(P/B) RESURRECTION

Παρουσίαση

This powerful novel, Tolstoy's third major masterpiece, after War and Peace and Anna Karenina, begins with a courtroom drama (the finest in Russian literature) all the more stunning for being based on a real-life event. Dmitri Nekhlyudov, called to jury service, is astonished to see in the dock, charged with murder, a young woman whom he once seduced, propelling her into prostitution. She is found guilty on a technicality, and he determines to overturn the verdict. This pitches him into a hellish labyrinth of Russian courts, prisons and bureaucracy, in which the author loses no opportunity for satire and bitter criticism of a state system (not confined to that country) of cruelty and injustice.
This is Dickens for grown-ups, involving a hundred characters, Crime and Punishment brought forward half a century. With unforgettable set-pieces of sexual passion, conflict and social injustice, Resurrection proceeds from brothel to court-room, stinking cells to offices of state, luxury apartments to filthy life in Siberia. The ultimate crisis of moral responsibility embroils not only the famous author and his hero, but also you and me. Can we help resolve the eternal issues of law and imprisonment? (From the publisher)

Περιεχόμενα

INTRODUCTION
FURTHER READING
RESURRECTION
PART 1
Maslova in prison
Maslova's early life
Nekhlyudov
Missy
The jurymen
The judges
The officials of the court
Swearing in the jury
The trial - the prisoners questioned
The trial - the indictment
The trial - Maslova cross-examined
Twelve years before
Life in the army
The second meeting with Maslova
The early Mass
The first step
Nekhlyudov and Katusha
Afterwards
The trial - resumption
The trial - the medical report
The trial - the prosecutor and the advocates
The trial - the summing up
The trial - the verdict
The trial - the sentence
Nekhlyudov consults an advocate
The house of Korchagin
Missy's mother
The awakening
Maslova in prison
The cell
The prisoners
A prison quarrel
The leaven at work - Nekhlyudov's domestic changes
The absurdity of law - reflections of a juryman
The procureur - Nekhlyudov refuses to serve
Nekhlyudov endeavours to visit Maslova
Maslova recalls the past
Sunday in prison - preparing for Mass
The prison church - blind leaders of the blind
The husks of religion
Visiting day - the men's ward
Visiting day - the women's ward
Nekhlyudov visits Maslova
Maslova's view of life
Fanarin, the advocate - the petition
A prison flogging
Nekhlyudov again visits Maslova
Maslova refuses to marry
Vera Doukhova
The vice-governor of the prison
The cells
No. 21
Victims of government
Prisoners and friends
Vera Doukhova explains
Nekhlyudov and the prisoners
The vice-governor's "At-Home"
The vice-governor suspicious
Nekhlyudov's third interview with Maslova in prison
PART 2
Property in land
Efforts at land restoration
Old associations
The peasants' lot
Maslova's aunt
Reflections of a landlord
The disinherited
God's peace in the heart
The land settlement
Nekhlyudov returns to town
An advocate's views on judges and prosecutors
Why the peasants flock to town
Nurse Maslova
An aristocratic circle
An average statesman
An up-to-date senator
Countess Katerina Ivanovna's dinner party
Officialdom
An old general of repute
Maslova's appeal
The appeal dismissed
An old friend
The Public Prosecutor
Mariette tempts Nekhlyudov
Lydia Shoustova's home
Lydia's aunt
The State Church and the people
The meaning of Mariette's attraction
For her sake and for God's
The astonishing institution called Criminal Law
Nekhlyudov's sister and her husband
Nekhlyudov's anarchism
The aim of the Law
The prisoners start for Siberia
Not men but strange and terrible creatures?
The tender mercies of the Lord
Spilled like water on the ground
The convict train
Brother and sister
The fundamental law of human life
Taras's story
Le vrai Grand Monde
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