Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer regarded as one of the greatest authors of realist fiction.
His parents died during his infancy, and he was brought up by relatives. As a young man he drank and gambled heavily, and failed at university. In 1851 he joined the army and fought during the Crimean War, and began to write. In 1862, at age 34, he married Sophia (Sonya) Behrs, aged 18, who bore him 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their early married life was happy, and she acted as his secretary, proofreader, and financial manager. In the 1870s he experienced spiritual conversion, and renounced many of his previous beliefs in favour of ascetic religious beliefs including pacifism. His marriage deteriorated, and shortly before his death at age 82 he absconded from the family home in the depths of winter, and died soon after of pneumonia.
'What tormented Ivan Ilych most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and that he only need keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then something very good would result ... This falsity around him and within him did more than anything else to poison his last days.'
The text was taken from the University of Adelaide ebook library, and the cover image was taken from Wikipedia. I have silently corrected typos, replaced italics and diacritics, used British English, and made changes to spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com.
His parents died during his infancy, and he was brought up by relatives. As a young man he drank and gambled heavily, and failed at university. In 1851 he joined the army and fought during the Crimean War, and began to write. In 1862, at age 34, he married Sophia (Sonya) Behrs, aged 18, who bore him 13 children, eight of whom survived childhood. Their early married life was happy, and she acted as his secretary, proofreader, and financial manager. In the 1870s he experienced spiritual conversion, and renounced many of his previous beliefs in favour of ascetic religious beliefs including pacifism. His marriage deteriorated, and shortly before his death at age 82 he absconded from the family home in the depths of winter, and died soon after of pneumonia.
'What tormented Ivan Ilych most was the deception, the lie, which for some reason they all accepted, that he was not dying but was simply ill, and that he only need keep quiet and undergo a treatment and then something very good would result ... This falsity around him and within him did more than anything else to poison his last days.'
The text was taken from the University of Adelaide ebook library, and the cover image was taken from Wikipedia. I have silently corrected typos, replaced italics and diacritics, used British English, and made changes to spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation using oxforddictionaries.com.