The prison was a long way off and it was getting late, so Nekhludoff took an isvostchik. The isvostchik, a middle-aged man with an intelligent and kind face, turned round towards Nekhludoff as they were driving along one of the streets and pointed to a huge house that was being built there.
       "Just see what a tremendous house they have begun to build," he said, as if he was partly responsible for the building of the house and proud of it. The house was really immense and was being built in a very original style. The strong pine beams of the scaffolding were firmly fixed together with iron bands and a plank wall separated the building from the street.
       On the boards of the scaffolding workmen, all bespattered with plaster, moved hither and thither like ants. Some were laying bricks, some hewing stones, some carrying up the heavy hods and pails and bringing them down empty. A fat and finely-dressed gentleman--probably the architect--stood by the scaffolding, pointing upward and explaining something to a contractor, a peasant from the Vladimir Government, who was respectfully listening to him. Empty carts were coming out of the gate by which the architect and the contractor were standing, and loaded ones were going in. "And how sure they all are--those that do the work as well as those that make them do it--that it ought to be; that while their wives at home, who are with child, are labouring beyond their strength, and their children with the patchwork caps, doomed soon to the cold grave, smile with suffering and contort their little legs, they must be building this stupid and useless palace for some stupid and useless person--one of those who spoil and rob them," Nekhludoff thought, while looking at the house.
       "Yes, it is a stupid house," he said, uttering his thought out aloud.
       "Why stupid?" replied the isvostchik, in an offended tone. "Thanks to it, the people get work; it's not stupid."
       "But the work is useless."
       "It can't be useless, or why should it be done?" said the isvostchik. "The people get bread by it."
       Nekhludoff was silent, and it would have been difficult to talk because of the clatter the wheels made.
       When they came nearer the prison, and the isvostchik turned off the paved on to the macadamised road, it became easier to talk, and he again turned to Nekhludoff.
       "And what a lot of these people are flocking to the town nowadays; it's awful," he said, turning round on the box and pointing to a party of peasant workmen who were coming towards them, carrying saws, axes, sheepskins, coats, and bags strapped to their shoulders.
       "More than in other years?" Nekhludoff asked.
       "By far. This year every place is crowded, so that it's just terrible. The employers just fling the workmen about like chaff. Not a job to be got."
       "Why is that?"
       "They've increased. There's no room for them."
       "Well, what if they have increased? Why do not they stay in the village?"
       "There's nothing for them to do in the village--no land to be had."
       Nekhludoff felt as one does when touching a sore place. It feels as if the bruised part was always being hit; yet it is only because the place is sore that the touch is felt.
       "Is it possible that the same thing is happening everywhere?" he thought, and began questioning the isvostchik about the quantity of land in his village, how much land the man himself had, and why he had left the country.
       "We have a desiatin per man, sir," he said. "Our family have three men's shares of the land. My father and a brother are at home, and manage the land, and another brother is serving in the army. But there's nothing to manage. My brother has had thoughts of coming to Moscow, too."
       "And cannot land be rented?
       "How's one to rent it nowadays? The gentry, such as they were, have squandered all theirs. Men of business have got it all into their own hands. One can't rent it from them. They farm it themselves. We have a Frenchman ruling in our place; he bought the estate from our former landlord, and won't let it--and there's an end of it."
       "Who's that Frenchman?"
       "Dufour is the Frenchman's name. Perhaps you've heard of him. He makes wigs for the actors in the big theatre; it is a good business, so he's prospering. He bought it from our lady, the whole of the estate, and now he has us in his power; he just rides on us as he pleases. The Lord be thanked, he is a good man himself; only his wife, a Russian, is such a brute that--God have mercy on us. She robs the people. It's awful. Well, here's the prison. Am I to drive you to the entrance? I'm afraid they'll not let us do it, though."

book i
   Chapter I. Maslova in Prison.
   Chapter II. Maslova's Early Life.
   Chapter III. Nekhludoff.
   Chapter IV. Missy.
   Chapter V. The Jurymen.
   Chapter VI. The Judges.
   Chapter VII. The Officials of the Court.
   Chapter VIII. Swearing in the Jury.
   Chapter IX. The Trial--the Prisoners Questioned.
   Chapter X. The Trial--the Indictment.
   Chapter XI. The Trial--Maslova Cross-Examined.
   Chapter XII. Twelve Years Before.
   Chapter XIII. Life in the Army.
   Chapter XIV. The Second Meeting with Maslova.
   Chapter XV. The Early Mass.
   Chapter XVI. The First Step.
   Chapter XVII. Nekhludoff and Katusha.
   Chapter XVIII. Afterwards.
   Chapter XIX. The Trial--Resumption.
   Chapter XX. . The Trial--the Medical Report.
   Chapter XXI. The Trial--the Prosecutor and the Advocates.
   Chapter XXII. The Trial--the Summing Up.
   Chapter XXIII. The Trial--the Verdict.
   Chapter XXIV. The Trial--the Sentence.
   Chapter XXV. Nekhludoff Consults an Advocate.
   Chapter XXVI. The House of Korchagin.
   Chapter XXVII. Missy's Mother.
   Chapter XXVIII. The Awakening.
   Chapter XXIX. Maslova in Prison.
   Chapter XXX. The Cell.
   Chapter XXXI. The Prisoners.
   Chapter XXXII. A Prison Quarrel.
   Chapter XXXIII. The Leaven at Work--Nekhludoff's Domestic Changes.
   Chapter XXXIV. The Absurdity of Law--Reflections of a Juryman.
   Chapter XXXV. The Procureur--Nekhludoff Refuses to Serve.
   Chapter XXXVI. Nekhludoff Endeavours to Visit Maslova.
   Chapter XXXVII. Maslova Recalls the Past.
   Chapter XXXVIII. Sunday in Prison--Preparing for Mass.
   Chapter XXXIX. The Prison Church--Blind Leaders of the Blind.
   Chapter XL. The Husks of Religion.
   Chapter XLI. Visiting Day--the Men's Ward.
   Chapter XLII. Visiting Day--the Women's Ward.
   Chapter XLIII. Nekhludoff Visits Maslova.
   Chapter XLIV. Maslova's View of Life.
   Chapter XLV. Fanarin, the Advocate--the Petition.
   Chapter XLVI. A Prison Flogging.
   Chapter XLVII. Nekhludoff Again Visits Maslova.
   Chapter XLVIII. Maslova Refuses to Marry.
   Chapter XLIX. Vera Doukhova.
   Chapter L. The Vice-Governor of the Prison.
   Chapter LI. The Cells.
   Chapter LII. No. 21.
   Chapter LIII. Victims of Government.
   Chapter LIV. Prisoners and Friends.
   Chapter LV. Vera Doukhova Explains.
   Chapter LVI. Nekhludoff and the Prisoners.
   Chapter LVII. The Vice-Governor's "At-Home".
   Chapter LVIII. The Vice-Governor Suspicious.
   Chapter LIX. Nekhludoff's Third Interview with Maslova in Prison.
book ii
   Chapter I. Property in Land.
   Chapter II. Efforts at Land Restoration.
   Chapter III. Old Associations.
   Chapter IV. The Peasants' Lot.
   Chapter V. Maslova's Aunt.
   Chapter VI. Reflections of a Landlord.
   Chapter VII. The Disinherited.
   Chapter VIII. God's Peace in the Heart.
   Chapter IX. The Land Settlement.
   Chapter X. Nekhludoff Returns to Town.
   Chapter XI. An Advocate's Views on Judges and Prosecutors.
   Chapter XII. Why the Peasants Flock to Town.
   Chapter XIII. Nurse Maslova.
   Chapter XIV. An Aristocratic Circle.
   Chapter XV. An Average Statesman.
   Chapter XVI. An Up-to-Date Senator.
   Chapter XVII. Countess Katerina Ivanovna's Dinner Party.
   Chapter XVIII. Officialdom.
   Chapter XIX. An Old General of Repute.
   Chapter XX. Maslova's Appeal.
   Chapter XXI. The Appeal Dismissed.
   Chapter XXII. An Old Friend.
   Chapter XXIII. The Public Prosecutor.
   Chapter XXIV. Mariette Tempts Nekhludoff.
   Chapter XXV. Lydia Shoustova's Home.
   Chapter XXVI. Lydia's Aunt.
   Chapter XXVII. The State Church and the People.
   Chapter XXVIII. The Meaning of Mariette's Attraction.
   Chapter XXIX. For Her Sake and for God's.
   Chapter XXX. The Astonishing Institution Called Criminal Law.
   Chapter XXXI. Nekhludoff's Sister and Her Husband.
   Chapter XXXII. Nekhludoff's Anarchism.
   Chapter XXXIII. The Aim of the Law.
   Chapter XXXIV. The Prisoners Start for Siberia.
   Chapter XXXV. Not Men but Strange and Terrible Creatures?
   Chapter XXXVI. The Tender Mercies of the Lord.
   Chapter XXXVII. Spilled Like Water on the Ground.
   Chapter XXXVIII. The Convict Train.
   Chapter XXXIX. Brother and Sister.
   Chapter XL. The Fundamental Law of Human Life.
   Chapter XLI. Taras's Story.
   Chapter XLII. Le Vrai Grand Monde.
book iii
   Chapter I. Maslova Makes New Friends.
   Chapter II. An Incident of the March.
   Chapter III. Mary Pavlovna.
   Chapter IV. Simonson.
   Chapter V. The Political Prisoners.
   Chapter VI. Kryltzoff's Story.
   Chapter VII. Nekhludoff Seeks an Interview with Maslova.
   Chapter VIII. Nekhludoff and the Officer.
   Chapter IX. The Political Prisoners.
   Chapter X. Makar Devkin.
   Chapter XI. Maslova and her Companions.
   Chapter XII. Nabatoff and Markel.
   Chapter XIII. Love Affairs of the Exiles.
   Chapter XIV. Conversations in Prison.
   Chapter XV. Novodvoroff.
   Chapter XVI. Simonson Speaks to Nekhludoff.
   Chapter XVII. "I Have Nothing More to Say."
   Chapter XVIII. Neveroff's Fate.
   Chapter XIX. Why is it Done?
   Chapter XX. The Journey Resumed.
   Chapter XXI. "Just a Worthless Tramp."
   Chapter XXII. Nekhludoff Sees the General.
   Chapter XXIII. The Sentence Commuted.
   Chapter XXIV. The General's Household.
   Chapter XXV. Maslova's Decision.
   Chapter XXVI. The English Visitor.
   Chapter XXVII. Kryltzoff at Rest.
   Chapter XXVIII. A New Life Dawns for Nekhludoff.