A successful man must face the terror of his own mortality in this masterful nineteenth-century Russian novella by the author of War and Peace. In his later years, Leo Tolstoy began to contemplate the inescapable realities of mortality-its terrifying mystery, its many indignities, and the way it forces one to look back on the legacy and regrets of one's life. The Death of Ivan Ilyich, widely considered the masterpiece of Tolstoy's late career, is...

The novella 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' by Leo Tolstoy was published in 1886 and is considered a masterpiece of his late period fiction. It tells the story of a high-court judge in nineteenth century Russia. He lives a simple, carefree life with his family until he is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Confined to bed, he is disgusted that his family avoids the subject of his death by pretending that he is only sick and not dying. He finds comfort...

Discovering that he is in the terminal stages of cancer, a clerk spends his last months in search of the meaning to life. After his pursuit of pleasure has failed, he finds self-realization in bringing about the building of a children's playground in the slums and dies quietly fulfilled.

Ivansxtc goes back in time to chart the final days of hot-shot Tinseltown agent Ivan Beckman and his fast-paced, wheeler-dealer lifestyle, which will ultimately lead him to an early grave after a shock cancer diagnosis.

In muchas oportunidades, Julio Cortázar manifestó su admiración por ciertos cuentos que le resultaban inolvidables. Esas declaraciones han inspirado la presente antología, que reúne un variado grupo de magníficos relatos: Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius (Jorge Luis Borges), William Wilson (Edgar Allan Poe), Un recuerdo navideño (Truman Capote), El puente sobre el río del Búho (Ambrose Bierce), La lección del maestro (Henry James), La muerte...