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Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
 Ok July 22, 2010
H. Tee (UK)
This is the story of a young wealthy man called Nekhlyudov, who takes advantage of a nineteen year old servant girl (be careful of the accusations of `rape' made in other reviews, this is very ambiguous indeed in the text), called Katusha, who he is familiar with working for his aunts. He does this before joining his regiment effectively abandoning her with just 100 rubel note; the irony is that by buying her off he signals her fate - she becomes pregnant, loses the child and ends up in prostitution. Ten years later he finds himself a juror at her trial for poisoning one of her clients: he has an epiphany and realises she is there because of him. The story is thus one of him trying to make amends for this incident (but also the system, his wealth and his education). The backdrop for the narrative is that although innocent (?) she is wrongly convicted, in part another fault of Nekhlyudov, and she is sent away and he follows whilst trying to challenge her (and other defendants) convictions.
It is clear that Tolstoy is using the story to put forward any number of his own views of social justice. The poor, servants, serfs and workers are all well represented in the prison and within Nekhlyudov's estates; revolutionary issues are included through the `political prisoners' - Nekhlyudov takes up the case of several. The social elite and officialdom also play their part in the story being callous, insensitive, bureaucratic and disrespectful of people's feeling.
The book has many good qualities and is a worthy read. Tolstoy has a good dry descriptive way with situations and scenes; his ideas, placed in the context of the story of the Russian criminal system, come across powerfully - I can well imagine this book had an impact at the time (1899) much like perhaps Uncle Tom's Cabin did in its. The revolutionary ideas contained in text seem to be a prelude to the actual 1905 revolution.
Where I found the book disappointing is that Nekhlyudov comes across as slightly unemotional, particularly towards Katusha.. He expresses his thoughts and views about the inequity he sees yet never gets really angry or fired-up. He doesn't challenge the other character's views so much as challenge ours. In essence the story lacked passion for me. The other slight let down is the finale which isn't (will Katusha and Nekhlyudov get together?), and the (from my point of view - yes I know the book's called `Resurrection') final chapter which quotes the bible, commandments etc - a well depicted tale of the unfair nature of life shouldn't need this.
 Beautifully written book with a somewhat unsatisfying ending February 23, 2010
A. Harsono (Sunbury, UK)
Once again, Tolstoy takes on the grand themes in life and this time round he takes on two of them: redemption and justice.
He has succeeded in developing the main character excellently and he takes us through the journey that Nekhlyudov faces as a man who's willing to give up everything he's got to have one chance at redemption. Along the way, he performs favours for the main accused of the story and discovers for himself the social injustice that governments inflict upon the common man. Tolstoy writes the book to answer the main question of the novel: what is it that brings man to inflict torture, death and punishment upon one another and what can man do about it? The best part of the novel is that while the ending is somewhat unsatisfying, we readers learn a lot about what constitutes redemption and the issues which are still relevant to us today.
This book has give me food for thought about the society we live in today and I'd like to think that it has made me wiser too.
? Translation problems November 28, 2009
Mrs. RM KLEPPMANN (Germany)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had difficultines reaching Tolstoy's work becuse `Rosemary Edmonds's fine translation' got in the way. (Either that, or Tolstoy set about wrecking his reputation with this book). I assume my problems are with the translation - I can't read Russian.
The telling of the story strikes me as being very erratic. The vocabulary is mostly English with the occasional cousin from across the Atlantic e.g. moustaches, pocket book, proper swell. The translation is mostly sophisticated e.g. appurtenances, abnormity (had to look up both of those). This, however is counterbalanced by some bland and incorrect English - `lighted' instead of `lit', `consist in' instead of `consist of', `ago' instead of `previously' etc. There are also ideas/ juxtaposition of information that don't fit comfortably together - `her face, ill, puffy and white, was comely ...' and reference within one paragraph to `The driver .. in a long-waisted .. coat' and two paragraphs later the same man is `the long-waisted driver' etc.
I think I shall do my best to avoid Rosemary Edmonds in the future.
Story telling of the 19th Century October 17, 2009
E. Darzi (Guildford Surrey UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Leo Tolstoy, the arch novelist of his century, remains the superb story-teller as before. Alas, his style now belongs to the museum of fiction, where lengthy, precise and meticulously-detailed prose, mechanistically collated from appearances, short on the breadth of diversity and ambiguity of the human spirit and motivation, stands at odds with the post-Freudian 20th Century style. Nevetheless, his story lines are highly engaging and certainly cinematic. So it is worth the effort to read him but only if you have a special purpose (a reading club or being a devotee.) Rather, see his creations enacted on the screen where they now belong.
 That Which Must First Die To Resurrect March 30, 2009
demola
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Resurrection is the story of how a man who raped a girl attempts to redeem himself by trying to save her from gaol when she is convicted of murder many years after. To the consternation of friends, family and society he gave up (well, most of) his privileged life to atone for his crime. Through it Tolstoy decimates the russian establishment (church, state, judiciary, aristocracy) and while at it also one of our most cherished notions - a landowner's right to own land.
The writing is superb and beautiful (it's Tolstoy), preachy and petulant and yet never loses sympathy for the hearts and minds of those he is trying to influence. Tolstoy is here close to the end of his long life and as one who has witnessed vast injustice feels, perhaps righteously so, that he had earned the right to call the powers that be to account. And he does it ruthlessly.
The political, social and economic conditions that led to such exploitation and disenfranchisement of the russian poor are still with us perhaps glaringly more so in the free markets dogma where earning a buck all too often trumps human dignity. They don't write books like this any more. They would not translate well on film.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 14
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