Lev Nikolàevič Tolstoj
Resurrezione

LA RECENSIONE

“Am I crazy, seeing what others do not see, or are those who do what I see crazy?”

This phrase sums up the entire meaning of Lev Tolstoy's last novel, 'Resurrection'. Far from the depiction of the splendors of Russian noble society in 'Anna Karenina' and the patriotic spirit of 'War and Peace', this novel questions the morality and faith of pre-revolutionary Russian society at the end of the 19th century—or perhaps better to say, of the entire human race. Written at the end of the 19th century, the novel collects all the reflections that led Tolstoy himself to a profound spiritual crisis after being struck by the readings of the Gospels.

The protagonist, the noble Prince Nechljudov, attends as a juror the unjust sentencing to hard labor of a prostitute, Maslova, accused of poisoning. The same woman, during her youth, had been made pregnant and then abandoned by the prince himself, who sees in this very reason the beginning of Maslova's dissolute life. Devastated by remorse, he decides to rid himself of all his comforts and riches to follow her during her deportation in a sort of redemption journey.

'Resurrection' is perhaps the least known among Tolstoy's novels, so why is it worth retrieving and reading? Firstly, because it was written by that genius Tolstoy, and his greatness surfaces everywhere in this novel, from the detailed and meticulous description of landscapes to the psychological characterization of the characters, up to the scenes of the trial and deportation. But above all, because it is imbued with profound reflections on the morality of society, institutions, and man, and I assure you that at times it is so powerful and current that it is astonishing to think it was written more than 100 years ago.

It is not a light novel; in fact, sometimes it almost becomes heavy and seems to drag on in some scenes, but all the new experiences lived will lead, in the last pages, the protagonist Nechljudov (alias Tolstoy) to show us a possible, or perhaps the only, way of redemption for oneself and for the whole of humanity.