The Death of Ivan Ilyich

The novella opens as Ivan Ilyich's judicial colleagues learn of his death and immediately consider how the vacancy may affect their careers. The narrative then returns to his orderly rise through the legal service, an advantageous marriage and a life arranged according to professional and social expectations.

After injuring his side while furnishing a new apartment, Ivan develops an illness that doctors cannot relieve. His family and acquaintances avoid the reality of his death, while the servant Gerasim offers the direct compassion they withhold. Isolation and pain force Ivan to reconsider whether the respectable life he pursued was genuinely his own.