Episode 91: "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," Part 2
The Literary Life Podcast
Angelina Stanford
4.7 ā¢ 1.2K Ratings
šļø 27 April 2021
ā±ļø 112 minutes
šļø Recording | iTunes | RSS
š§¾ļø Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Literary Life podcast, our hosts continue their discussion of The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy. After sharing some commentary on their commonplace quotes for the week, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas talk about the things that stood out to them as they read the second half of The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Some of the ideas they share are the following: the commonality of being ordinary, the responses people have to terminal illness, the one person who gives Ilyich comfort, and the humiliation of death. Angelina highlights the Orthodox metaphors and Christian imagery that are so prevalent in the end of this story.
Cindy is hosting a new summer discipleship course for moms this year, so head over to morningtimeformoms.com for more info and to sign up! Thomas and Angelina also have some great summer classes coming up, and you can check those out at houseofhumaneletters.com.
Commonplace Quotes:
The only inconvenience is that none of these projects are yet brought to perfection, and in the meantime the whole country lies miserably waste, the houses in ruins and the people without food or clothes. By all which, instead of being discouraged, they are fifty times more violently bent upon prosecuting their schemes, driven equally on by hope and despair.
Jonathon Swift
The humanities do not always make a man humaneāthat is, liberal, tolerant, gentle, and candid as regards the opinions and status of other men. The fault does not lie in any one of these or in any other of the disciplinary subjects, but in our indolent habit of using each of these as a sort of mechanical contrivance for turning up the soil and sowing the seed.
Charlotte Mason
I should be cautious of censuring anything that has been applauded by so many suffrages.
Samuel Johnson
O Child Beside the Waterfall
by George Barker
O Child beside the Waterfall
what songs without a word
rise from those waters like the call
only a heart has heard-
the Joy, the Joy in all things
rise whistling like a bird.
O Child beside the Waterfall
I hear them too, the brief
heavenly notes, the harp of dawn,
the nightingale on the leaf,
all, all dispel the darkness and
the silence of our grief.
O Child beside the Waterfall
I see you standing there
with waterdrops and fireflies
and hummingbirds in the air,
all singing praise of paradise,
paradise everywhere.
Book List:
The Life of Samuel Johnson by Boswell
School Education by Charlotte Mason
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Support The Literary Life:
Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the "Friends and Fellows Community" onĀ Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support!
Connect with Us:
You can find Angelina and Thomas atĀ HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on InstagramĀ @angelinastanford,Ā and on Facebook atĀ https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
Find Cindy atĀ morningtimeformoms.com, on InstagramĀ @cindyordoamorisĀ and on Facebook atĀ https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check outĀ Cindy's own Patreon pageĀ also!
FollowĀ The Literary LifeĀ on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going!Ā http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're going to go. Welcome to the literary life podcast where your hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins, explore a life shaped by books, |
| 0:26.4 | stories, and poetry. Each week we will rescue story from the Ivory Tower and bring it to your |
| 0:32.2 | couch, your kitchen, and your commute. |
| 0:35.0 | The literary life is for everyone because in the words of Stratford Caldecott, |
| 0:39.0 | to be enchanted by story is to be granted a deeper insight into reality. |
| 0:44.0 | Hello and welcome back to the literary life podcast. |
| 0:50.0 | Today we will be finishing up Leo Toystoy's Story, |
| 0:55.0 | or novella, long story, short novel, |
| 0:57.4 | The Death of Yvonne Iliich. |
| 0:59.3 | And I am here with my two, my two cohorts, |
| 1:02.4 | my partners in crime, my two people that I hope will not abandon me when I'm on my death bed |
| 1:07.7 | Certainly not certainly not |
| 1:09.7 | Thomas Banks and Cindy Rollins. |
| 1:13.0 | Hello everybody. |
| 1:14.6 | I think it is the nature of men to die alone. |
| 1:17.8 | Sorry Angelina, we're probably gonna abandon you. |
| 1:21.8 | Thanks, thanks. Okay, well, No, sorry. I'm just just kidding. On the other hand, if it turns |
| 1:27.9 | out that you outlive me, Miss Stanford, I might have to renege on that promise. |
| 1:33.7 | But in any other event, I'll be there. |
| 1:37.6 | Mr. Banks and I have a pack that we're going to die together in the same moment holding hands. |
| 1:42.8 | So I hope the universe obeys this. |
| 1:47.0 | Not that we're going to euthanize ourselves. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Angelina Stanford, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Angelina Stanford and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright Ā© Tapesearch 2026.