“Gentlemen!... Ivan Ilyich is dead.”

Dana Gioia            Now, The Big Read.

Molina: Ivan Ilyich had been a colleague of the gentlemen as­sembled here and they had all been fond of him. He had been ill for some weeks and his disease was said to be in­curable. His post had been kept open for him, but it had been speculated that in the event of his death Alekseev might be appointed to his place and either Vinnikov or Shtabel succeed Alekseev. And so the first thought that oc­curred to each of the gentlemen in this office, learning of Ivan Ilyich’s death, was what effect it would have on their own transfers and promotions or those of their ac­quaintances.

 In addition to the speculations aroused in each man’s mind about the transfers and likely job changes this death might occasion, the very fact of the death of a close acquaintance evoked in them all the usual feeling of relief that it was someone else, not they, who had died.