The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories · Chapters

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Chapter companions for The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy.

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Chapter 1
Short Fiction
This chapter serves as a title page and translator credit listing for a collection of Leo Tolstoy's short fiction.
Chapter 2
The Raid
The narrator, a volunteer, joins a Russian military expedition into the Caucasus. He observes the preparations and march with Captain Hlopov, discussing the nature of courage. During the raid on a village, he witnesses the initial excitement of battle, the brutal looting and destruction by the troops, and his own growing disillusionment with the spectacle of war.
Chapter 3
The Wood-Felling
A group of Russian soldiers in the Caucasus, on a military expedition, converse around a campfire. They discuss their disillusionment with the romanticized image of the Caucasus, their reasons for serving, their fears before combat, and their alienation from life back in Russia. The chapter captures the boredom, anxiety, and moral weariness of military life, punctuated by the sudden reality of enemy fire.
Chapter 4
Recollections of a Scorer
The narrator, a billiard-room attendant named Petrushka, recounts the final days and suicide of a young nobleman, Prince Nekhliudof. He describes Nekhliudof's descent into debt, humiliation, and despair, culminating in his writing a poignant suicide note that laments the waste of his youth, intellect, and noble aspirations before shooting himself.
Chapter 5
Sevastopol
The chapter follows the Kozeltsóf brothers as they travel to the besieged city of Sevastopol. The younger brother, Volódya, is initially filled with romantic, heroic fantasies about war but is confronted by the mundane and sordid reality of military life upon meeting a corrupt commissariat officer. The narrative culminates in the harrowing, chaotic Russian retreat from the city, depicting the destruction, death, and the soldiers' profound sense of loss, shame, and bitterness as they abandon the fortress.

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Short Fiction

The Raid

The Wood-Felling

Recollections of a Scorer

Sevastopol