Work record

Resurrection

Name: Resurrection
Author: Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

1899 · 19th Century · Novel · Russian

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Abstract

Written: 1889-1899
Setting: 1880s; Moscow, Nekhludoff's estates, St. Petersburg and Siberia
Author: Leo Tolstoy (trans. Louise Maude)
Country: Russia
Language: Russian
Genre: Russian social novel
Form: Novel in three books
Recommended: Grades 11–12 (Seduction, prostitution and prison life treated seriously; grades 11-12.)

Juror. A rich prince serving at a Moscow trial looks at a defendant and knows her as the girl he betrayed in his youth.

Her fall. Turned out pregnant from his aunts' household, she slid into poverty and a licensed house; now an error by careless jurors sends her to hard labour for a murder she did not commit.

Amends. Shaken, he resolves to win her release and offer marriage, visits her behind bars, hands his estates over to the peasants, and sees officials, priests and wardens grinding down the poor.

Exile. When petitions fail he travels with the convict column eastward, learning from political prisoners and ordinary convicts alike.

Her choice. Pardoned to a lighter sentence, she accepts a fellow exile instead, sparing him; alone, he opens the New Testament and finds a new way to live.

Reading. Tolstoy's final novel joins a moral conversion story to a fierce attack on legal and religious hypocrisy, best for mature high-school readers. Teachers can connect the hero's journey to Tolstoy's own late convictions, and ask students whether changing one's life is possible without changing the society around one, and what real amends would require.

Main characters

Dmitri Nekhludoff: A prince who seeks to atone for his past.
Katerina Maslova: A young woman ruined by Nekhludoff and wrongly convicted.
Simonson: An idealist who comes to love Maslova.
Mary Pavlovna: A selfless political prisoner.
Selenin: An old friend of Nekhludoff in the legal system.

Summary

Resurrection, published in 1899, is the last of Leo Tolstoy's three great novels, written partly to raise money for the Doukhobors, a persecuted religious sect emigrating to Canada. This text is the translation by Louise Maude. Prince Dmitri Ivanovich Nekhludoff, a wealthy and comfortable nobleman, is called to serve on a jury in Moscow. Among the accused in a poisoning case he recognizes Katerina Maslova, called Katusha, a girl he loved and seduced years before, when she was a ward and servant in his aunts' house, and then abandoned with a hundred roubles. Pregnant and dismissed, she had drifted into misery and finally into a licensed brothel. Now she is charged with helping to poison a merchant for his money. Through carelessness and a mistake in the jury's verdict, she is sentenced to four years of penal servitude in Siberia, though she is innocent of the murder. Struck by guilt, Nekhludoff realizes that he is the cause of her ruin. He resolves to help her, to appeal her sentence, and even to marry her to make amends. Visiting her in prison, he finds her at first hardened and mocking, but gradually she changes, giving up drink and working in the prison hospital. Nekhludoff's own life changes too. He gives his land to his peasants, sees the cruelty and absurdity of courts, prisons, the official church and the government, and meets political prisoners and ordinary convicts whose sufferings open his eyes. When the appeal fails, he follows Maslova's convoy to Siberia. In the end her sentence is reduced, but she decides not to marry him, choosing instead the political prisoner Simonson, partly out of love for Nekhludoff, so as not to ruin his life. Alone, Nekhludoff opens the Gospel and reads the Sermon on the Mount and Christ's teaching on forgiveness. He sees that following these commandments simply could renew human life, and a new life begins for him. The novel is a powerful moral and social protest.

Virtues in this work

Justice: Nekhludoff works to undo an injustice he helped cause.
Charity: Maslova refuses marriage partly out of love, to spare Nekhludoff's future.

Plot or Argument

The trial
A nobleman on a jury recognizes the woman he once seduced, now wrongly convicted.
Repentance
Nekhludoff resolves to free Maslova and marry her, and begins to change his life.
Prisons and courts
His efforts expose the cruelty of Russia's justice system.
Siberia
He follows her into exile, where she chooses another and he finds the Gospel.

Characters

Dmitri Nekhludoff, protagonist
A prince who seeks to atone for his past.
Katerina Maslova, heroine
A young woman ruined by Nekhludoff and wrongly convicted.
Simonson, political prisoner
An idealist who comes to love Maslova.
Mary Pavlovna, revolutionary
A selfless political prisoner.
Selenin, prosecutor
An old friend of Nekhludoff in the legal system.

Lessons

Conscience
Nekhludoff's recognition of Maslova forces him to see the harm he did.
- What does Nekhludoff realize at the trial?
- How does he try to make amends?
- Can wrongs like his be undone?
Related across the library
- Billy Budd and Other Stories, Lesson: Law and justice can diverge
  Law and justice can diverge. Vere admits Billy is morally innocent yet hangs him to uphold discipline in wartime. Melville forces the reader to weigh institutional necessity against individual conscience.
- Crime and Punishment, Lesson: Crime and Punishment: order and disorder
  Crime and Punishment: order and disorder. Crime and Punishment makes order visible by showing what damages it. the novel turns detection inward: police pursuit matters, but conscience, dreams, illness, and Sonya's witness become the deeper tribunal
- Tales (Selection), Lesson: The cold logic of revenge
  The cold logic of revenge. Montresor states rules for perfect vengeance: the avenger must punish with impunity and the wronged man must know who punishes him. He follows them exactly, yet he is still telling the story fifty years later. The tale invites readers to weigh what such revenge actually gains.
- Tales (Selection), The Cask of Amontillado
  I must not only punish, but punish with impunity. In the opening paragraph Montresor sets out his conditions for a revenge that will satisfy him.
- Crime and Punishment, Confession and exile
  Crime and Punishment gives this tag concrete force through this is a major psychiatric novel: fever, delirium, obsession, dissociation, alcoholism, suicide, trauma, and moral injury drive the action
Unjust institutions
Tolstoy shows courts, prisons and officials crushing ordinary people.
- Why is Maslova convicted?
- What does Nekhludoff see in the prisons?
- What does Tolstoy think of punishment?
Related across the library
- The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lesson: Fruits, not roots
  Fruits, not roots. James answers 'medical materialism' by separating questions of origin from questions of value. Even if every religious genius had a nervous disorder, the worth of their insights must be judged by their effects on life. The argument remains useful wherever a diagnosis is used to dismiss a person's experience or ideas.
- Tales (Selection), The Tell-Tale Heart
  True!—nervous—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I am mad? The opening words, in which the speaker argues for his own sanity before telling of his crime.
- The Wealth of Nations, Lesson: The wealth of a people, not of its treasury
  The wealth of a people, not of its treasury. Smith measures national wealth by the necessaries and conveniences of life enjoyed by the people, and holds that the labouring poor who feed, clothe and lodge the nation should themselves be well fed, clothed and lodged. Generous wages are a sign of a growing society.
- The Devils, Lesson: The fathers' responsibility
  The fathers' responsibility. Stepan Trofimovitch's vague liberalism helped produce his son's nihilism.
- The Petition of Right (1628), the Habeas Corpus Act (1679) and the English Bill of Rights (1689), Lesson: Consent to taxation
  Consent to taxation. Parliament insisted that no tax be levied without its consent. This principle became the American cry against taxation without representation.
Spiritual rebirth
The title points to the moral renewal of both main characters.
- How does Maslova change?
- Why does she refuse Nekhludoff?
- What does the ending suggest about the Gospel?
Related across the library
- A Treatise on Insanity, Lesson: A Treatise on Insanity teaches historical caution
  A Treatise on Insanity teaches historical caution. A Treatise on Insanity rewards readers who keep its categories in their own century before translating them into ours. It can sharpen modern judgment precisely because its insights and errors are both visible.
- Mental Maladies, Lesson: Mental Maladies teaches historical caution
  Mental Maladies teaches historical caution. Mental Maladies rewards readers who keep its categories in their own century before translating them into ours. It can sharpen modern judgment precisely because its insights and errors are both visible.
- The Castle of Otranto, Lesson: Tyranny
  Tyranny. Manfred's ambition to keep his usurped title destroys his family.
- Twilight of the Idols, Lesson: Twilight of the Idols teaches historical caution
  Twilight of the Idols teaches historical caution. Twilight of the Idols rewards readers who keep its categories in their own century before translating them into ours. It can sharpen modern judgment precisely because its insights and errors are both visible.
- The Virginia Declaration of Rights, Lesson: Magistrates as trustees and servants
  Magistrates as trustees and servants. Section II turns the usual picture of rulers upside down: power comes from the people, and officials hold it in trust and answer to them. Sections IV and V follow from this, forbidding hereditary offices and sending lawmakers back to private life at fixed periods so that they share the burdens they impose.

Context

In the 1890s Tolstoy was famous worldwide for his religious and moral views, which rejected the authority of church and state; Russia was an autocracy with harsh prisons and Siberian exile.

Composition

Based on a true story told to Tolstoy by the lawyer Anatoly Koni; finished in 1899 to fund the Doukhobors' emigration.

Reception

Heavily censored in Russia; its attack on the church contributed to Tolstoy's excommunication in 1901.

Guilt Sin Justice Law Faith / Religion Class / Society Crime / Punishment

Comparisons

Crime and Punishment
Dostoevsky's novel of guilt, suffering and renewal in Siberia.
Anna Karenina
Tolstoy's earlier novel of love and moral consequence.

Quotes

“One of the most widespread superstitions is that every man has his own special, definite qualities”

— Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection, Book I, Chapter LIX, trans. Louise Maude (1900).Quote card

Discourse on the Origin of Inequality, First Part, on sickness
Rousseau lists the diseases produced by inequalities of labour, diet and passion and argues that most of our ills are of our own making.
The Psychology of Dementia Praecox, CRITICAL PRESENTATION OF THEORETICAL VIEWS ON THE
all culture disappears being replaced by the crudest lack of consideration THE EMOTIONAL COMPLEX fear if it observes a dog even at a distance People who have received a painful message will thereafter open all their mail with apprehension etc These complex effects which under certain conditions will extend over long periods leads us to the consid- eration of the CHRONIC EFFECTS OF THE COMPLEX There are two kinds to be differentiated There is a complex-action which extends over a very long period and which is oft...
Swann's Way, Overture
The past is hidden somewhere outside the realm, beyond the reach of intellect, in some material object (in the sensation which that material object will give us) which we do not suspect. Just before the madeleine episode, the narrator explains why deliberate efforts to recall the past fail.
A Confession, Summary
A Confession is Leo Tolstoy's short spiritual autobiography, written in 1879–1880, when he was about fifty and already world-famous as the author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina. It tells how a man who had everything the world admires lost all sense of why he was living, and how he found his way back to faith in God. Tolstoy begins with his childhood in the Orthodox Church and explains that by eighteen he no longer believed what he had been taught. He describes the vanity of his years as a young officer and c...
The Ramayana, Book II, Canto CXII (The Sandals)
The moon his beauty may forgo, The cold forsake the Hills of Snow, And Ocean o’er his banks may sweep, But I my father’s word will keep. Rama refuses Bharat's plea to return and rule; Bharat then asks for Rama's sandals to govern in his name.

“I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven.”

— Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection, Book III, Chapter XXVIII, trans. Louise Maude (1900).Quote card

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter XIX
what does it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose—how does the quotation run?—his own soul Lord Henry lightly recalls a street preacher's text from the Gospel, not knowing how exactly it fits the friend in front of him.
Henry V, Act 4, Scene 1
Not today, O Lord, O, not today, think not upon the fault My father made in compassing the crown Alone before battle, Henry prays that God will not punish him for Henry IV's usurpation of Richard II.
The Ego and the Id, Ch. III, 'The Ego and the Super-Ego (Ego-Ideal)'
The tension between the demands of conscience and the actual attainments of the ego is experienced as a sense of guilt Freud's definition of guilt within the structural model, given just after he derives conscience from the authority of parents and teachers.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism, Summary
The Westminster Shorter Catechism is a set of 107 questions and answers completed in 1647 by the Westminster Assembly, a body of English and Scottish divines summoned by Parliament during the English Civil War. It was meant to be a simple version of the Assembly's teaching for children and those 'of weaker capacity', alongside a much longer Larger Catechism for preachers. The Church of Scotland approved it in 1648, and it became the main teaching tool of Presbyterian and many Congregational and Baptist churches...
The Descent of Man, Source
THE DESCENT OF MAN AND SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX By Charles Darwin CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS THE DESCENT OF MAN AND SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX INTRODUCTION PART I THE DESCENT OR ORIGIN OF MAN CHAPTER I THE EVIDENCE OF THE DESCENT OF MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM CHAPTER II ON THE MANNER OF DEVELOPMENT OF MAN FROM SOME LOWER FORM CHAPTER III COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS CHAPTER IV COMPARISON OF THE MENTAL POWERS OF MAN AND THE LOWER ANIMALS c...

For Students

A reading companion for classical Christian high school students. See the student guide.

Reading Guide

Watch for

Nekhludoff's recognition of Maslova in court.
The mistake in the jury's verdict.
The scenes inside the prison.
Nekhludoff's dealings with his peasants.
The Gospel reading in the final chapter.

Key terms and names

Penal servitude: Forced labor imposed as punishment, often in Siberia.
Doukhobors: A Russian religious sect persecuted for pacifism and rejection of church rites.
Atonement: Making amends for a wrong one has done.
Jury: A group of citizens sworn to judge the facts of a criminal case.

Seminar Questions

Comprehension What is Maslova accused of?
Comprehension Why is she wrongly convicted?
Comprehension Whom does Maslova choose at the end?
Interpretation Why does Tolstoy call the novel Resurrection?
Interpretation What is Tolstoy criticizing in the prison system?
Big Question What do we owe to those we have harmed?

Faith Connections

Matthew 18:21-22 (Scripture)
Forgive seventy times seven; Nekhludoff reads this in the last chapter.
Luke 15:7 (Scripture)
Joy in heaven over one sinner who repents.

Logic and Rhetoric

Central argument: Society's institutions punish the weak while the comfortable escape blame; only personal repentance and the Gospel's commands can renew life.

Rhetorical device: contrast. Scenes of luxury in Nekhludoff's world are set against the squalor of prisons.

Debate: Resolved: that Nekhludoff's repentance is genuine.

Memory Work

One of the most widespread superstitions is that every man has his own special, definite qualities
Book I, Chapter LIX, trans. Louise Maude (1900). The Gospel words on endless forgiveness.

Writing Prompts

Essay: How does Tolstoy connect personal guilt with social injustice?

Comparison with Crime and Punishment: Compare Nekhludoff's repentance with Raskolnikov's in Crime and Punishment.

Creative Prompts

Essay
Does Nekhludoff truly change, or does he mainly ease his conscience?
Fiction
Write Maslova's letter explaining why she will not marry Nekhludoff.
Classroom
Hold a mock appeal hearing for Maslova's case.