The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Master and Man [Paperback]

This new edition combines Tolstoy’s most famous short tale,The Death of Ivan Ilyich, with a less well known but equally brilliant gem,Master and Man, both newly translated by Ann Pasternak Slater. Both stories confront death and the process of dying: InIvan Ilyich, a bureaucrat looks back over his life, which suddenly seems meaningless and wasteful, while in Master and Man, a landowner and servant must each confront the value of the other as they brave a devastating snowstorm. The quintessential Tolstoyan themes of mortality, spiritual redemption, and life’s meaning are nowhere more movingly and deftly explored than in these two tales.

This unique edition also includes a critical Introduction and extensive notes by Ann Pasternak Slater, a Fellow at St. Anne’s College, Oxford.“No one has ever excelled Tolstoy in expressing that specific flavor, the exact quality of a feeling.” —Isaiah BerlinLeo Tolstoy(1828–1910) was born in central Russia. After serving in the Crimean War, he retired to his estate and devoted himself to writing, farming, and raising his large family. His novels and outspoken social polemics brought him world fame.

Ann Pasternak Slateris a literary scholar and translator who was formerly a fellow and tutor at St Anne's College, Oxford. She’s written and lectured on her uncle Boris Pasternak's translations of Shakespeare plays into Russian.Chapter 1

During a break in the hearing of the Melvinski case in the great hall of the Law Courts, members of the judicial council and the public prosecutor met in Ivan Yegorovich Shebek's private chambers. The conversation turned to the famous Krasov affair. Feodor Vassilievich grew heated demonstrating that it was not subject to jurisdiction. Ivan Yegorovich held his own. Piotr Ivanovich, who had not participated initially, took no part in the argument and leafed through the newly delivered Gazette.