> Skip to content
  • Published: 7 August 2012
  • ISBN: 9780451532176
  • Imprint: Signet
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $15.99

The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories



Leo Tolstoy combined detailed physical description with perceptive psychological insight to sweep aside the sham of surface appearances and lay bare man’s intimate gestures, acts, and thoughts. Murder and sacrifice…greed and devotion…lust and affection…vanity and love—one by one, in this volume of great stories, Tolstoy dissects the basic drives, emotions, and motives of ordinary people searching for self-knowledge and spiritual perfection. Chekhov said, “Of authors my favorite is Tolstoy.” And Turgenev “marveled at the strength of his huge talent…It sends a cold shudder even down my back…He is a master, a master.”

Now with a new introduction by Regina Marler and an afterword by Hugh McLean.

  • Published: 7 August 2012
  • ISBN: 9780451532176
  • Imprint: Signet
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $15.99

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.

Also by Leo Tolstoy

See all
penguin pop image
penguin pop image