托爾斯泰(Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910)：
伊凡．伊里奇的身世極其普通、極其簡單而又極其可怕。
伊凡·伊里奇(Ivan Ilyich)之死
第二章
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普拉斯柯菲雅．費多羅夫娜出身望族，長得不錯，而且小有家產。伊凡．伊里奇可以指望找到一個更出色的配偶，但這個配偶也不錯。伊凡．伊里奇自己有薪俸收入，他希望她也有同樣多的進款。她出身名門，生得又溫柔美麗，很有教養。說伊凡．伊里奇同她結婚，是因為愛上這位小姐，並且發覺她的人生觀同他一致，那不符合事實。說他結婚，是因為在他的圈子裡大家都贊成這門婚事，那同樣不符合事實。伊凡．伊里奇結婚是出於雙重考慮：娶這樣一位妻子是幸福的，而達官貴人們又都贊成這門親事。
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不久，在結婚一年後，伊凡．伊里奇懂得了，夫婦生活雖然也有 一些好處，但卻是一種很複雜很痛苦的事。而要盡到自己的責任，過 一種受社會讚許的體面生活，必須像做官一樣建立適當的關係。
伊凡．伊里奇就給自己建立了這樣的夫婦關係。他對家庭生活的要求，只是能吃到家常便飯，生活上有照料和過床笫生活，而這些都是她能向他提供的。他主要的要求是維持社會所公認的體面的夫婦關係。此外，他就自尋歡樂，獲得了歡樂也就心滿意足。要是家裡遇到不愉快，他就立刻逃到公務活動的獨立天地裡去，並在那裡自得其樂。
Leo Tolstoy： The Death Of Ivan Ilyich
Ivan Ilych's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.
Chapter II
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Praskovya Fedorovna came of a good family, was not bad looking, and had some little property. Ivan Ilych might have aspired to a more brilliant match, but even this was good. He had his salary, and she, he hoped, would have an equal income. She was well connected, and was a sweet, pretty, and thoroughly correct young woman. To say that Ivan Ilych marriedbecause he fell in love with Praskovya Fedorovna and found that she sympathized with his views of life would be as incorrect as to say that he married because his social circle approved of the match. He was swayed by both these considerations: the marriage gave him personalsatisfaction, and at the same time it was considered the right thing by the most highly placed.
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Very soon, within a year of his wedding, Ivan Ilych had realized that marriage, though it may add some comforts to life, is in fact a very intricate and difficult affair towards which in order to perform one's duty, that is, to lead a decorous life approved of by society, one must adopt a definite attitude just as towards one's official duties.
And Ivan Ilych evolved such an attitude towards married life. He only required of it those conveniences — dinner at home, housewife, and bed — which it could give him, and above all that propriety of external forms required by public opinion. For the rest he looked for lighthearted pleasure and propriety, and was very thankful when he found them, but if he met with antagonism and querulousness he at once retired into his separate fenced-off world of official duties, where he found satisfaction.