Five-minute digest
Resurrection
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.
Top Lessons
Conscience
Nekhludoff's recognition of Maslova forces him to see the harm he did.
Unjust institutions
Tolstoy shows courts, prisons and officials crushing ordinary people.
Spiritual rebirth
The title points to the moral renewal of both main characters.
Verified Quotes
“One of the most widespread superstitions is that every man has his own special, definite qualities”
“I say not unto thee until seven times, but until seventy times seven.”