Resurrection • Leo Tolstoy

One absolute highlight among last year’s new releases is this much-anticipated book by Leo Tolstoy. I’m thoroughly impressed by the quality of the Hanser Klassiker series, and when a premium title like this is announced, it’s clear I’m on board right away. No matter which book I’ve read from the Hanser classics, all of them have been simply worth reading and pure pleasure. Whether this book truly lives up to that—find out here.

Tolstoy is one of my absolute favorite authors. I devoured his two great works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, and loved them from the first page to the last. The question is whether the book that appeared a full 22 years after Anna Karenina can stand alongside Tolstoy’s major titles. The answer is simple: yes, it can. And it does so in its very own way, which can’t really be compared with his two best-known novels. In Resurrection you certainly encounter his characteristic style. There’s very little of the social novel, a renewed strong focus on the protagonists’ inner development, but also a new component. The reader follows Nechljudow and comes to know Russian society at the end of the 19th century—and humanity itself—from a very alarming angle.

The jacket copy already sounded intriguing to me. Prince Nechljudow seduces a young woman who lives as an employee in his aunts’ household, then quickly abandons her and more or less forgets her. Years later, he is serving as a juror—and there she is, now a prostitute, on the defendants’ bench. Suddenly he realizes that it was his irresponsible behavior that completely wrecked her life.

In a manner typical of Tolstoy and the Realists, he describes Nechljudow’s and Maslowa’s thoughts and feelings with precision and candor. The reader follows Nechljudow and, together with him, comes to understand the injustices of the time. The appalling conditions—the way people treated one another then (and still do today)—moved me deeply in places. There are scenes that make you swallow hard and recognize what a precious good freedom is, and how essential a just political and judicial system. I was especially impressed by the portrait of the bureaucratic legal apparatus. Somehow bureaucracy is always a theme in Tolstoy’s books, and he captures it perfectly, even adapting his prose style to those scenes. What’s so striking is the sheer nonsense and inhumanity that arise from a rigid, formal system—a central target of the novel. Tolstoy depicts a system in which individuals pursue understandable and seemingly sensible actions, yet in doing so cause massive harm to society and to individuals. That is a flaw in every social construct. He names the problems with such clarity that you see he understood the issues of his time—and with a farsightedness that applies to ours as well. While reading, I often asked myself whether our judicial system is just as rotten. Probably yes—it was, after all, constructed by human beings. And yet also no, since, thank heavens, political persecution or physical violence by state agents no longer exist here (at least so far as one can tell).

Overall you get a good picture of all strata of society. Time and again Tolstoy appeals to love of one’s fellow human beings and to faith. In two chapters he condemns the dogmas, hierarchies, and customs of the Church and its institutions. For those two chapters he was excommunicated by the Holy Synod, which didn’t trouble him much. Tolstoy was indeed deeply religious, but not aligned with the cult of established denominations. That comes through strongly in his books as well. As in Anna Karenina, a profound faith—together with love of mankind—becomes, for him, a conclusion about how to meet humanity’s cruelty and failings. The title Resurrection thus stands for a purification, a transformation in the protagonists’ thinking, but also for a key scene in this story. Unsurprisingly, numerous passages were censored in various countries. The bashing of the Church and its dogmas was cut pretty much everywhere. Yet the book can be called a bestseller. According to the afterword, it was translated into many languages and was the talk of the town for quite some time.

The book gripped me once again, and the message Tolstoy aims to convey landed with full force. Even though I don’t agree with his theistic conclusions, one has to admire his clear, enlightened gaze and the skill with which he packs such a complex subject into a novel. Tolstoy was definitely far ahead of his time—and perhaps still ahead of ours. Accompanying Nechljudow through different social layers, getting to know all sorts of people with very different life stories, seeing ignorance—but also self-sacrifice—stirs emotion while reading. Of course the fate of the two protagonists is a constant driving force that carries you through the story. Neither Nechljudow nor Maslowa inspired great sympathy in me—the characters feel too real, too multifaceted for that. Yet you empathize with them and can understand and feel their inner conflicts.

As for the production, the book has once again turned out superbly. It’s very well made, again comes with two ribbon bookmarks—which is very practical given the extensive notes—and sits beautifully in the hand. The dark blue linen binding and even the apparently drab cover image fit the content perfectly. There’s nothing to criticize about the translation either; nothing struck me negatively. Barbara Conrad already translated War and Peace for Hanser and won the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2011. You can hardly go wrong here; this, too, is premium territory.

Verdict: Once again, Tolstoy tackles the truly big questions in this novel: what society is, how it treats its people, how justice fares, and how it develops—and could develop. With very precise prose and a clear eye, Tolstoy leads the reader through the different social layers, agitates, shocks, and advocates love of one’s fellow humans and a faith unbound from institutions. Nechljudow’s and Maslowa’s fate is a red thread throughout—compelling to follow—and it also guides the reader through 19th-century Russia, offering insight into that society and all its structures. Resurrection is a book different from his great successes, but in no way inferior to them. The characters feel real; their inner conflicts and transformations are masterfully drawn and touch on both the big and small questions of life. The book’s production, the translation, and the highly informative notes all impress once again. A novel I can recommend to everyone—and one that exceeded all my expectations.

Book information: Resurrection • Leo Tolstoy • publisher • 720 pages • ISBN 9783446252851