"Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible."

High-court judge Ivan Ilych Golovin seems to have the perfect life—a wife and two children, a tastefully decorated house, and a high-ranking position in the Court of Justice. One day he slips and falls, and his slight injury becomes a strange terminal illness no doctor can diagnose. Suddenly the man who has never before contemplated death is forced to re-evaluate his life and face his own mortality.

A short but impactful exploration of the inevitability of death, Tolstoy presents a cautionary tale about living life based on other people's definition of success. Ivan Ilych discovers far too late what it means to truly live, and in the end it's his relationships with others—and not his fancy curtains—that provide the most comfort in his final days.

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