Maupassant's Life and Tolstoy's Death of Ivan *In-Person* *NEW*

A lot unites Tolstoy and Maupassant - they were mutual admirers, partial contemporaries, sharers of an aesthetic, almost sharers of a philosophy. The two books at the center of the course - Une vie (translated as "one life" or "a life") by 19th-century French author Guy de Maupassant and The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy - examine the all-important institutions of marriage, family, and religion. They also describe how we change: how enormously painful it is; how unavoidable; how necessary; how long it takes (often the entire life); how much it costs (usually, everything). In addition, we will read Tolstoy's Father Sergius and Maupassant's Story of a Farm Girl, and a few short stories, time permitting.

Instructor : Anna Friedrich