Helpful Score: 1
Unlike Stoppards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ivan has the decency to die up front. We do, however, get to retrograde through his brief biography and witness his frustration and agony through the progress of his terminal illness. In the course of its progress, he encounters in his physicians his own arrogance in the courts. His disease is personifiedhe sees it as having a life of its own. He gets to die again at the end.
This story holds a lot of meaning; however, it's a tough read despite a few flashes of brilliance. Tolstoy has a way of drawing me into the darkness (which I like), but this one was a very slow starter.
