Mar 20, 2006 02:52 PM
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(Updated Dec 27, 2009 11:42 PM)
Resurrection - Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy is unquestionably a great writer. Looking at the title of the book I thought it might be tiring to go through it like anything sounding extraordinary and of higher consciousness by somebody who looks somber. But that thought could not last even as long as I took to finish the first paragraph. This is a convincing account of Russia, ‘the land of suffering’ in Tolstoy’s time. This is about the crude reality of torture on and manipulation of the poor by the landed gentry, moral decadence and then a struggle against all the odds to regain the spiritual holiness that was lost. Plot construction and characterization are quite convincing and insightful. The characters of Nekhleudov and Maslova with all their ups and downs and convincingly human reactions towards all the uncommon events (very common in the then Russia and probably in interiors of Bihar and U.P of today’s India, as we find out from films and newspapers) in their lives are very engaging. The description of the journey of the prisoners from the jail to Siberia with its hellish imagery is something you will not be able to forget. Last but not the least is the lesson that you get: against all the odds we should struggle to retain honesty in us and it is never too late to do that.
