Tolstoy's great story, known to English readers by this title, has been illustrated by this four-reel picture. It cannot fail to interest many spectators for this reason; but it can hardly be counted a great offering to American audiences. The outcome of the story turns on Russian law which, in this case, is quite different from what we are used to and so the picture needs an explanation that it in itself doesn't furnish, and is hampered. The central character is a drunken man who, even in his degradation, retains some shreds of former manhood and who commits suicide in the end to right a wrong that he had occasioned by letting his wife think that he had done so years before. The staging of the pictures seems very truly Russian and has been very commendably done, in any case. To us. this Russian atmosphere seems the picture's best asset. It is well acted and the camera work is good. - The Moving Picture World, October 4, 1913
