The Awakening

(The Resurrection)

Translated by William E. Smith

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"The Awakening" by Leo Tolstoy is a novel published in 1899. A nobleman serving on a jury recognizes the defendant—a prostitute accused of murder—as a young woman he seduced and abandoned years earlier. Confronting his guilt, he attempts to help her as she faces exile to Siberia. His journey exposes him to a hidden world of injustice, cruelty, and human suffering beneath his privileged existence. The novel critiques Russian society, man-made laws, and institutional hypocrisy while exploring one man's search for redemption.

Summary written by Project Gutenberg, by machine.