Resurrection, Leo Tolstoy [top 5 books to read .txt] 📗

blessing they can attain to, he also realised and believed that the only duty of every man is to fulfil these laws; that in this lies the only reasonable meaning of life, that every stepping aside from these laws is a mistake which is immediately followed by retribution. This flowed from the whole of the teaching, and was most strongly and clearly illustrated in the parable of the vineyard.

The husbandman imagined that the vineyard in which they were sent to work for their master was their own, that all that was in was made for them, and that their business was to enjoy life in this vineyard, forgetting the Master and killing all those who reminded them of his existence. “Are we not doing the same,” Nekhlúdoff thought, “when we imagine ourselves to be masters of our lives, and that life is given us for enjoyment? This evidently is an incongruity. We were sent here by someone’s will and for some reason. And we have concluded that we live only for our own joy, and of course we feel unhappy as labourers do when not fulfilling their Master’s orders. The Master’s will is expressed in these commandments. If men will only fulfil these laws, the Kingdom of Heaven will be established on earth, and men will receive the greatest good that they can attain to. ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.’ ”

“And so here it is, the business of my life. Scarcely have I finished one and another has commenced.” And a perfectly new life dawned that night for Nekhlúdoff, not because he had entered into new conditions of life, but because everything he did after that night had a new and quite different significance than before. How this new period of his life will end time alone will prove.

Endnotes

Isvóstchik⁠—cabman. ↩

Russian names being somewhat perplexing to English readers, I have preferred, where possible, to substitute the corresponding English names. —⁠Trans. ↩

Nekhlúdoff liked to show that his acquaintance with the tutor was so slight that he did not even know his surname. It must be borne in mind that in Russian the surname is hardly ever used in addressing anyone. With inferiors or those with whom one is quite familiar the Christian name alone may be used, with everybody else the Christian name with the patronymic. The patronymic consists of the father’s Christian name with the masculine suffix vitch or the feminine ovna. —⁠Trans. ↩

In Russian, as in many other languages, “thou” is used generally among people very familiar with each other, or by superiors to inferiors. ↩

A religious sect. ↩

Titles such as this are common in Russia and mean very little. ↩

The lowest town class or grade. ↩

The rouble, which up to a few years ago fluctuated violently in value, has now been fixed at a little over two shillings. —⁠Trans. ↩

It is usual in Russia to congratulate those who have received communion. ↩

Easter cakes. ↩

Long strips of linen are worn by the peasants instead of stockings. ↩

Coffeepots are often used for holding holy water in Russia. ↩

Sádko, the hero of a legend. ↩

Member of an artel, an association of workmen, in which the members share profits and liabilities. ↩

In Russia coupons cut off interest-bearing papers are often used as money. ↩

There are small watchmen’s cottages at distances of about one mile from each other along the Russian railways, and the watchmen or their wives have to meet every train. ↩

The rouble is worth a little over two shillings, and contains one hundred copecks. ↩

Cheap restaurant. ↩

Literally, jostling market, where secondhand clothes and all sorts of cheap goods are sold. ↩

Literally, “People’s Freedom,” a revolutionary movement. ↩

About two and three-quarter acres. ↩

The greatest thief in the village. ↩

A pood is thirty-six English pounds. ↩

Kvass is a kind of sour, non-intoxicant beer made of rye. ↩

Those baptized in the Russo-Greek Church always wear a cross round their necks. ↩

Many advanced women wear their hair short, like men. ↩

The Emperor Alexander II was killed on the 1st of March (old style). ↩

The Decembrists were a group who attempted, but failed, to put an end to absolutism in Russia at the time of the accession of Nicholas I. ↩

The headquarters of the fire brigade and the police stations are generally together in Moscow. ↩

In Moscow, in the beginning of the eighth decade of this century, five convicts died of sunstroke in one day on their way from the Boutýrki prison to the Níjni railway station. ↩

Leaders of rebellions in Russia: Sténka Razín in the 17th and Pougatchéff in the 18th century. ↩

A fact described by Lineff in his Transportation. ↩

The long boots worn in Russia have concertina-like sides, and when held to the chimney of the samovar can be used instead of bellows to make the charcoal inside burn up. ↩

A kind of cigarette that the peasants smoke, made of a bit of paper and bent at one end into a hook. ↩

Colophon

Resurrection
was published in 1899 by
Leo Tolstoy.
It