Very Well Read Indeed. Unlike many Librovox Recordings, this was loud & clear. Read with clarity, resonance & distinction. And without goofiness, monotony, pomposity or histrionics. Volume, clarity, control. Pleasant. Masculine. Well done. Thank you 👍
I'm 30 and have suffered from existential dread since I was about 12. It's nice to have something that acknowledges we should prepare for death by living our lives well.
Man ... my dad died when I was in my teens and it's crazy how much of this story is spot on to what I witnessed watching my dad slowly die, Tolstoy definitely knew what he was writing
Wonderful reading! The inflection in your voice captured Ivan's pain and suffering dreadfully perfect. It made me appreciate my health and my life. Thanks so much.
A beautiful reading of a most poignant piece of literature. I am so pleased that I found Ralston College. I look forward to devouring all the content provided by your establishment. Thank you,a million times over, thank you!
Death is the central problem of our human condition. We know our existence will end. As evident by this novel the transition to death, if it is slow , will be THE defining moment of our lives. That transition will reveal who we really are and we may meet ourselves for the very first time.
How do we know for sure that our existence will ever end instead of live continuo forever as time continuity. It depends on what kind of existence do we define.
As Humans death is our destiny, it just in a matter of time, since Adam fell from sin we were conceived with sin in our loins as much as much as bared by him. but Jesus did promise a second birth and everlasting life. A quickning of the spirit, in absolution of a spiritually dead life. The secret is death starts first in the spirit, as the spiritual predominates the physical, leaving all D.O.A we share this curse together on one does on the cross to lift this curse on whosever will call on Jesus. For all who may believe "for whosever shall call on him shall be saved" "If you profess with your mouth and believe with your heart then you shall be saved"
I enjoyed hearing this wonderful book by Tolstoy, one of the very best authors and philosophers! It is not easy to read a great book and not sound pretentious but you’ve read this well.
Captivating piece of literature, presented most suitably. Young people in India and such other countries could, additionally, improve their spoken English. Congrats to especially the reader.
I am Egyptians and i could relate to Tolstoy’s novel. Mr Blackwood, your voiceover is of high caliber, affective and indeed effective. Thanks a lot and waiting for more
Thank you for sharing this time with us Dr. Blackwood. Like you I hadn't read this story for quite a while, but hearing it again after everything I've experienced in the years between catalyzed a process of remembering that has gone through me like thread through a needle, and stitched my past few days with its color.
Kafka worked in an insurance company so he spent all day reading the "fine print" of insurance policies that basically say: We will cover all your loss and damage except whatever happens in your specific case! That is what liars, I mean lawyers are all about.
Fine reading of this- have shared with several folks via the podcast. The subsequent interview on the story is also very good, and driven by a very ‘determined’ Tolstoy scholar.
Thank you for the wonderful reading. I currently have to read this book for a class and I’ve been trying to sort out the characters names. After listening to this, I think I understand what is happening much better now lol.
Thank you, I listen this till I fall asleep at times. The voice is amazing. And this novel is my favorite. I find it amusing, even the irony that he was so worried about other people's opinions and his goal was to have a house full of stuff to resamble other houses with the same style, in an attempt of fitting in. But his disease started thanks to the drapes.
Thank you for the read, I'm never disappointed when finished with a piece of good or in this case great writing, of course, I find this story to be a little morbid but then again I have been sick for almost a year and am hoping for recovery and the sooner the better.
A lesson on why being present and honest is so necessary and why forgiveness and having a heart full Of love instead of anger is better. My dad is like Ivan and he will probably die this way, thinking of his childhood and full of pain and terror. Is a cowardly, dishonest person obsessed with validation and pretence. As sinister as it sounds is comforting knowing such wretched power obsessed people don’t win in the end.
Thank you so much for this, all the other audiobooks available here either suffered bad microphone quality or were mispronouncing the names which really took me out of it.
Thank you for this. Excellent reading. I look forward to the discussion part and to listening to future episodes. It would be great if you make episodes on longer works as well, which would probably require you to skip reading the whole thing since it would be too time consuming from production point of view.
"Morning or night, Friday or Sunday, made no difference, everything was the same: the gnawing, excruciating, incessant pain; that awareness of life irrevocably passing but not yet gone; that dreadful, loathsome death, the only reality, relentlessly closing in on him; and that same endless lie. What did days, weeks, or hours matter?" DAMN YOU TOLSTOY
I listened to this while I was in bed sick with COVID and truly felt like I was DYING. ☠️🤢😵💫This reading helped so much. Great Reading. Thank You 6:20 Where the book REALLY starts!😮📙 38:52 Trouble begins HERE!!!😬 53:39 The REAL TROUBLE begins HERE while picking out CURTAINS for his wife! 😱🪟
That was wonderful. Thank you so much for this. One thing comes to mind. I would so like to share this with my spanish speaking friend, and italian acquaintances, they would enjoy it greatly. Is there no way to add subtitles so that many other people, not anglophones, could enjoy it as well ?
I would extremely appreciate if everybody here would share their insights after reading/listening to this book. Please share what you think about the story, how it made you feel, why you enjoyed it? I keep wondering what Ivan Ilych concluded on what was the right living he couldve lived. What was the alternative he couldve chose. Different wife? Different career? What was the thing he lost when growing up that devoured all joy from his life?
my take away is that Ilych's regret, his "right" life would have been one where he did not suppress "those scarcely noticeable impulses", which illuminate the truth of his mind that he put aside so as to seem "right" by the measure of society. It's not to say that his wife, or his job or his standing were "wrong" but that he had done himself a greater disservice by suppressing his inner truth
This was a very simple book with a very simple lesson for me. I know people like Ivan and his ‘friends’. I am not like them, I am honest, well at least try to be and they don’t. My dad is very similar to Ivan, a very dishonest pleasure seeking person. Drinks coffee every morning and ice cream, beer or whatever at night. Because he’s so dishonest and committed to ‘feeling’ good and ‘feeling’ powerful. When any ailment comes he defaults into being a child, crying whinging etc. The opposite of Ivan is Jordan Peterson, someone committed to truth, as truth is the ‘light’, which is referred to a few times and when he is in the presence of people who are honest, for example the strong peasant boy holding up his legs, he feels better because this is the ‘right’ way to be. But as he never reached enlightenment in life, i.e. a life of pure love, truth and enjoyment of the present moment, as he came closer to death the present moment became harder and harder to avoid as he couldn’t do all the pleasure seeking things that sustained his life: 1. Feel powerful sentencing people. 2. Drinking and playing useless games of cards. 3. Having drugs: nicotine, caffeine etc. So all he was left with was his thoughts, of the future, which was just death, and of the past, which although so much better, is now torturous because he can’t live it again. I know lots of people like this and I still suffer from it. Less now, then before as I try to be as present as possible and try to do less pleasure seeking things, but it is still a source of pain as you can never go back to the past and the future can just bring on anxiety or disappointment. So as he gets closer to death he sees (very mildly) that the truth is ‘right’ and the falsehood and lying is ‘Wrong’, but as he doesn’t have the information, belief or means to forgive or understand this realisation as it goes against everything he believes and his friends believe he gets angry instead at all the people who are being dishonest with him, the same as before, but now it is intolerable as he is present. It was interesting to see what these peoples lives are like and why these guys who have wives who completely despise them, like why do they stay etc. I’ve always wandered that and this book cleared it up a bit. It was like ahhhhh okay, once she’s ‘got’ him and they’re married he could never leave because social standing is the most Important thing to him. So he won’t divorce her so she’s free to be as horrible as she likes. They are horrible people btw. So if you ‘felt’ for them. You probably need to forgive and be more honest. Forgiveness frees up your anger and allows love in your life and honesty frees you from shitty fake people like this and allows you to be around people and life that is true. The darker side of myself felt satisfied knowing that such a useless person died in pain. I had very little sympathy for him and I don’t think we are supposed to, that was the whole point of the first chapter with his wife trying to get more money from the government and his friends jostling over the new positions which would open up like rats. If there is a lesson, it is that being present and honest is good. Pleasure seeking, status seeking and seeking powers where you have control over peoples fate (power) in of itself is bad. If there was a modern summary, it would be: “ngl , people who are fake are not lit. Lesson: stop the cap. Chase presence, not clout. Delete TikTok, Facebook and RU-vid and go outside bro.”
