Resurrection

Serving on a jury, Prince Nekhlyudov recognises in a defendant the young woman whose life he once helped to damage. The encounter with Katyusha Maslova breaks through the comfortable account he has made of himself. What first appears to be another person's trial becomes an examination of his own past and present responsibilities. Leo Tolstoy follows the effort to respond to guilt through action, while questioning the institutions that organise judgement and punishment. Nekhlyudov's wish to put things right encounters realities that cannot be corrected by a private resolution alone. Maslova's experience also resists being reduced to a means of restoring his conscience. The novel explores moral awakening, inequality and the difficulty of changing a life built on accepted privilege. It asks how responsibility should be understood when harm has already been done, and whether the desire for personal renewal can remain honest without attention to the people whose suffering has made that renewal seem necessary.