nicest clothes, Herman as well as Tomsky gathering with friends and colleagues for a night of gambling, and hear talk of exquisite dinner parties.
             According to Tolstoy's short story (The Death of Ivan Ilyich), the people of the nineteenth century would do just about anything to better their lives. It seemed to me that the characters were always doing whatever it took to get them to the point where they could comfortably afford the lavish lifestyle. Ivan, the main character in Tolstoy's story, worked his way up from an average man to
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