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Title: Tolstoy's Finest
Review: A previous review criticized this novella by saying. "It isn't an exciting death. It's a very random, uneventful death." And for that reason (among a few others) it is an unimportant tale to tell and a waste of time to read. But it is that reason - that it is an unexciting death, random, uneventful - that it is worth reading because it paints a detailed picture of all of us. You don't read Tolstoy for the fantastic; its not Harry Potter after all. But what Tolstoy has a great talent for is to take a single event, a single life, and turn into all of humanity. How many of us are Ivan Ilych, rushing headlong into eternity with no sense that at any moment we may cease to be? So, in a sense, it is a very existential novella because it speaks to the purpose of existence and to the right way that one should live. And the story, like life, is random, but very eventful if you take the time to step back a moment see it for what it is.
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