RESURRECTION - Tolstoy's final novel - is a joint embodiment of his vast, objective awareness of human suffering and his lifelong burden of unrealized ideals. It traces the conflict of pride and affection between Katusha, a prostitute charged with murder, and her first lover, Nekhludov, who now must judge her. Through his attempts to alter the course of her fate, Nekhludov discovers a similarity between the selfcenteredr legal values of Katusha's accusers and the nature of his own altruism' He discovers the hypocrisy of his own atonement - and begins the journey to resurrection.
"The Homeric, the timeless epic vein was strong in Tolstoy, as perhaps in no other artist in the world." -Thomas Mann