The Death of Ivan Ilyich

The novella “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” by Leo Tolstoy is a story about a life that lacked the highest truth, meaning, and light. It’s a story of how the realization that life is meaningless comes to a person only when death looks them in the eye. It’s also a story about the baseness and spiritual emptiness of the world, and the importance of repentance, and of a person’s sin.