The Death of Ivan Ilyich is probably his best-known work after War and
Peace - and with good reason. It is one of the most lacerating works of
literature ever written, a hard, pitiless stare into the abyss, not just
of death, but of human nature. Greed, Purity, and Corruption. Focusing
on Ivan Ilyich's careerist worldview and its destructive qualities, The
Death of Ivan Ilyich warns against the toxic, soul-corrupting effects of
fixating on status, money, and power. Hailed as one of the world's
supreme masterpieces on the subject of death and dying, The Death of
Ivan Ilyich is the story of a worldly careerist, a high court judge who
has never given the inevitability of his dying so much as a passing
thought.