I certainly admire Tolstoy's relentless pursuit of truth and his courage in standing up to both the Russian government and the Church over the latter part of his life.

He advocated for the poor and while I don't particularly agree with all of the fundamentalist views he increasingly took (e.g. chastity, refraining from alochol, socialism, non-resistance to evil by force), his aim was to improve himself and ultimately mankind through his writing.

Unfortunately I think the combination of essentially preaching through his works and his advancing age negatively impacted the quality and artistry of his writing; at 70 as he was authoring "Resurrection" (20+ years after Anna Karenina), I believe he was past his prime.

There are still flashes of brilliance here (including the very first paragraph of the first chapter), and it is still Tolstoy after all, but I think "Resurrection" is probably a book only a Tolstoy fanatic would love. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1191535...

I have previously read both War And Peace and Anna Karenina, and I think the first thing to say is that Resurrection is an easier read - shorter, for a start, and with fewer characters who also appear to have fewer variations in their names. The thirty-something Prince Nekhlyudov, who is Tolstoy here as Levin is in Anna Karenina, is serving as juror in a murder trial when he recognises one of the defendants as the girl he seduced ten years before. She is wrongly convicted, and Nekhlyudov's consciousness and conscience are suddenly activated with respect to the horrible injustices of the penal system and of Russian society as a whole. He follows her to Siberia in an attempt to compensate her.

The social commentary is biting and convincing, and the account of life with convicted criminals and revolutionaries pretty vivid, and likewise his commentary on elite attitudes and behaviour. It's unfortunate that Nekhlyudov, the viewpoint character, is rather a bore. His decision to marry Katusha seems based much more on what will make him feel better about himself, rather than any attempt to discern what her needs may be. (She never seems very keen on the idea, even before she meets Simonsen.) One feels that, rather than try and write a character with a story, Tolstoy has put himself into the book as a commentator on society. I'm sure it caused quite a stir among his fans in the 1890s, but the ideas that prisons might be unpleasant places or the judicial system imperfect are hardly news to today's reader. (Are they?) Nekhlyudov's sudden discovery of these facts seems rather artificial.

Whatever its flaws, though, it's prettuy digestible and might be a good jumping-off point for readers who haven't otherwise tried Tolstoy. ( )

Chinese Russian

This is Tolstoy's last major novel, a deep and intimate account of a nobleman who wishes to repent for his youthful mistakes and seeks forgiveness from a woman he had seduced and who had since gone into prostitution. A beautiful work demonstrating Tolstoy's personal philosophies and belief in redemtion through loving forgiveness.

If I wanted to read an evangelical tract I'd go to a Christian bookshop. As the great works of the literature canon go it's one I wish I'd by-passed. ( )