Ivan Olich's Life Had Been Most Simple and Most Ordinary

Stephen Blackwood's translation of Tolstoy is based on Louise and Almer Maude, who were great translators of Russian literature in the early part of the 20th century. The first lines of chapter two are Ivan Olich's life had been most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible. So we see him returning because he has to. And it's a story of how he became a man who cared only about pleasantness and convention.