I see now that I was wrong about Leo Tolstoy lacking a sense of humor.  At Amatuer Reader’s suggestion I took another look at the opening chapter of The Death of Ivan Ilych–it’s pretty funny.  Funny in the same, slightly off-kilter, dark way that Gogol and Dostoevsky are funny. The Death of Ivan Ilych opens with the departed character’s friends arriving to provide comfort to his widow. … Continue reading The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy