29:25 - Chapter 6
- 1:36:46 - Chapter 7
- 1:47:08 - Chapter 8
- 2:02:46 - Chapter 9
- 2:09:29 - Chapter 10
- 2:14:47 - Chapter 11
- 2:21:28 - Chapter 12
Image: Sir Hubert von Herkomer, The Dying Monarch, Funtensee, 1884, Yale Center for British Art.
