Resurrection ( Воскресение, Voskreseniye), first published in 1899, was the last novel written by Leo Tolstoy. The book is the last of his major long fiction works published in his lifetime. Tolstoy intended the novel as an exposition of injustice of man-made laws and the hypocrisy of institutionalized church. The novel also explores the economic philosophy of Georgism, of which Tolstoy had become a very strong advocate towards the end of his life, and explains the theory in detail. It was first published serially in the popular weekly magazine Niva in an effort to raise funds for the resettlement of the Dukhobors.
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.
His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
I enjoyed this book for none of the reasons I expected to on setting out into it. It was so different from War and Peace and Anna Karenina. I recognised the older mind; searching for truth but coupled with Tolstoy's unique observation of our complications, vanity and hypocrisy.
Apparently his wife said that he himself never really did things for entirely the purist of reasons, as his main character struggles to do. Then who does?? However, the descriptions of how so many of us follow the status quo, never questioning our motives or actions, really was chillingly accurate. The characters are never two dimensional; always there is a reason for someone's selfishness, high opinion of themselves, joy, obsequiousness. Reading all these descriptions is a real joy - until you recognise yourself of course!!
As a Christian, I was intrigued at how this book would develop, whilst apparently using the essential word of my faith, 'Resurrection', yet denying any connection to it. What cheered me was that despite Tolstoy's excommunication from the Russian Orthodox Church in the 1890's, his great, singing message is that we must never stop searching for The Truth and that Truth is to love one another, whatever it costs. Only then, will we have 'Life.'
Đọc xong lâu lắc rồi mà nhác dùng goodreads vãi nên quên mark. sách hay kinh khủng nhưng mạch truyện hơi dài dòng, đọc buồn ngủ. Ổng blew my mind í, hay lắm đọc xong thổn thức hơn cả lần đầu biết yêu là gì. Nhưng mà hay vãi, ước gì goodreads tap 2 lần ra 1 nửa sao như letterboxd thì t sẽ cho cuốn này 4,5, điểm trừ là hơi chán thôi:)))
Je m'attendais à une histoire, un conte.. mais il n'y en a rien. J'ai atteint 80% du livre pour finalement m'arrêter.
L'histoire commence bien pourtant. Un noble propriétaire terrien se trouve membre d'un jury dans une affaire de meurtre. La principale coupable, une fille, autrefois servante, désormais fille de joie avec qui il avait eu une aventure, enceinte de lui et renvoyée à la rue, et qui a de ce chef a pris le chemin de la délinquance, a écopé de 4 ans de bagne. Le noble décide de se racheter en l'épousant, ou à défaut l'accompagner en laissant tout derrière lui. Ainsi commence une histoire de rédemption, qui au passage nous fait rencontrer d'autres personnalités secondaires dont certaines en liberté mais plus pourries que celles derrière les barreaux.
Le roman fait le portrait du système carcéral tsariste pendant ses dernières années. Il met à nue les défauts du système judiciaire, l'injustice sociale, la corruption de l'administration etc. Il semble que tout était noir à cette époque..
Le roman est très instructif du point de vue historique mais très pauvre en dramatique. Je l'ai trouvé lourd et même ennuyeux.
Note finale, Tolstoi loue les révolutionnaires en essayant de rationaliser leur violence. Il ne cache pas ses opinions politiques - qui d'ailleurs sont déjà présents dans "les insurgés". Cela reflète peut être l'état d'esprit de l'élite russe qui aurait affiché alors un état de ras-le bol des Romanovs. C'est un prélude à ce qui se passera après. Si Tolstoi avait vécu 30 ans de plus, il aurait peut-être changé d'avis. Les faits rapportés dans l'"Archipel du Goulag" d'Alexandre Soljenitsine et se rapportant au système carcéral soviétique est d'un niveau si scandaleux que les tsars pourraient, en comparaison, être considérés comme enfants de cœur.