:يحتوي هذا الكتاب على 6 روايات للعظيم ليو تولستوي
مصرع إيفان إيليتش
يمهل ولا يهمل
متى وجد الحب فثم وجه الله
الشيطان
في اعقاب الحفلة الراقصة
الأب سيرغيه

مصرع إيفان إيليتش: الألم..مصارعة الألم..يوميات الألم والمعاناة
رواية عن يوميات الألم والمعاناة لمريض كان عزيزا فأصبح ذليلا..كان قاضيا محترما مهابا مسيطرا نافذا آمرا ناهيا وإذا هو في وضع لا يستطيع حتى قضاء حاجته بنفسه..تولستوي يصف نفاق العائلة اللامبالية به..زوجته التي تضع اللوم على زوجها حتى في مرضه..في ألمه..استغرق تولستوي في وصف المعاناة اليومية كثيرا وبتكرار قد يكون مملا حينا ومزعجا حينا آخر
قساوة الآخرين..الآخرين الذين أعطيتهم أنت حياتك ليعيشوا ويكبروا ويستمتعوا فإذا بهم هم قساة غلاظ القلب في شدة مرضك وحاجتك لهم..تولستوي يطرق أمرا مهما ومزعجا وهو ذاك السؤال المتكبر للرب حين المرض والفقر والحاجة:لماذا أنا؟؟ ما الذي فعلته انا كي تعاقبني هكذا؟ما السبب؟..لكنه سيصف لحظات الموت على انها نور جميل :إذا هذا هو؟..يالهذه النعمة
حين يأتي الموت الذي نخافه ونترقبه ونرفضه..حين يأتي:نسأل أين هو؟ هو نور جميل براق أخاذ..لا ألم لا معاناة
لن تحصل على هذا النور إذا لم تكن نورا لغيرك في حياتك ولو مرة واحدة

أما رواية الاب سيرغيه فتحتاج مني وقفة مطولة لاحقا..رائعة جدا وتحتاج للرائع من الحديث المطول..

"Death of Ivan Ilych" is one of the best short stories I have ever read. In only about 100 pages, Tolstoy describes the facing of death by Ivan Ilych, who basically has lived as any other ordinary man. The story shows how once joyous and happy moments can seem worthless and fruitless moments when one is staring at death. Through this story, Tolstoy makes us look back to our life and look for anything extraordinary we have done. He makes us wonder whether doing everything that we think we "ought to do" is enough to make us be at peace at death bed. This short book of Tolstoy is a must read and I recommend it to everybody.

Semplicissimo ma mi ha fatto venire un'angoscia esistenziale che avrei evitato volentieri. Adesso devo andare a scalare l'Everest o correre per il sudamerica o nuotare lo stretto di Messina che magari domani esplodo e la gente è anche contenta

I enjoyed all of the stories in the book to varying degrees, with Polikushka and The Death of Ivan Ilyich being my favorites. Honorable mention to the raid for vivid natural imagery. Some of the stories felt like the moral of the story was the whole story and I didn't find that as interesting.

Fantastic collection of stories, including The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Kreutzer Sonata, and Hadji Murat among others. Generally, I find it hard to rate a single-author short-story collection five stars because either the quality varies, or too many of the stories sound similar. But with this collection, there are no duds, and there is also a wide variation in the types of stories. Highly recommended.

A very enjoyable selection of short stories.

Each of them is a powerful and compelling read. They’re incredibly well thought out and executed and you can clearly trace the themes from these stories into Tolstoy’s larger works.

I would definitely recommend reading to anybody looking for more focused analyses on the themes which run through Tolstoy’s works.

My edition of “The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories” was the Vintage book, translated by Pevear and Volhokonsky. It contains the following stories:

The Death of Ivan Ilych
The Prisoner of the Caucasus
The Diary of a Madman
The Kreutzer Sonata
The Devil
Master and Man
Father Sergius
After the Ball
The Forged Coupon
Alyosha the Pot
Hadji Murat
(those that are underlined, I have reviewed separately – follow the link for the review)

There are some definite repeated themes - namely sex, death and religious redemption. Mostly, the first leads to the second or the third!

As with any collection of stories, there are some I like more than others. I think my favourites would be “Master and Man” and “The Forged Coupon”. I found “Hadji Murat” a bit of a slog.

4.5/5

What a great collection of Tolstoy’s shorter fiction. Here are my star ratings for each story/novella:

The prisoner of the Caucasus - 5
The diary of a madman - 3.5
The death of Ivan Ilyich - 5
The Kreutzer sonata - 5
The devil - 4
Master and man - 4.5
Father Sergius - 5
After the ball - 3.5
The forged coupon - 3
Alyosha the pot - 3
Hadji Murat - 5

I thought Father Sergius was the best, followed closely by Hadji Murat and Ivan Ilyich.

rather drab plot, but excellent style.

Ivan Il'íc Golovìn, quarantacinque anni, capace giudice della corte d'assise di San Pietroburgo, marito in un matrimonio non proprio riuscito e padre di due figli, conduce una vita che superficialmente pare perfetta finchè, dopo un banale incidente domestico, non cade malato, una malattia che lo condurrà fra dolori, paure, rabbia, disincanto e disperazione, irrimediabilmente alla morte.

"La morte di Ivan Il'íc" racconto fra i più famosi e celebrati di Tolsòj, pubblicato nel 1886 ed ispirato proprio dalla morte dell'amico dell'autore, Ivan Il'ič Mečnikov, procuratore di Tulsa scomparso prematuramente all'età di quarantacinque anni, è un racconto che porta il lettore in un viaggio profondo ed intimo che vede l'uomo al cospetto della morte.
Una narrazione che mette al centro i particolari, siano essi morali, spirituali o materiali, del protagonista e di chi gli fa da corollario (moglie, figli, amici, colleghi, dottori), le scene sono raccontate in maniera plastica e "fotografica" attraverso la rievocazione di odori, sensazioni visive ed uditive, oltre che interiori e dell'anima, tutte peculiarità sapientemente dosate e giostrate nell'economia della storia in maniera tale da rendere capaci di smuovere le emozioni più profonde di chi affronta questa lettura.
La morte, vista anche da chi la "sfiora" ma non la vive, è raccontata senza filtri, senza addolcimenti, senza mezze misure spesso anche attraverso il cinismo di chi, ancora vivo e in salute, vuole proseguire la propria routine e perchè no trarre anche qualche vantaggio dalla dipartita del malato.
Incredibilmente tangibile lungo tutto il dipanarsi del racconto è il crescendo di confusione, paura, rabbia e smarrimento che vive il protagonista, un uomo con le sue fragilità e i suoi dubbi esistenziali e spirituali, crucci che si fanno largo nella mente e nell'anima del protagonista mano a mano che la malattia progredisce.
Un "viaggio", questo, descritto magistralmente da Tolstòj che riesce, con parole semplici ma incisive, a rievocare emozioni che chiunque potrebbe vivere in un frangente simile.
Estremamente vivida e tangibile è poi la sensazione alienante del malato rispetto alla vita che prosegue in chi è sano.
Un racconto su l'ineluttabilità del destino che ognuno di noi reca con se, un viaggio tanto semplice quanto "brutale" nelle emozioni umane davanti alla morte, un racconto crudo ma illuminante, sull'esistenza e sulla fine.
Meraviglioso nella sua brutale realisticità.

DNF after about 3 stories (the raid, the woodfelling and three deaths)

Utterly useless stories with lengthy descriptions of characters i didn’t care about and sceneries i couldn’t imagine, with excessive info dumping.

The stories i have read were bland: Barely anything happens between the ramblings about characters backstories (characters that are mentioned maybe twice) and elaborate (and not very eloquent) scenery or clothing descriptions.

What does happen is mostly boring, badly written and unemotional.
I don’t know whether it’s the author himself or the translator, but when i expected eloquent and flowery prose i got something i could have written in barely half an hour during a deep REM sleep.

I might give this another shot some other time, but i’m really just saying that to make myself feel better about DNFing this.