How truth thickens and deepens when it migrates from didactic fable to the raw experience of a visceral awakening is one of the thrills of Tolstoy's stories' Sharon Cameron in her preface to The Death of Ivan Ilych and Other Stories The overwhelming fear of death, the illusions of everyday existence, and the empty shape that life can sometimes form are all key themes in The Death of Ivan Ilych and other stories. In 'The Death of Ivan Ilych' life and death converge beneath the surface of unlikeness to disclose the essential strangeness of their connection. Tolstoy shows that attempts to defy death are futile and misled, death is inescapable but it is in death that life can sometimes flourish as memory floods back to reveal palpable experiences.