I remember my amazement upon hearing some middle-class people of Nivernais, my native province—people who felt no interest whatever in art, people who read practically nothing—speak with the most intense feeling of The Death of Ivan Ilyitch.

我记得当我听到我的家乡尼韦奈斯的一些中产阶级——对艺术毫无兴趣，几乎不读书的人——谈论《伊凡·伊里奇之死》时，我感到很惊讶。