Donna Orwin and Stephen Blackwood on Tolstoy's "The Death of Ivan Ilyich"

 “How does he know – how does this man who is Russian and who lived so long ago – know how I feel?”

In this complementary episode to the reading of ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich', Stephen Blackwood speaks with Dr Donna Orwin, a Professor of Russian Literature at the University of Toronto. Dr Orwin provides context for Tolstoy and his world, and the two discuss the style, structure, and unfolding layers of meaning within this masterpiece novella.

Image: After Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, Death, 1845–1860, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.