Referat Leo tolstoy: the author and his times - anna karenina: the plot , anna karenina: the oblonsky family

LEO TOLSTOY: THE AUTHOR AND HIS TIMES

Leo Tolstoy was a man of many parts--soldier, sensualist,

country nobleman, writer, teacher and social critic, and, not

least, benevolent patriarch. Photographs taken of him in his

later years show a fearsome-looking man with long hair and a

flowing beard, dressed in peasant's clothes, surrounded by his

wife and children. In writing his panoramic novels of Russian

life, Tolstoy drew heavily on his varied experiences. Indeed,

he gave to some of his central characters, as in Anna Karenina,

his own thoughts and feelings, which were sometimes, as you'll

see, contradictory.

Leo (or Lev) Nikolayevich, Count Tolstoy was born near Moscow

on August 28 (September 9, New Style), 1828, into an old

aristocratic family that for generations had been in the Czar's

inner circle. Orphaned at nine, he was raised and educated by

an aunt. In 1844 he entered the University of Kazan where he

was greatly influenced by the writings of the 18th-century

French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who espoused the

virtues of nature and a simple life. He left the university in

1847 without obtaining a degree.

Tolstoy then spent time carousing and hunting. Because he

was awkward and not as handsome as some of the other young

nobles in his social circle, he was nicknamed 'Lyvochka the

bear.' We know from his diaries that Tolstoy was divided against

himself: Although he devoted himself fully to having a wild

time, he felt guilty about it. But he couldn't determine the

source of his guilty feelings. Although he believed in God, he

had no patience for organized religion and the rules it imposed

on life (he was later excommunicated for his views by the

Russian Orthodox Church).

Fed up with city life, Tolstoy went back to Yasnaya Polyana

(Clear Glade), his family's ancestral estate near Moscow. His

plan was to become a farmer and devote himself to improving the

lot of peasants. He developed a system whereby he would sell

peasants small pieces of land year by year, so that they, too,

would be property owners and have a personal stake in the

productivity of Yasnaya Polyana. Although the peasants liked

him personally, they couldn't understand why a nobleman would

try to help them, and so they distrusted his efforts. Terribly

disappointed, Tolstoy went to Moscow, where he spent two more

years (1848-1850) living the high life. His diaries show a

restless, searching young man who gambled and played with women

by night, and then chastised himself by day. He began to write

during this time and in 1852 published Childhood, a reminiscence

that received good reviews. He later wrote Boyhood (1854) and

Youth (1856).

Perhaps in another burst of restlessness, Tolstoy in 1851

followed one of his brothers, Nicholas, by volunteering for the

army; he served in the Caucasus fighting Tatar guerrillas. He

continued to write and in 1854-1856 published Sevastopol

Sketches. These accounts of the Crimean War (in which Russia

fought Turkey, England, France, and Sardinia) catapulted Tolstoy

to the front rank of contemporary Russian writers.

He left the army in 1855 and went to Saint Petersburg, the

Russian capital, where the literary community welcomed him. But

Tolstoy had no patience for the intellectuals he found there or

for their urbane, middle-class views. He had one dispute after

another, the most famous of which was with Ivan Turgenev, then

the recognized master of the Russian literary scene. Tolstoy

disagreed with his fellow writers basically because as a

Slavophile--an admirer of Slavic, and especially Russian

culture--he didn't share their enchantment with Western European

notions of progress.

Tolstoy then traveled extensively in Europe, visiting France,

Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and England. (He spoke French,

German, and English.) A major reason for his travels was to

study European systems of education, about which he had

developed a keen interest. His exposure to European ways,

however, made him feel all the more strongly that Russia was a

case apart and could not look to the West to help it realize its

destiny.

In 1859, Tolstoy started a school at Yasnaya Polyana for the

children of his peasants. Convinced that refined,

European-style education killed youthful exuberance, he did

everything possible to nurture his pupils' spontaneity and

curiosity.

In 1860, Tolstoy's brother Nicholas died of tuberculosis.

Tolstoy was deeply affected by his death and later re-created it

in Anna Karenina, when he described the death of Levin's

brother, also named Nicholas. Like Levin--the novel's hero,

whose life he patterned on his own--Tolstoy immersed himself in

the affairs of his estate as a way of alleviating his emotional

pain.

In 1862, Tolstoy married Sofya (Sonya) Andreyevna Behrs, the

daughter of a prominent Moscow physician. Then began the most

productive period of his life. He wrote War and Peace,

considered one of the world's great novels, from 1864 to 1869.

He completed Anna Karenina, another masterpiece, in 1876, while

producing a series of short stories, as well as essays on

religion, art, and social subjects.

In his books Tolstoy, like most writers, used material from

his personal experiences as well as from the world around him.

This is very evident in Anna Karenina. He had wanted for some

time to write 'a novel of contemporary life,' as he put it.

Marriage, an enduring theme in his work, would be a central

concern. So, too, would adultery. Tolstoy had recently had an

affair with one of his peasants and had abandoned the child of

this union. He felt extremely guilty, and you can sense this

clearly in Anna Karenina. Tolstoy got the idea for the novel's

ending and its heroine's first name from the suicide in 1872 of

Anna Stepanovna Pirogova, the betrayed common-law wife of one of

Tolstoy's neighbors, who threw herself under a train. Tolstoy

had known Anna Stepanovna and went to the autopsy following her

death. You'll note his passion for close observation in the

startlingly exact description of Anna Karenina's suicide.

Tolstoy was not only an artist of high standards but also a

man continually struggling with spiritual matters. This, too,

comes across in Anna Karenina. Levin's struggles and visionary

projects in the novel are similar to Tolstoy's. Levin's

marriage to Kitty and his happiness in their domestic life

reflect Tolstoy's marriage to Sonya and their happy first years

together. He based the character of Kitty on Sonya.

Anna Karenina is a towering achievement because Tolstoy

succeeded not only in presenting a panoramic picture of his era,

but because he dealt with aspects of human nature that are

timeless. You can find people throughout history with problems

similar to Anna's desperation and guilt, Karenin's fear of

intimacy, Vronsky's struggle to keep himself from being

smothered by Anna's possessiveness. Most readers consider

Tolstoy one of the great masters at drawing psychological

portraits of people. The insights about human nature you will

gain by reading Anna Karenina will probably help you understand

the people around you.

Tolstoy's later books reflect a man becoming increasingly

conservative and religious. In The Kreutzer Sonata (1889), a

novel, Tolstoy describes marriage as a wasteland, and sexual

relations--even between husband and wife--as essentially evil.

In another novel, Resurrection (1899-1900), he violently attacks

civilization and argues strongly in favor of an ascetic way of

life. A Confession (1882) is a detailed account of Tolstoy's

torturous coming to terms with religion.

We know from his diaries and from his children's

reminiscences that as an old man Tolstoy wanted to leave his

family to go off and die alone in the mountains, as religious

ascetics before him had done. But the death of his youngest son

in 1895 so affected his wife Sonya that he dared not leave her.

In his last years, Tolstoy's memory faltered seriously and he

suffered fainting spells, after which he would frequently ask

for relatives who had died decades before. On November 20,

1910, a month after one of these attacks, he died at the train

station in the small town of Astapovo, after having finally

decided to flee from Yasnaya Polyana.

All his life Tolstoy had been a combatant, a swimmer against

the tide. He was at odds with his social class on matters of

lifestyle, on priorities in education, on the emancipation of

the serfs (which he strongly favored), and in his belief that

Russia must avoid industrialization and Western models of

progress. He was progressive as an educator, in many ways ahead

of his time as a writer, and visionary as a political thinker.

Yet he opposed women's rights and became a religious ascetic,

patterning himself after such thinkers as Lao-tzu, the ancient

Chinese philosopher.

It has been said that Tolstoy's novels have more sweep than

those of any other author in the history of literature. Leo

Tolstoy, it could be said, was many men and inhabited many

worlds in his lifetime. He acknowledged that he never totally

resolved the contradictions between his ideals and the way in

which he lived. But he forged those struggles into a singular

body of literary work. His novels are masterpieces that readers

continue to find exciting and relevant.

ANNA KARENINA: THE PLOT

Anna Karenina has two parallel plots rather than one story

line. Tolstoy builds his book on the personal quests of Anna

and Levin, his two principal characters. For much of the book,

their paths are separate; in fact, they don't meet until the end

of the book, when the differences between them are especially

glaring.

The book begins with a domestic crisis. Stiva, Anna's

brother, has been caught again cheating on his wife. Anna is

able to convince Dolly, her sister-in-law, to forgive Stiva.

At this point, the beautiful and charming Anna appears as a

kind and generous woman. She is married to Karenin, a

high-ranking government official. Relations between them seem

stable, polite if not passionate.

But then Anna meets, and falls in love with, the young Count

Vronsky. She tries to avoid him, but he will not give up. They

have a torrid affair, and she becomes pregnant. Unable to live

a life of duplicity, she confesses to her husband. Karenin

insists that Anna and he go on living as though nothing were

wrong. In that way, he says, they will not be criticized and

gossiped about by society, whose censure--or, worse,

ridicule--he fears. But Anna continues to see Vronsky on the

sly. When Karenin finds out, he investigates the ways in which

he might obtain a divorce.

Anna falls gravely ill after giving birth to Vronsky's

daughter. Karenin, however, at what he thinks is her deathbed,

forgives her everything. Anna, delirious with fever, swears

that all she wants is to be at peace with Karenin, that he is

the one she loves.

Vronsky, who is also at Anna's bedside, is humiliated in

Karenin's presence. Desperately afraid that Anna will soon die,

he shoots himself. But he doesn't die, and neither, at this

time, does Anna. Karenin realizes that he had, in fact, hoped

for her death. Confronted with her living reality, he is unable

to summon the forgiving feelings he felt so strongly at her

bedside. When Anna goes back to Vronsky, he refuses a divorce

and custody of their son, Seriozha. Anna then goes to Italy

with Vronsky.

Anna, who is now abandoned by her former friends and

acquaintances, finds herself condemned to a life of loneliness

and idleness. Vronsky, however, as an unmarried man, escapes

society's censure; he's free to come and go as he pleases, and

does so. Anna becomes increasingly neurotic and fearful. She

convinces herself that Vronsky loves someone else, when, in

fact, he is as much in love with her as ever. There is a lot of

tension beneath the surface and they quarrel frequently.

Anna, neither Vronsky's wife nor merely his mistress, depends

entirely on his love for her peace of mind. But this love isn't

enough for her; no one, at this point, could satisfy Anna's

emotional needs. After a particularly bitter argument with

Vronsky, she takes her life.

Parallel with, and in sharp contrast to, Anna's story is the

story of Levin and his pure love (in Tolstoy's view). Levin, a

wealthy landowner, comes to town to propose to Kitty, a

vivacious and attractive young woman, who is--or thinks she

is--in love with Vronsky. She refuses Levin. Vronsky, however,

once having met Anna, has no interest in any other woman.

Levin is heartbroken by Kitty's refusal. He returns to his

country estate and buries himself in work. He is writing a book

meant to revolutionize farming practices in Russia. He proposes

that landowners strike a 50-50 partnership with laborers. That

way, he reasons, the laborers will work harder because they will

have a real stake in the harvest, and everyone's profits will

rise.

Kitty, meanwhile, traumatized by Vronsky's rejection, falls

ill. Her family takes her to a German spa. There, she

gradually recovers and admits that it was Levin she loved all

along.

Kitty and Levin meet sometime later. Levin proposes again,

and Kitty accepts. They marry and later have a son.

Through his happiness with Kitty, Levin is able gradually to

come to terms with his lifelong struggle to believe in God.

Kitty helps Levin to deal with the death of his brother Nicholas

and his horror of death in general.

Anna's and Levin's stories veer close to each other at times

through such major characters as Stiva, Anna's brother, and

Vronsky, who was once Levin's rival for Kitty.

Thematically, the quests of Anna and Levin are contrasted.

Anna's is a search for personal fulfillment through romantic

love; Levin's is one of spiritual fulfillment through marriage,

family, and hard work. Through their stories, Tolstoy attempts

to evaluate Russia's past and present and to express his vision

for its future.

Many Russian novels have large numbers of characters, and

Anna Karenina is no exception. It can be difficult to keep them

all straight, especially since each Russian uses three names. A

Russian has a given name (such as Anna or Stepan); a middle name

that refers to the father (patronymic), the suffix of which

means either 'son of' or 'daughter of' (for example, Anna

Arkadyevna and Stepan Arkadyevich, children of Arkady); and a

family name, which also has masculine and feminine forms (Anna

Arkadyevna Oblonskaya and Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky). When a

woman marries, she takes the feminine form of her husband's

family name (Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, wife of Karenin). Common

masculine suffixes are -ovich, -ievich,--ich, and -ych. Common

feminine suffixes are -a,--ovna, -ievna, and--ishna. (Not all

English translations include such suffixes. For instance, a

popular translation by Rosemary Edmonds has the title Anna

Karenin [New York: Penguin, 1954]). Russians also have

nicknames (such as Stiva.)

The seven principal characters in Anna Karenina are Anna

herself, Levin, Vronsky, Stiva (Stepan), Kitty, Dolly, and

Karenin. Each of them is considered below in an individual

profile. To help you keep track of the others, here is a list

of the major and more important minor characters in Anna

Karenina:

ANNA KARENINA: THE OBLONSKY FAMILY

Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky (Stiva), Anna's brother

Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya (Dolly), Stiva's wife,

Kitty's sister, and eldest daughter of Prince Shcherbatsky

Tanya, Grisha, Alyosha, Nikolenka, children of Stiva and

Dolly

ANNA KARENINA: THE KARENIN FAMILY

Alexey Alexandrovich Karenin, Anna's husband

Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, Karenin's wife, Vronsky's lover,

and Stiva's sister

Sergey Alexeyich Karenin (Seriozha), Anna and Alexey's son

ANNA KARENINA: THE LEVIN FAMILY

Konstantin Dmitrich Levin (Kostya), Kitty's husband

Catherine Alexandrovna Levina (Kitty), Levin's wife, the

youngest daughter of Prince Shcherbatsky

Mitya, their infant son

Nicholas Levin, Kostya's brother

ANNA KARENINA: THE SHCHERBATSKY FAMILY

Prince Alexander Shcherbatsky, the father of Kitty, Dolly,

and Nataly

Princess Shcherbatskaya, the mother of Kitty, Dolly, and

Nataly

ANNA KARENINA: THE VRONSKY FAMILY

Count Alexey Kirilich Vronsky, Anna's lover

Countess Vronskaya, his mother

Princess Natalie Alexandrovna Lvova, Kitty and Dolly's

sister, who lives abroad

Prince Lvov (Arseny), her husband

Mary Nikolaevna (Masha), who lives with Levin's brother

Annushka, Anna's maid

Countess Lydia Ivanovna, Karenin's friend, a mystic Princess

Elizabeth Fedorovna Tverskaya (Betsy), a society lady who is

especially cruel to Anna

ANNA KARENINA: ANNA ARKADYEVNA KARENINA

Rarely in literature is a character so utterly ruined as Anna

Karenina. Beautiful and unaffected, she becomes deceptive,

jealous, and spiteful. The change in her will probably horrify

you, yet even when Anna is destructive she arouses your

compassion. In conflict with her mixed-up society, she has no

resources against the turmoil within her.

She fights a magnificently tough but losing battle. As you

will note, there are numerous angles from which to examine her

downfall.

1. ANNA IS FATALLY FLAWED.

Following this interpretation of Anna's ruin, readers

generally contrast her to Levin, the hero of the book. Levin

thirsts for spiritual enlightenment, while Anna seeks personal

happiness. Levin attains his goal, Anna does not. In her

quest, Anna does not think of others. Levin, on the other hand,

is obsessed with trying to establish peace and equilibrium

between himself and others.

Anna's quest is purely emotional, and by the end her reason

fails her. She is described as having 'an excess of feeling,' a

trait shared by many of the female characters in Tolstoy's

books. Levin is above all lucid, as are all of Tolstoy's

heroes. Tolstoy has often been criticized for endowing his

female characters with feelings that tend to overpower their

brains. Even Anna, arguably the most intelligent and

well-educated female character Tolstoy ever created, can't hold

on to her wits.

2. ANNA BETRAYS THE FUNCTIONS OF HER SEX.

Anna is seen in relief against two other female

characters--Dolly and Kitty. The primary function of sex,

believes Tolstoy, is to create children, not personal pleasure.

Both Dolly and Kitty are wives and mothers before all else.

Anna refuses to have children after she and Vronsky begin living

together. Not only does Anna refuse her societal role, but she

breaks the natural cycle of birth-life-death.

Dolly and Kitty both make meaningful lives for themselves,

Anna does not.

3. ANNA IS A VICTIM OF HER SOCIETY.

Following the custom of her social set, Anna's marriage to

Karenin was arranged by relatives. Love--which Anna needs and

desires before all else--was never a factor in this match.

There is no passion in her marriage with Karenin; their life

contributes to Anna's emotional delicacy because it suffocates

and frustrates her.

Adultery is accepted in Anna's social circle, so long as it

is carried on in the proper style. It is understood that most

husbands and wives have lovers, but they're expected to be

discreet. Anna finds this hypocritical, and Vronsky, madly in

love, makes no attempt to hide it either.

Yet her society has a strong hold on Anna. When Karenin asks

what will give her peace, she feels too guilty to say, 'To

divorce you, keep our son, and live with Vronsky.'

Although Anna and Vronsky retire to their own world, Anna is

again tripped up by convention. Her friends abandon her because

she is 'living in sin.' Vronsky, though, can go where he wishes.

Anna is enraged at the double standard. Loneliness drives her

nearly insane. Reeling from the brutal treatment of her former

friends, she's unable to believe in Vronsky's love. Where once

her love for him was passionate and tender, it becomes

possessive and vengeful. Pathologically insecure, Anna destroys

herself in order to spite Vronsky.

You could also say that neither Karenin nor Vronsky is a

perfect match for Anna, for both men, in different ways, are

products of their society. False and corrupt, such a society

could never produce a worthy man for a woman as intelligent and

honestly passionate as Anna.

Tolstoy made no secret of his contempt for city life and

'society.' Anna's death--which he based on a true incident--can

therefore be seen as his way of indicting the society that

destroyed her.

4. ANNA REPRESENTS THE CITY.

For Tolstoy, the city denotes alienation and corruption. He

believes that cities and urban values would ultimately destroy

Russia. As a woman of society, Anna embodies the sparkle,

sophistication and seductiveness--as well as the depravity--of

the city. By destroying her, Tolstoy scores a small victory in

his battle to save Russia.

5. ANNA REPRESENTS TOLSTOY'S DARK SIDE.

Like Anna, Tolstoy had an adulterous affair, with a peasant

woman on his estate. And, like Anna, he abandoned the child he

had with his extramarital lover.

Tolstoy felt terrible guilt over this affair. His death

sentence for Anna has been interpreted as a gesture of

self-loathing.

ANNA KARENINA: KONSTANTIN DMITRICH LEVIN

(KOSTYA)

Levin is the hero of Anna Karenina. In fact, some readers

believe Anna was created by Tolstoy primarily to point up

Levin's superiority. Where Anna maneuvers hysterically to

achieve the perfect romance, Levin strives to find coherence in

life and death, love and work. Anna is a portrait of

alienation; Levin finds harmony with those around him. In Anna,

you see the moral collapse of urban society; in Levin, you see

Tolstoy's hopes for the future of Russia.

Levin changes during the course of the novel. He achieves

harmony in several ways:

1. LOVE AND PASSION

Before he married, Levin had numerous sexual involvements,

all merely to satisfy his youthful lustiness. His love for

Kitty, however, is emotional and spiritual, as well as physical.

He is entirely faithful to his wife; for them, sex has a sacred

quality. In this, Levin contrasts with Stiva, who never finds

sexual happiness in marriage, and with Anna, who never finds

emotional security in her sexual relations.

2. LOVE AND WORK

Levin sometimes feels overwhelmed by his responsibilities as

a husband, father, landowner, and estate manager. Yet, by the

end of Anna Karenina, he realizes that his mission--working the

land, sharing the proceeds with his peasants--not only provides

him income but will provide his heirs with meaningful work and a

foothold in the future of Russia.

3. INTELLECTUAL AND PHYSICAL WORK

Tolstoy did not admire Russia's urban intellectuals who, he

felt, had no understanding of, or appreciation for, the

peasants, whom he considered the backbone of the country.

Levin, well-educated and himself an intellectual, finds deep

satisfaction in toiling side-by-side with the peasants. Levin's

book, which advances his (and Tolstoy's) belief that peasants

must be able to own land, represents a synthesis of physical and

mental labors.

4. CITY AND COUNTRY

At the beginning of the novel, Levin is terribly

uncomfortable in the city. At times, he seems even somewhat

boorish.

Kitty, though, is from the city and enjoys life there. When

they spend the winter in Moscow, Levin manages to make a life

for himself in the city. Under his young wife's beneficent

influence, he shows you more social grace and polish than you

would have imagined possible.

5. LIFE AND DEATH

Levin's greatest victory is arriving at a less panicky, more

accepting attitude toward death. In the early and middle part

of the novel, Levin can hardly bear to look at his dying

brother, let alone talk to him about his impending death. When

Levin isn't shutting the eventuality of death entirely from his

mind, he dwells on it morbidly. For a time, Levin believes that

death robs life of all meaning and that a God who permits death

must be evil.

In time--after his marriage, the death of his brother, and

the birth of his son--Levin realizes that life is a cycle, and

that death has its rightful place in that cycle.

6. ATHEISM AND FAITH

Levin's understanding that birth, life, and death form a

whole enables him to be open to the possibility of belief in

God.

ANNA KARENINA: COUNT ALEXEY KIRILICH VRONSKY

Vronsky is described (by Kitty's father) as 'a perfect

specimen of Saint Petersburg gilded youth.' He is an aristocrat,

a soldier, a horseman, and a womanizer. He has charm to burn,

polish to spare, and looks that comrades envy. In his time and

place, he is far from unusual. As Kitty's father puts it, men

like Vronsky 'are a dime a dozen.'

But Vronsky's affair with Anna Karenina sets him apart from

his peers. Many readers feel that Vronsky is the worst villain

in this story. Others feel that he is more limited than

corrupt, more baffled than cunning, more desperate than cruel.

As you read, you will have to come up with your own

assessment.

At the beginning of Anna Karenina, Vronsky leads Kitty on

with little thought for her feelings. He also gives the

stationmaster's wife 200 rubles just to impress Anna Karenina.

Neither of these incidents makes you think that Vronsky is very

deep. Perhaps the most damning event of all is the

steeplechase: Vronsky, distracted by the praise of the crowd,

makes a mistake that costs his horse her life.

On the other hand, Vronsky is not satisfied with a secretive

liaison with Anna. He wants to marry her and have a family

life. He gives up his dreams of being a career soldier in order

to be with Anna. He is more mature than Anna in terms of their

relationship.

Many readers criticize Vronsky for not insisting that Anna's

former friends include her in their activities--after all,

they're his friends, too. It may be that his sympathies are

limited. Society doesn't punish Vronsky the way it does Anna

for living with him. He is unable--because he doesn't

experience it himself--to appreciate Anna's pain. It may also

be that Vronsky needs some time to socialize by himself--Anna,

by this point, is extremely hard to live with. Yet in spite of

her jealousy, her temper, and her tears, Vronsky continues to

love Anna, is faithful to her, and does not consider leaving

her.

Vronsky is devastated by Anna's suicide. At the end, you see

him going off to fight the Turks on behalf of the Slavs. Some

readers say that he wants to do something with his life; others

that he is backing into an 'honorable' suicide.

ANNA KARENINA: PRINCE STEPAN ARKADYEVICH OBLONSKY

(STIVA)

'Everything was upset in the Oblonskys' house,' Tolstoy

writes at the beginning of Anna Karenina--and it's all because

of Stiva, Anna's brother. Dolly, Stiva's wife, has learned of

yet another of his love affairs, and this time she's threatening

divorce.

Stiva is charming and sentimental. He loves good food, good

wine, lively conversation, music, the theater, parties--and

women. Everyone likes Stiva, he is so much fun to have around.

And no one is a better host.

However, Stiva is also deceitful, and in certain ways cruel.

He never intended to be, and never is faithful to his wife, who

loves him. He can't help himself, and besides, he's only

behaving like most of the men he knows. Does he rate a plus or

a minus in your estimation?

The bane of Stiva's existence is money. Years of high living

have depleted his money, and now he's starting to use his wife's

inheritance to pay his gambling debts.

It has been said that Stiva is but a shallower version of

Anna. He lives by his passions, but nowhere nearly as intensely

as his sister.

Good-natured Stiva is Tolstoy's portrait of decadence,

hypocrisy, and self-indulgence. Still, he radiates charm.

ANNA KARENINA: PRINCESS CATHERINE ALEXANDROVNA

SHCHERBATSKY (KITTY)

Kitty finds her deepest happiness in being a wife and mother,

a role for women that Tolstoy favored. Absolutely clear about

her place, she brings harmony to her home and peace of mind to

her husband. She has an instinctive appreciation for the human

cycle--birth, life, death--and does not fear it. Though not

well-read, Kitty is very intelligent and extremely practical.

She has abiding faith and trust in the goodness of God.

ANNA KARENINA: PRINCESS DARYA ALEXANDROVNA

OBLONSKAYA (DOLLY)

Dolly is Kitty's sister, Stiva's wife, and Anna's

sister-in-law. She represents the long-suffering betrayed wife

and devoted mother. In many ways, Dolly is heroic. She makes

do with little money, she raises good children, she is, in

general, clear--though unhappy--about her lot in life. Her

husband's infidelities have robbed her of dignity, financial and

emotional security, and a sense of herself as an attractive

woman. Yet she carries on with almost no bitterness. In spite

of Stiva's failings, she loves and is true to him. You might

say that Dolly is a fool, but given the society she lives in,

she makes the best of her options (which are, anyway, very

few).

Dolly is also compassionate and a true friend. Although

everyone else avoids Anna, she visits her and remains her

friend.

Dolly devotes herself to those she loves, which makes her a

type of heroine according to Tolstoy. Many readers feel she

gets a raw deal in the novel.

ANNA KARENINA: ALEXEY ALEXANDROVICH KARENIN

Karenin is obsessed with appearances, with doing what is

'correct,' with order. He is very rational, and has hardly any

imagination. He's ponderous rather than passionate and is

frightened of strong emotions. By the end, Karenin is

pathetic.

He and Anna have a proper marriage. Their ways are regular

and their household is prosperous, but the sexual charge between

them is essentially dead. This is fine with Karenin--he doesn't

go in for romance. In fact, he married Anna, at the insistence

of Anna's aunt, after he had flirted with Anna at a ball. He

loves Anna, less because of the woman she is--he remains

indifferent to that aspect of conjugal intimacy--than because

she is simply his wife. Once married, Karenin plays the role of

husband completely. Unlike Stiva, he is faithful; Karenin obeys

every letter of the law.

When Karenin learns of Anna's affair with Vronsky, the only

demand he makes is that their life go on as usual, so that no

one might find out that anything is wrong in their home life.

He is concerned more with superficial honor than with his own or

his wife's happiness.

At what he believes is Anna's deathbed, Karenin undergoes a

sort of religious awakening. He vows to forgive her and

Vronsky, to give her anything she wants, so long as it brings

peace. But he's unable to fulfill the Christian ideal of

forgiveness--she's too egotistical. He tells himself he keeps

custody of his and Anna's son out of consideration for the boy.

Can you suggest another reason?

Karenin is as easily manipulated as he is manipulative. You

know that he was maneuvered into his marriage. And virtually

all his actions are dictated by the conventions of society. At

the end, having failed in his efforts to be a true Christian, he

is easy prey for Lydia Ivanovna, a mystic who uses her

'religion' as a way of keeping Karenin close to herself and an

enemy to Anna.

You might contrast Levin's religious awakening with

Karenin's. After his, Levin resolves to be more humane;

Karenin, however, is confirmed in his plans for vengeance.

ANNA KARENINA: SETTING

The setting of Anna Karenina shifts back and forth between

the city and the countryside. Tolstoy believed that the land

was Russia's most precious asset and that country life was the

truly Russian way of life. His use of setting in the novel is

closely tied to this theme.

In the city, Tolstoy shows you a shallow, hypocritical

drawing-room society made up mostly of idle aristocrats,

bureaucrats, and 'professional social gadflies.' Episodes that

contain the seeds of disaster, scenes of cruelty, and examples

of self-delusion and deceit take place in the city. Anna gives

in to Vronsky's charms in the city, where the two also first

make love; Karenin's fake fulfillment of the Christian ideal of

forgiveness happens at Anna's bedside in Saint Petersburg;

Anna's former friends ostracize her at the Saint Petersburg

opera house.

All the characters are affected negatively by city life.

Anna and Vronsky fight more in the city than in the country.

Kitty and Levin, too, are happier in the country than in the

city. Levin, usually so careful and thrifty, finds that he

overspends during the winter, when he and his family live in the

city.

Scenes of quite different character occur in the country,

where Levin, for example, creates a meaningful, enlightened life

with his family and farm workers. In the country, Levin has a

true spiritual illumination.

Tolstoy expresses his hope for the future of Russia in

Levin's new farming system and relationship with peasants. But

Tolstoy was afraid that urban priorities would destroy country

life and, in his view, Russia. In describing Stiva's sale of

his forest, Tolstoy depicts the ignorance that city people have

of the value of land. Tolstoy gives form to another of his

fears in writing of Stiva's management of a partnership between

banks and the railroads to develop train transportation all

through Russia. This plan would necessitate the destruction of

great tracts of fertile farm land.

In Anna Karenina, the train station is synonymous with

disaster. Anna and Vronsky first meet at a train station. Anna

has a recurring nightmare set in a train station, and she

commits suicide by throwing herself under a train. Our last

encounter with Vronsky is at a train station: he is departing

for the Slavonic war in Turkey, a cause Tolstoy opposed.

ANNA KARENINA: THEMES

'I will write a novel about a woman who commits adultery,'

Tolstoy reportedly said to his wife as he began Anna Karenina.

But his concerns were broader than that, and in telling Anna's

story, he touches on a number of important themes.

1. MARRIAGE

Many readers think Anna Karenina is the greatest novel about

marriage ever written. Tolstoy draws portraits of three

marriages: Dolly and Stiva's, Anna and Karenin's, Kitty and

Levin's, as well as Anna and Vronsky's domestic relationship.

All but Kitty and Levin are unhappy.

Stiva regards marriage as a social convention, something one

has to submit to. He would like Dolly to make as few emotional

demands upon him as possible; her job is to run the household,

supervise the education of the children, and make as much money

as possible available to him for his personal pleasure.

Outwardly, Anna and Karenin appear to have a happy home. But

appearances are deceiving; they have no romance or sexual

excitement between them. For Anna, their life is suffocatingly

predictable.

Anna and Vronsky's relationship fails for the opposite

reason: theirs is little more than a romantic entanglement in

which sex (for Anna, at any rate) is more important than

anything else.

The marriage of Kitty and Levin is typical of what Tolstoy

considered ideal. It is a voluntary, rather than arranged,

match between a man who is happy in his work and spiritually at

peace and a woman who feels that her purpose in life is to

devote herself to her family.

2. WOMAN'S ROLE

Some readers believe that Anna suffers because she betrays

the functions of her sex. Her life disintegrates because by

refusing to fulfill her 'proper' role in life, she clashes not

only with her husband, but also with her society and the man she

truly loves. Out of sync with the scheme of things, she's

unable to restrain her self-destructive impulses.

But there's another way to consider Anna's failure as a

woman. She refuses to have more children with Vronsky because

she fears that pregnancy, nursing, and the other

responsibilities of motherhood will lessen her sexual

attractiveness. For Vronsky, she wants to be constantly

beguiling and romantic--in short, an object of perennial

delight.

In Tolstoy's terms, this desire of Anna's denotes failure

because it places her outside the grand cycle of

birth-life-death. In twentieth--century feminist terms, Anna

fails on this score because she strives to be an object rather

than a person.

3. RELIGION

Tolstoy treats the theme of religion in much the same way

that he handles the theme of marriage--by using several

characters to embody particular viewpoints and experiences.

Kitty has an unquestioning faith in God and His goodness.

Death holds no horror for Kitty, since she believes that death

has not only a rightful place in the natural order, but a

higher, spiritual purpose as well.

Karenin tries hard to be a good Christian. After learning of

Anna's love affair with Vronsky, he strives to turn the other

cheek. But he cannot. What he really wants is to be

'virtuous,' in order to satisfy his ego rather than his soul.

Until the very end of the novel, Levin battles with his lack

of faith. His first struggles are with the fact of

death--which, he holds, doesn't allow for the possibility of the

existence of God. It is through Kitty, who knows how to care

for his dying brother, that Levin perceives that death may be

part of a benign, though mysterious, cycle.

Part VIII, Chapter 12 is when Levin has his final spiritual

illumination. After a talk with a peasant, Levin realizes that

we must live for 'what is good,' Goodness--because it is outside

cause and effect--is what Levin construes as God.

4. VENGEANCE

'Vengeance is mine; I will repay' is one of the most puzzling

epigraphs in world literature. Biblical in origin (from St.

Paul's letter to the Romans), the sentence in its entirety

reads, ''Vengeance is mine; I will repay,' saith the Lord.'

Karenin takes vengeance on Anna, Anna's former friends take

vengeance on her, and Anna takes vengeance on Vronsky.

But Tolstoy said he was concerned primarily with the

vengeance of God. He believes that God punishes those who live

only for themselves. And so Anna and Vronsky's passion for one

another becomes their torment and their doom.

5. RUSSIA

Anna Karenina is also a panoramic novel of Russia. Tolstoy

addresses himself to what he considered to be the crucial issues

in his nation.

A. City vs. Country

Tolstoy is convinced that city 'society' will ruin Russia.

He feels the backbone of Russia is the rural areas and

peasantry. Stiva, therefore, as the personification of urban

values is one of the villains in the novel. Levin, the

enlightened landowner, is the hero.

B. The Emancipation of the Serfs

Tolstoy favored the 1861 Emancipation. Before that, Russian

peasants were essentially slaves, bound to their landowners, not

all of whom, needless to say, treated them with the concern that

Levin (and Tolstoy) showed their serfs. When the Czar decreed

the serfs free in 1861, the peasants were permitted to own land,

to accumulate capital, to employ others, and to form local

governing bodies.

C. Industrialization

The 19th century was a time of rapid industrialization in

Europe. Tolstoy (and Levin) concluded--after a tour of

Europe--that Russia was not meant to be industrialized, that the

'gold-mine' of Russia is in the land, in farming.

Tolstoy held that Europe and Russia were vastly different,

not only in terms of their resources, but in temperament, soul,

and destiny, as well.

D. The Slavic Question

In 1875 (while Tolstoy was finishing the novel), the Slavs

living in the Ottoman Empire revolted against the discrimination

they had long suffered. Many Russians favored supporting the

Slavs and fought against the Turks. Stiva and Vronsky support

the campaign; Levin does not. Where do you think Tolstoy stood

on this question?

6. HARMONY

In Anna Karenina, the only happy characters are those who

strike a balance between the various demands made upon them, who

manage to resolve conflicts between themselves and those to whom

they are close, and between competing ambitions.

Think of Levin, Anna, and Stiva. Which character achieves

balance in his life?

7. ANNA AND LEVIN

The title of the novel bears the name of the heroine, but the

story belongs equally to the hero.

Tolstoy compares and contrasts Anna and Levin. Trace the

development of these two characters. Think about the ways they

are affected by the society in which they live, their goals, and

the obstacles they try to overcome.

ANNA KARENINA: STYLE

Henry James (whose novels are models of structural clarity

and symmetry) once referred to Tolstoy's War and Peace as a

'loose and baggy monster.' He might have said the same about

Anna Karenina, which, like War and Peace, is an epic, a sweeping

story on a grand scale. On the other hand, Anna Karenina is

more compact than War and Peace, and might be said to be a

psychological rather than a historical epic. It's easy to

imagine Tolstoy thinking of his novels much the way he thought

of Russia--as territories so vast their boundaries are out of

sight.

Tolstoy's epics are extremely realistic. They are filled

with precise physical details intended to convey to you an idea,

a mood, a feeling. Every time Karenin cracks his knuckles, for

example, you know he is nervous. When Anna screws up her eyes,

you know she is straining to see, trying to understand what is

happening either in front of or inside her. Kitty's 'truthful

eyes' are a window to her undeceiving nature. And Stiva's

frequent playing with his whiskers is an indication of his

vanity and self-centeredness.

Tolstoy's set pieces--minutely rendered, theatrically staged

sequences--by themselves would have guaranteed him a permanent

place in literature. Not only does he give you an indelible

picture of a specific incident but he intertwines the

advancement of plot, the development of character, and the

elaboration of major themes. Notable set pieces in Anna

Karenina include Kitty and Levin's wedding, the steeplechase,

the harvest, and the hunt.

Symbolism and foreshadowing are also important techniques;

Tolstoy often uses them together. A symbol is something that

stands for something else. Tolstoy often uses a stormy sky to

symbolize--or represent--the turmoil in Levin's soul. One event

is said to foreshadow another if it gives a hint of what is to

happen later. For example, Vronsky's killing his horse in the

steeplechase foreshadows his responsibility in Anna's death

later on. It also symbolizes Vronsky's careless egotism. The

train station is a symbol of disaster. Anna's recurring dream

set in a train station foretells--or foreshadows--that she will

die in such a place.

Tolstoy did not go in for fancy language. What he wanted,

above all, was to communicate directly to his readers, and he

does so through fine observations presented in vivid, precise

language.

The translation considered the closest to Tolstoy's style is

that of Aylmer Maude (1918; revised 1938). In 1901, Constance

Garnett, the renowned translator of Dostoevsky and other Russian

writers, did an English version of Anna Karenina. Garnett's

translation is a more old--fashioned reading than Maude's.

Compare the following passages from Part VII, Chapter 23:

In order to carry through any undertaking in family life,

there must necessarily be either complete division between the

husband and wife, or loving agreement. When the relations of a

couple are vacillating and neither one thing nor the other, no

sort of enterprise can be undertaken.

(Garnett)

Before any definite step can be taken in a household, there

must be either complete division or loving accord between

husband and wife. When their relations are indefinite it is

impossible for them to make any move.

(Maude)

Another comparison, from Part I, Chapter 22, will show

further the difference between the two translations:

It was one of Kitty's happy days. Her dress did not feel

tight anywhere, the lace around her bodice did not slip, the

bows did not crumple or come off, the pink shoes with their high

curved heels did not pinch but seemed to make her feet lighter.

The thick rolls of fair hair kept up as if they had grown

naturally on the little head. All three buttons on each of her

long gloves, which fitted without changing the shape of her

hand, fastened without coming off. The black velvet ribbon of

her locket clasped her neck with unusual softness. The ribbon

was charming, and when Kitty had looked at her neck in the glass

at home, she felt that that ribbon was eloquent.

(Maude)

It was one of Kitty's best days. Her dress was not

uncomfortable anywhere; her lace berthe did not droop anywhere;

her rosettes were not crushed nor torn off, her pink slippers

with high, hollowed-out heels did not pinch, but gladdened her

feet; and the thick rolls of fair chignon kept up on her head as

if they were her own hair. All the three buttons buttoned up

without tearing on the long glove that covered her hand without

concealing its lines. The black velvet of her locket nestled

with special softness round her neck. That velvet was

delicious; at home, looking at her neck in the looking-glass,

Kitty had felt that the velvet was speaking.

(Garnett)

Again, Garnett's version is a bit dated--we don't refer to

'berthes' any longer, nor do we say that shoes 'gladden' our

feet. But note an interesting difference, less to do with

language than with perception. Garnett, a woman, imagines more

fully the feel of the velvet locket on her neck; she sees it as

speaking to the wearer. According to Maude, a man, the locket

speaks to Kitty's admirers.

Look through both translations. Maude's is said to come

closer to Tolstoy's vigor. Yet, keep in mind that Garnett was

one of the earliest major English language translators of

Russian literature. All translations done after hers owe her

some debt.

ANNA KARENINA: POINT OF VIEW

Tolstoy uses an omniscient, or all-knowing, narrator. This

means that the governing point of view in Anna Karenina is

Tolstoy's. Tolstoy was always forthright about the fact that he

was a moralist. He does not just depict the world in his

novels, he passes judgment on it as well.

Tolstoy expresses his own viewpoint, and manipulates ours,

through his characters. His hero, Levin, is essentially a

mouthpiece for him. Anna, although she has many traits that

Tolstoy admired, went against Tolstoy's moral code, and so he

had to destroy her. Karenin, who represents a type of person

Tolstoy detested, is the obvious villain in the story.

Through the device of the interior monologue, Tolstoy

describes in detail the thoughts of some of his characters. For

example, Anna's carriage ride to the train station where she

commits suicide is told through Anna's eyes, and the ball at

which she steals Vronsky's heart is told through Kitty's eyes.

By occasionally shifting points of view, Tolstoy heightens the

drama of the story.

ANNA KARENINA: FORM AND STRUCTURE

The structure of Anna Karenina is based on the major

characters and what happens to them. The two principal stories

in the book are Anna's and Levin's. A third plot element is the

domestic and financial saga of the Oblonskys. Kitty's time at

the German spa--during which she comes to terms with her true

feelings for Levin--also gets lengthy treatment. Tolstoy shifts

back and forth between these stories, telling each

chronologically.

The novel is divided into Books I and II; each Book is

divided into four Parts. (Book I contains Parts I-IV; Book II,

Parts V-VIII.) The turning points for Anna and Levin--Anna's

leaving Karenin to live with Vronsky and Levin's becoming

engaged to Kitty--take place at the close of Book I.

The last section of the novel--Book II, Part VIII--deals with

the Russian involvement in the war between the Turks and Slavs.

Tolstoy's intention in this part was to reunite his characters'

stories with the story of Russia. The Turkish War was going on

in 1875-76, when Tolstoy was completing the novel. Tolstoy

wrote this chapter to underscore the relevance of Anna Karenina

and to present his readers with urgent questions regarding their

day-to-day lives.

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK I, PART I

Anna Karenina gets off to a fast start, opening with a

full-scale domestic crisis: Dolly has learned that Stiva is

having an affair with their French governess, and is threatening

divorce. Anna Karenina, Stiva's sister, comes for a visit and

convinces Dolly to make up with Stiva. Konstantin Levin, an old

friend of Stiva's, arrives in Moscow to propose marriage to

Kitty Shcherbatsky, Dolly's younger sister. Kitty, a young

woman who has just made her debut in society, refuses Levin, as

she believes she's in love with the dashing Count Vronsky.

Upon meeting Anna, Kitty is impressed with her glamour,

charm, and apparent kindness. But Anna steals Vronsky's

heart.

By the end of Part I, Stiva and Dolly have achieved a shaky

balance in their troubled family life: Levin is heartbroken

over Kitty, Kitty is heartbroken over Vronsky, and Anna is torn

between her passion for the young count and her obligations to

her husband and son. If by then you feel a little breathless,

don't worry; you will have covered a lot of ground.

NOTE: The epigraph--'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay'--is

from the Bible, specifically from Romans 12:19. In a letter to

Vikenti Vikentevich Veresaev, writer, physician, and friend of

Tolstoy, Tolstoy wrote: 'I chose that epigraph in order to

explain the idea that the bad things man does have as their

consequence all the bitter things, which come not from people,

but from God, and that is what Anna Karenina herself

experienced.'

Keep this in mind as you read the novel, especially toward

the end.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-VI

The first line of Anna Karenina is one of the most celebrated

in world literature: 'All happy families resemble one another,

but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.' Not only

does the line lead you directly to the crisis at hand (Dolly and

Stiva's), but it sets up the premise that Tolstoy will use in

developing his story. The essence of the novel is the central

characters in their respective relationships--Stiva and Dolly,

Anna and Karenin, Anna and Vronsky.

You learn a lot about Stiva in these first chapters. Despite

the havoc he has wreaked on his household, he wakes up at his

usual time after a pleasant dream about the high life--wine,

women and song. It isn't until he realizes that his dressing

gown is not in its usual place that he remembers he hasn't slept

with his wife, but was banished to a couch in his study. Stiva

doesn't regret his affair (there have been many of those); he

regrets having got caught.

NOTE: Tolstoy presents Stiva's morning routine in great

detail. Tolstoy, a major realist writer, gives you a wealth of

seemingly insignificant tidbits about his characters' habits,

tendencies, and mannerisms.

At times you may feel bogged down with information, but bear

in mind that the details add up to give you a concrete picture

of the world inside the novel. Tolstoy's exactitude makes the

story that much more searing because you get an almost

photographic image of the characters, which makes it easy to

identify with them.

How closely Tolstoy must have watched those around him!

Let's tally the details that Tolstoy gives us about Stiva's

morning habits and see what they add up to. Stiva plunges

himself into his activities in order to forget his troubles.

This tells you he's not a particularly reflective person who

tries hard to avoid feeling guilty even when he's in the wrong.

He reads a Liberal newspaper. Unlike the Conservatives, who

emphasize the importance of organized religion and close family

life, the Liberals hold that religion distracts one from the fun

to be had in this life (as opposed to the afterlife) and that

marriage is an outmoded institution. Tolstoy was a

Conservative; by telling you that Stiva reads a Liberal

newspaper--a seemingly small detail--Tolstoy is letting you know

that Stiva figures as a villain in the novel.

A widow drops by to ask Stiva's help with a petition she's

submitting to a government agency. This should alert you to the

fact that Stiva is in a position of power. Though he doesn't

care about the widow and her problem, Stiva helps her because he

likes appearing powerful and wants others to think well of him.

You also get the impression that in Tolstoy's Russia connections

are vital if you need a government agency to act on your behalf.

Through careful placement of telling details, Tolstoy has given

you not only a vivid portrait of Stiva, but a good look at his

society as well.

Tolstoy digresses to give you a bit of Stiva's history.

Though Stiva had not done well at school (he was lazy and

mischievous) he nonetheless has a distinguished government

career. This is partly because he had good connections, and

partly because he is so little interested in his work that he

keeps a valuable objectivity on office matters.

NOTE: Tolstoy is making a comment here on government

agencies and bureaucracy in general, and city life in

particular. To Tolstoy, Stiva represents the worst of both

environments: He hasn't really earned what he has, and his

progress is due more to lack of interest than to devotion.

How do you think Stiva would fare in today's government

bureaucracy or corporate world?

It nearly slips his mind, but on his way out of the house

Stiva does remember to apologize to Dolly. Dolly breaks down,

infuriated and humiliated by Stiva's pity. She wants--and

realizes she will never have--his love.

NOTE: THE 'FRENCH MARRIAGE' The type of marriage that Dolly

and Stiva have was not unusual in Tolstoy's time. Many

marriages were arranged in order to enhance both families'

financial and social position. Romance was not considered a

major ingredient in these marriages, and husbands and wives

frequently had lovers on the side. In fact, it was not uncommon

for a man to provide his mistress with an apartment, wardrobe,

spending money, and so forth. This type of marriage is

sometimes called a 'French marriage,' as arranged marriages were

the rule in court society of 18th--and 19th-century France. The

Russian nobility often modeled their conduct and social

practices after the French. You might want to read the novels

of Honore de Balzac, particularly La Cousine Bette (1846), for a

detailed treatment of the 'French marriage.'

Although spouses were not expected to be true to one another,

they were expected to be discreet in carrying on their

extramarital affairs. Later in the novel Anna gets into trouble

because she flaunts her affair with Vronsky, refusing to play by

rules she considers hypocritical.

What do you think of the concept of a 'French marriage?'

Think about the ways this sort of marriage affects both sexes.

Pay special attention to the difference in men's and women's

roles as exemplified by the Oblonsky marriage. And think about

the pain that is caused if one partner does not want a 'French

marriage.' This will figure prominently as the story unfolds.

Levin arrives to see Stiva. This is your first encounter

with the hero of the novel. Notice the contrast between Stiva

and Levin. Stiva is the epitome of urbane charm; Levin seems a

bit bumbling in comparison. Tolstoy, who distrusted city

slickers, introduces here his theme on the values of country

life vs. city life. Contrast Levin's seriousness about

marriage with Stiva's attitude: this, too, lets you know that

Tolstoy favors Levin.

NOTE: As he thinks about Kitty, Levin recalls that the

Shcherbatsky family always had a French governess (as do the

Oblonskys) and that Kitty and her sisters were required to speak

French fluently. This was not unusual in upper-class families

in Tolstoy's time. A thorough knowledge of French was a status

symbol.

Tolstoy, though he spoke French, resented this snobbery. He

was Russian through and through, and was proud of it. You'll

see that he sometimes inserts French words into his characters'

dialogue. He does this so their speech will be realistic.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS VII-XI

Tolstoy introduces two important themes: the insufficiency

of a purely intellectual approach to life, and Russian politics.

As he often does, Tolstoy has two characters--in this case,

Levin and Sergius--argue the issues raised by his themes.

While in Moscow, Levin stays with his half-brother, Sergius

Ivanich Koznyshev (Sergey), a well-known intellectual and

writer. The two men rarely talk of personal matters; when they

meet they invariably argue over politics and philosophy. This

time it's no different. Levin tells Sergey that he's no longer

a member of the zemstvo (local council). Sergey criticizes

Levin for having quit.

NOTE: THE ZEMSTVOS In Tolstoy's time, Russia had a

centralized government headed by the Czar. The zemstvos were

local councils made up primarily of landowners. The zemstvos

tried to take care of problems such as grain storage and

relations between landowners and peasants, on a local level. On

matters that had to be decided at the national level, the

zemstvos would make recommendations in the hope that the higher

government agencies would accept their suggestions.

The zemstvos were relatively new in Tolstoy's time. Levin

(and Tolstoy) had reservations about the zemstvos because

peasants were not nearly as well represented as wealthy

landowners and because they feared that the landowners would try

to use the zemstvos to take advantage of the peasants, who had

virtually no education or prior political experience.

You learn that Levin's brother Nicholas has been seriously

ill with tuberculosis (often called consumption in the novel).

Levin gets so depressed when he thinks of Nicholas that he tries

to put him out of his thoughts for the time being. At this

point Levin can't deal with the idea of death. Coming to terms

with death in general and Nicholas' death in particular will be

one of Levin's major struggles in the novel. The first order of

business, he feels, is to propose to Kitty.

Levin goes to the skating rink to meet Kitty, who is there

with her family. He shows off, trying to impress her with his

skating finesse. Kitty feels anew her fondness for Levin, but

believes she's in love with Vronsky, a society man. Kitty's

mother favors Vronsky as a match for Kitty, and though Princess

Shcherbatsky invites Levin to their home, she does so rather

coldly. Poor Levin's more nervous than ever.

Levin and Stiva dine at a restaurant of Stiva's choosing--the

Angleterre (French for 'England')--to which Stiva is in debt.

This is the first mention of Stiva's increasingly serious

financial problems.

Again Tolstoy makes a point of contrasting the two men.

Stiva is a picture of elegance and polish and is relaxed in posh

surroundings. Levin feels like a bull in a china shop. But he

also feels somewhat scornful of finery for the sake of finery

and anything that seems to him to have a shallow emphasis on

appearance.

Take note that Stiva refuses to speak French with the waiter.

As you know, knowledge of French was a sign of being upper

class; Stiva refuses to grant the waiter this bit of social

status. Would you have expected Stiva to be such a snob?

Levin and Stiva talk about women. Levin admits that he feels

guilty over having 'sowed his wild oats' as a youth and fears

that he is now unworthy of Kitty. He wants not only Kitty's

love, but her forgiveness, too.

NOTE: Levin is struggling with a matter that preoccupied

Tolstoy. Tolstoy, too, sought sanctity in marriage--after

having played around a lot as a young man--and had an

extramarital affair (just before writing Anna Karenina) of which

he was greatly ashamed. Levin represents one side of Tolstoy's

inner conflict, Anna the other.

Stiva describes Vronsky in glowing terms: he's a first-rate

fellow, a good horseman, clever, slated for success. (Take note

of the qualities Stiva admires. They do not square with

Tolstoy's criteria.) Nonetheless, Stiva is on Levin's side, and

advises him to propose to Kitty the next day, in the classic

manner.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XII-XV

Tolstoy begins this section by emphasizing Kitty's youth and

her surprising success in her first season in society. She'd

had not only two serious suitors (Levin and Vronsky) but flocks

of admirers as well.

Levin's arrival on the scene and his obviously serious

intentions spark some arguments between Kitty's parents. Prince

Shcherbatsky favors Levin, finding him solid, forthright, and

sincere in his love. The princess favors Vronsky--handsome,

dashing, polished. She finds Levin awkward, overly critical of

city life, too countrified.

Tolstoy uses the quarrel between the Shcherbatskys to

highlight a dilemma of the time. In accordance with tradition,

the marriage between the prince and princess had been arranged

by relatives. But times have changed. The princess honestly

doesn't know how marriages come about now. The French--and old

Russian--way of deciding marriages for young people was out of

favor. The English way--letting young people decide entirely

for themselves--frightens the princess; anyway, it too is

frowned upon in Russian society. The princess realizes that it

has to be a mixture of free choice and guidance and is left

feeling uncertain about what her role as Kitty's mother should

be.

Weighing on both the prince and the princess is Dolly's

situation. Oblonsky, too, had been an 'ideal match,' but he's

making Dolly miserable. The prince fears that Vronsky may be

cut from the same cloth as Oblonsky.

The next day when Levin proposes, Kitty tells him it's

'impossible.' She's unable to tell Levin what her feelings are,

for she doesn't know. Upon hearing his proposal, she was

'filled with rapture.' But it lasted for only a moment. Then

thoughts of Vronsky crowded their way into her mind.

Levin tries to leave the Shcherbatsky's home, but is

prevented from doing so by the entrance of Kitty's mother.

Every minute of the evening is torture for Levin. One of

Kitty's friends, Countess Nordston, dislikes Levin and makes a

point of picking on him. When Vronsky arrives, Levin feels just

about finished off; he doesn't wonder that Kitty prefers the

handsome, socially graceful young officer.

NOTE: Tolstoy makes the point--through the prince--that

women are incapable of recognizing serious intentions in a

suitor. The prince says that a marriage between Kitty and

Vronsky would spell trouble.

Do you agree that men are more perceptive in this regard?

Doesn't this seem a bit at odds with Tolstoy's feeling that

women are essentially domestic, in tune with things pertaining

to hearth and home?

Tolstoy makes another point in this section. First he

establishes that Countess Nordston is shallow and nasty; then he

has her criticize life in the country for being dull. This is

one of Tolstoy's favorite devices: he picks a character whom he

dislikes and has that person express opinions counter to his

own.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XVI-XXII

Tolstoy gives you a chance to become acquainted with Vronsky

in Chapter XVI through a mixture of biographical detail and

interior monologue. You learn that Vronsky had no family life

as a child, that his mother was a famous socialite and femme

fatale. Vronsky still has a troubled relationship with his

mother: He doesn't respect her loose way of life and he resents

that she meddles in his life. Though Vronsky's mother is a

minor character in the novel, her relations with Vronsky will

have an important effect on the plot.

You also learn that Vronsky doesn't realize he is trifling

with Kitty in a way that could seriously hurt her feelings or

damage her reputation. He's young and self-centered, and is too

busy enjoying himself to worry about anything. Yet, he's

beginning to grow tired of the sort of night life that so

enchants Stiva.

Keep these thoughts in mind as the novel progresses and

Vronsky's situation becomes more and more complex. His views on

domesticity will change in ways that might surprise you.

You meet Anna for the first time in Chapter XVIII. In the

first chapter Tolstoy let you know that the prospect of Anna's

visit gladdened Stiva because he knew her presence would change

things. Indeed it does--every character in the novel is

affected.

Vronsky is the first major character to see Anna. He goes to

the train station to meet his mother, who introduces him to her

compartment mate, Anna Karenina. At this point Vronsky's mother

likes Anna but this will change. Vronsky is immediately smitten

with Anna. He notices immediately an 'excess of vitality' that

'betrays itself against her will.' Anna's inner light shone,

'despite of herself in her faint smile.' Tolstoy has carefully

prepared the entrance of his heroine. You're in suspense

because Dolly and Stiva's situation is unresolved; like Stiva,

you're expecting Anna to fix things up between them. Perhaps

you've been expecting Anna to be practical, perceptive--the

perfect go-between. Now that you've met her, you're aware that

she's a somewhat mysterious woman of captivating beauty. Are

you wondering why she has come to Moscow? It seems she's

arriving on short notice; perhaps she's impulsive, perhaps she's

running away from something. There's more here than meets the

eye--think about it as you watch Anna operate over the course of

the novel.

Just as you're getting caught up in the bustling atmosphere

of the train station and being swept along by Vronsky's sudden

passion for Anna, Tolstoy pulls the rug out from under you.

There is an accident--the stationmaster has either fallen or

thrown himself beneath a train. To impress Anna, Vronsky gives

the stationmaster's widow two hundred rubles. To Anna, the

accident--and Vronsky's gesture--is a bad omen.

NOTE: FORESHADOWING Pay attention to the physical

description of Anna in this chapter. Her 'excess of vitality'

will prove to be integral to her demise.

The stationmaster's death functions in two ways. It has

immediate dramatic impact because it is unexpected, like a bolt

from the blue. The accident immediately casts a pall on Anna

and Vronsky's meeting; from the beginning the two have a

connection in death. This incident will resonate through the

rest of the novel. The stationmaster's death foreshadows Anna's

death later on. The old man--or someone very much like

him--will haunt Anna in a recurring nightmare that she

interprets as foretelling her death.

Two interesting character quirks are described: Vronsky

seems less than sincere in giving the widow money. (Be on the

lookout for other such indications of egotism in Vronsky.) And

Stiva tells Anna the family is hoping that Vronsky will marry

Kitty. Remember that earlier Stiva had encouraged Levin. After

you've gotten to know Stiva better think back to this chapter

and try to answer the following questions: Was Stiva lying to

Levin? Is he lying now? Or does he always back the most likely

winner?

Stiva takes Anna to his and Dolly's home. On the way he

tells her his troubles. It's understood that she'll help him.

Dolly receives Anna in her bedroom, where she is surrounded

by her children. Anna's nieces and nephews are drawn to her and

she to them. Keep this in mind as the novel progresses: Anna's

relationship with children is a sort of weathervane of her

mental state.

Anna convinces Dolly to forgive Stiva. Here, Anna is a model

of canniness and acuity. She guesses accurately what will most

touch Dolly and lays it on thick. She waxes eloquent about

Stiva's feelings of shame and humiliation (Do you remember any

such thing?), and emphasizes that Stiva loves Dolly more than

anything in the world. Anna tells Dolly that when Stiva first

fell in love with her, he associated her with poetry and high

ideals (this may or may not be true). To finish it off, Anna

says that if she were in Dolly's place she would forgive and

forget Stiva's offense.

Notice how brilliantly manipulative Anna can be. Do you

admire that trait? Does it make you uneasy?

While Dolly and Stiva make up with one another, Anna visits

Kitty. Kitty is impressed with Anna, immediately feels close to

her and confides in her. Tolstoy created Anna and Kitty as

opposites; contrast them as you learn more about each one.

Kitty tells Anna about an upcoming ball and her hopes for a

romance with Vronsky. Kitty--innocently or naively--would like

Anna to be there to share in her happiness. She says she

imagines Anna 'in lilac.'

Anna wears black to the ball, a color that points up her

sophistication and sensuality. Vronsky all but ignores Kitty

and can't take his eyes off Anna. Kitty can see that Anna is

exhilarated by her own attractiveness and the effect it has on

Vronsky. Kitty decides that there is 'something strange,

satanic, and enchanting' about Anna. What do you think of this

observation? Should Anna, as an older woman, be mindful of the

pain she's causing Kitty?

NOTE: Although Anna is trying to keep Vronsky at arm's

length, Tolstoy's descriptions give her away. Her hair is

disarranged, her eyes are sparkling, her voluptuous arms are

adorned with bracelets. Tolstoy tells you there is something

'terrible and cruel in her charm.' What he means is that there

is something very sexual in her charm. Tolstoy was ill at ease

with blatant sexuality, especially in women. Pay attention to

such descriptions--they usually foreshadow trouble.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXIV-XXVII

These chapters concern Levin, who's extremely depressed over

Kitty's rejection.

He goes to visit his brother Nicholas. Levin feels heartsick

remembering the tumult and outright violence of much of

Nicholas' life, because he knows that deep down Nicholas is no

worse than any other person. But sickness and poverty have

always dogged him, and he has rarely known peace. (Note that

Tolstoy uses Levin's interior monologue to tell you about

Nicholas and about the brothers' complex relationship.)

Levin finds Nicholas very ill and living with Masha, his

common-law wife. Levin told Stiva he had a horror of 'fallen

women,' but he's kind to Masha, and sees that she takes good

care of Nicholas. Levin is often harsher in his judgments than

in his actions. He asks Nicholas and Masha to come stay with

him.

The next day Levin goes home to the country, vowing to forget

his hopes for marriage and never again to let himself be swept

away by passion.

Levin had to leave Moscow in order to start putting his life

back together. Although his hopes for marriage with Kitty are

dashed, he shores up other aspects of his life: He gets his

farm running well, and he strengthens his relations with

Nicholas.

The awkwardness that afflicted Levin in the city is gone when

he's at home. In what other ways does Levin seem changed? And

what is Tolstoy telling you through these changes in Levin?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXVIII-XXXIII

These chapters deal with Anna and her husband Karenin.

Anna decides abruptly to leave Moscow and return to Saint

Petersburg. She confesses to Dolly that she ruined the ball for

Kitty. When Dolly makes light of it, Anna insists that she was

wrong but then defends herself by saying that it wasn't really

her fault. Dolly comments that Anna, in denying blame, spoke

the way Stiva would have. What does this tell you? You already

know that Stiva lies regularly.

Anna herself knows she's lying. She knows she's running away

from Vronsky and her attraction to him. On the train home,

she's nearly delirious with shame. At a station stop, she gets

out for a breath of air. There is a man hammering at the side

of the tracks--this hammering will be part of the recurring

nightmare that foretells her death. Again Vronsky is part of

the scene--he is following her to Moscow against her wishes.

When Anna sees her husband at the Saint Petersburg station,

her first thought is that his ears stick out in an absurd way.

At this point, Anna is not consciously blaming Karenin for her

unhappiness. She blames herself for not appreciating her

husband's devotion. Try to isolate the turning points in Anna's

realization that she must leave Karenin. Nothing yet has really

happened between Anna and Vronsky, yet Tolstoy has managed to

inject a lot of excitement into each of their brief meetings.

One of the ways he does this is by casting an atmosphere of

impending doom for Anna and the count. Another is his use of

surprise: earlier, neither you nor Vronsky were expecting to

see Anna just then; in this chapter, neither Anna nor you were

expecting to see Vronsky. Tolstoy also communicates that Anna

and Vronsky are obsessed with one another; obsessions generally

lead to tragic ends. What else has you on the edge of your

seat?

Anna has the same sinking feeling upon seeing her son

Seriozha. He's not as nice as she remembered him. This is

important. It not only tells you that her life pales in

comparison to the excitement she felt with Vronsky, but it's the

first loosening of her ties with her family.

Yet get a glimpse of Karenin's habits. He's extremely busy,

and although his wife has been away, he makes no special

arrangements to spend time with her. Tolstoy takes pains to

tell that there's not a trace of the animation about Anna that

was evident in Moscow.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTER XXXIV

In this chapter, you see Vronsky in his habitual

surroundings. (What a contrast to Karenin!) Vronsky seems

ordinary here; like any other young man who is feeling his oats,

he is full of youth and good health, and is enjoying a carefree

life. It's interesting that Tolstoy should end this part by

returning Anna and Vronsky to their normal surroundings. If you

go by appearances, everything is just as it always is. What do

you think Tolstoy means to accomplish by this?

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK I, PART II

The second part of Anna Karenina is gloomy. Kitty falls ill

after being rejected by Vronsky and goes to a German spa to

recover. Her ailment is more emotional than physical, and her

struggle demands soul-searching rather than medical attention.

Anna consummates her love for Vronsky, and the two begin a

torrid affair. When Anna confesses to Karenin, she is pregnant

with Vronsky's child.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-III

In these chapters you see how the members of the Shcherbatsky

family are, each in their own way, affected, confused, and

sometimes hurt by their society's courtship and marriage

customs.

The family is in a tizzy over Kitty's illness. They summon

doctors, each more prominent than the last, to examine her, but

none can find anything physically wrong with her. To appease

her mother, Kitty pretends to look forward to the trip to the

spa recommended by the doctors.

Dolly comes to visit, although she has troubles of her own.

Stiva is rarely at home, several of her children have scarlet

fever, and their finances are shaky. Kitty confides to Dolly

that she knows now she really loves Levin. So upset is Kitty

that she turns her anger against Dolly, harshly criticizing her

for putting up with Stiva. Kitty also says that she resents her

parents' trying to marry her off, that when she goes to balls

she feels like a piece of meat out for inspection. She says she

feels comfortable only with children and goes home with Dolly to

take care of her nieces and nephews.

NOTE: SOCIAL CHANGE IN RUSSIA At the time Anna Karenina is

set, Russian society was on the brink of change. Marriage

customs are often a good weathervane for a society--when these

customs are in flux, usually other changes are in the wind. For

example, at the time of the marriage of the Prince and Princess,

all matches were arranged. This meant that young people married

those in their parents' social and economic set. With young

people freer to make their own choices, marriages between people

of different background became possible.

You see through the Shcherbatsky family the way in which

these changes sometimes confused people. The Princess doesn't

know what her role as Kitty's mother is now that Kitty can

decide for herself whom to marry. She is torn among wanting to

protect her daughter, wanting to show respect for Kitty's

judgment, and her attachments to the old ways of doing things.

The Prince is suspicious of the newly risen class of merchants.

He is old nobility and it bothers him to think that a young

person may marry a person of a different class.

Kitty is overwhelmed by her first season in society. Dating

and balls are new to her, and so are the attentions of young

men. Her inexperience kept her from realizing that she loved

Levin.

If you were in Kitty's place, how would you feel about your

mother? Given the conventions of the time, what courses of

action would be open to you? Remember, you have the support of

your father in this case.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS IV-XI

These chapters plunge us into Moscow society.

Tolstoy begins by simply describing the three major social

circles. The highest, consisting of government officials, is

the set to which Karenin belongs. The next is 'run' by the

Countess Lydia Ivanovna and is made up mostly of rather plain,

elderly rich women and ambitious men of a scholarly turn of

mind. The third circle is the one that consists of balls,

dinner parties, opera excursions, and the like. This glittering

set is 'led' by the Princess Betsy Tverskaya. All these

circles, of course, overlap, and there are rivalries between

them.

Keep your eye on Princess Betsy; she's a villain. Tolstoy

takes this opportunity to make her appear silly. She's at the

opera to see a famous soprano, although, as your narrator puts

it, she wouldn't know the difference between the diva's voice

and that of a chorus girl. She doesn't even stay until the end

but goes home to powder her nose before her guests arrive.

Conversation in Princess Betsy's drawing room is shallow. No

one seems to know what she is talking about, lots of names are

dropped, gossip is exchanged, jokes are made at others' expense.

Anna and Karenin are for a time the topic of discussion. Some

make the observation that Anna is much changed since her visit

to Moscow. Everyone knows that she and Vronsky are interested

in each other.

NOTE: Of course, everyone speaks French at Princess Betsy's.

Karenin, upon entering the drawing room, says to his hostess,

'Your Hotel Rambouillet is in full muster.' Karenin is referring

to La Marquise de Rambouillet (1588-1665), the Parisian

noblewoman who had the first literary salon. Her gatherings of

writers and artists had considerable influence on the cultural

scene of the day and established in France the tradition of

salons. The last great era for literary salons in Paris was the

1920s and 1930s when Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott

Fitzgerald, James Joyce, and other writers, painters, and

composers gathered at the homes of such people as the American

writer Gertrude Stein.

Later in the evening, Anna and Vronsky, having arrived

separately, are at Princess Betsy's. Karenin notices his wife

talking with the young count and sees nothing wrong in their

conduct. But his friends are beginning to talk, and this

bothers him.

Karenin leaves early to mull over the conversation he would

like to have with Anna. But it's hard for him. Never before

has he tried to put himself in Anna's place, to imagine what she

feels. He honestly believes he has been a model husband. He

can't fathom that Anna might love someone else. He decides to

explain it to Anna from two points of view. First, he will

emphasize the importance of public opinion (the last thing he

wants is a scandal); second, he will bring up the religious

aspects of marriage. If need be, he decides, he will mention

the harm that an extramarital affair would bring to their son;

and he will finish by mentioning the unhappiness that such an

affair would cause Anna herself.

Karenin lays it out clearly and logically. Knowing Anna as

you do, do you think she'll be swayed by those arguments? You

know Karenin is nervous and unsure, for he cracks his knuckles.

What justifications can you find for Karenin's attitude? Do you

have sympathy for Karenin at this point?

Karenin tries to talk with Anna, but his attempt doesn't go

well. Anna pretends that nothing is wrong, but inside she is

seething. She believes her husband knows nothing about love.

Since her return from Saint Petersburg, Anna's feelings toward

her husband have changed. She no longer blames herself; she

blames him for her dissatisfactions. What do you think about

this?

The scene shifts to Anna's 'other life.' By now, Vronsky has

pursued Anna for a year. Finally, they consummate their love,

But theirs is no joyful tryst--afterward Anna feels ashamed, and

literally falls at Vronsky's feet, begging forgiveness. What a

strange reaction, you may well be thinking. Vronsky has wanted

Anna ever since he saw her, and now she's apologizing to him.

Have you ever felt so guilty about something you did that you

felt as though you'd wronged the entire world? Anna feels that

way now. For his part, Vronsky feels 'like a murderer,' that

'the body he deprived of life was their love.' He feels that

'the body must be cut in pieces and hidden away, and he must

make use of what he has obtained by the murder.' Both realize

they have entered a new existence, but neither is able to think

clearly about it yet.

Tolstoy associates sexual passion with the dark feelings that

lead to crimes. Do you think that Anna and Vronsky have done

something wrong?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XII-XVII

These chapters tell you a lot about Levin and his life as the

owner of a large country estate.

Although several months have passed since his proposal to

Kitty, he is still miserable over his rejection. But his farm

takes up most of his time and attention and he is satisfied with

this diversion. The descriptions of the weather and countryside

are lush in these chapters, and are a good indication that Levin

spends a lot of his time drinking in the beauty of his

surroundings--a far cry from life in the city!

You learn that Levin is writing a book on agriculture. It's

a revolutionary book because it emphasizes that the laborers are

as much a factor in successful farming as climate and soil.

This was a topic dear to Tolstoy's heart, and he speaks on it

through Levin.

NOTE: EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS Until 1861 the Russian

agricultural system was composed of wealthy landowners and

serfs. Serfs were essentially slaves; not allowed to own land,

they worked their master's land for a small salary. In that

time, Russian farms were huge and landowning families depended

on their serfs not only for field work but also for various

housekeeping tasks. A landowner's heirs inherited his serfs as

well as his money and property.

After the Czar's emancipation decree freed them, the serfs

were allowed to own land and to work for themselves. But

because for so many generations they had worked for exceedingly

low wages, most serfs hadn't been able to save any money with

which to buy land. They continued to work for the estate owners

they had always served.

But this situation also caused problems, for landowners could

no longer get away with paying very low wages. Legally allowed

to be ambitious, serfs were now demanding that they be better

paid. As a result, they and their former owners would

negotiate, sometimes in painful detail, the arrangement between

them. For example, should serfs get a percentage of profits?

How should serfs who had managed to buy a small plot of land

divide their time between their own farming and that for the

landowner?

The serfs' new freedom had psychological effects as well.

Some landowners could not adjust to thinking of former serfs as

their equals. Other landowners, who had always regarded their

serfs as part of the family, were now hurt at the sudden

distance between them.

Levin's plan to make the serfs equal partners in his farm

infuriated other landowners. It also made some of the serfs

suspicious. After all, if that was the way Levin had felt all

along, why hadn't he done it sooner, they wondered.

You remember that the Oblonskys were having money problems.

Their situation has worsened, and Stiva comes to stay with Levin

while he sells a forest that Dolly owns. He has made a deal

with Ryabinin, a dealer Levin doesn't respect. Ryabinin comes

to Levin's home to conclude his transaction with Stiva. Levin

is against the deal because Stiva's price is too low, and makes

a higher counteroffer. But Stiva has promised Ryabinin and

feels it would be dishonorable to go back on his word.

This is an important incident. It points up that city

people, with little knowledge of respect for the land,

contribute to its devaluation. Tolstoy believed that people

like Stiva would eventually ruin Russia through such

make-money-quick business deals.

Stiva tells Levin that Kitty has been ill, that she and

Vronsky never got together. He also tells Levin that the

princess had been impressed with Vronsky because he was a

'perfect aristocrat.' (Kitty didn't care about this.) This leads

the two men into a discussion on the meaning of aristocracy.

Levin says that he worries about the extravagance of urban

nobles who consider it beneath their dignity to haggle over

prices. He points out that Ryabinin's children may well be

better off than Stiva's. Levin goes on to say that, unlike

Stiva and the princess, he doesn't consider Vronsky a true

aristocrat, because his family, though rich, does not go back

very far, and his mother's reputation is questionable. Levin

says he considers himself a true nobleman--his family can be

traced back many generations, his relatives have always been

well educated and independent. Never have they--unlike Stiva

and Vronsky--taken government grants and awards and high-level

bureaucratic jobs given out largely on the basis of connections.

The conversation remains pleasant, although Levin and Stiva

disagree on all points raised.

NOTE: Tolstoy is clearly talking through Levin. Stiva is

part of an urban crowd that is gaining more and more government

power, primarily through agencies that Tolstoy thinks harmful.

In this conversation, you can see that Levin and Stiva have

launched themselves on diverging paths. These paths symbolize

what Tolstoy believed were conflicting possibilities for the

future of Russia.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XVII-XXV

Two events of great importance happen in these chapters:

Anna discovers and tells Vronsky that she is pregnant by him,

and Vronsky loses the steeplechase, killing his horse in the

process. The first has direct impact on the plot, the second is

important thematically and stylistically.

For the first time we see Vronsky in his element--with

horses. He is very loving with his mare, and calls her

'darling.' He seems more intuitive with her than with people.

This is Vronsky's big day, the day of the steeplechase, which

he is expected to win. All he has to do is keep cool. But he's

distracted--his mother and brother disapprove of his affair with

Anna, and his mother is threatening to cut off his allowance.

And Vronsky is growing more and more dissatisfied with the

secrecy with which he and Anna must conduct their life

together.

NOTE: Vronsky's mother worries that he has a 'Werther-like

passion' for Anna. Werther is the hero of The Sorrows of the

Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), one of

Germany's most noted writers. Werther commits suicide because

the woman he loves is married.

When Vronsky goes to see Anna before the race, she tells him

she is pregnant. He immediately tells her that she must leave

Karenin and live with him. Anna finds she has underestimated

Vronsky. She had feared he would take her pregnancy too

lightly, but he appears to take it more seriously than even she

does. He correctly points out that she suffers from society,

her son, and her husband--and that if she doesn't break cleanly

with Karenin she is dooming herself to a living hell. But Anna

will not listen.

Keep an eye on Vronsky--his growth, for a variety of reasons,

outstrips Anna's as they go on together.

The race itself is a masterpiece of descriptive writing.

Tolstoy shows you every detail. He also succeeds in making the

scene unbearably exciting. The pacing here is perfect.

Distracted by his conversation with Anna, Vronsky is not in

top form. An excellent horseman, he runs a fine race. But his

mare is nervous, and although he guides her through much of the

course with the intimacy of a lover, he makes a fatal mistake.

During a jump, he relaxes in the saddle, letting his weight

settle, thus breaking her back. This is the worst moment of

Vronsky's life so far--his mistake is beyond correction, and was

entirely his fault.

The death of Frou-Frou foreshadows Vronsky's responsibility

for Anna's death. It points up that egotism is a powerful part

of his nature--he was overconscious of the crowd during the

race. The descriptions of Anna and Frou-Frou are strikingly

similar. Both have fine necks and beautiful, expressive eyes;

both are submissive to Vronsky's wishes--both ultimately slip

from his control.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXVI-XXIX

Karenin seems out of place at the steeplechase. (He also

seems out of his place in his own home. He and Anna talk just

enough to keep up appearances. He has turned his anger toward

Anna against Seriozha and has little to do with the boy.)

Karenin is infuriated that Anna should ignore him at the race

in front of a crowd of people. When he scolds her in their

carriage on the way home, she shocks him with the news that she

loves Vronsky and is his mistress, and that she hates her

husband.

Karenin tells her he will need time to decide the best way to

safeguard his honor. Until then, he tells Anna she must act as

though she were a proper wife.

What do you think of Karenin's response? Do you believe he

is a hypocrite, concerned only for his reputation? He does

hurt, so much so that he has tried to turn off his emotions.

Do you think Anna really believes that she can carry on as

though her husband didn't exist?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXX-XXXV

These chapters cover Kitty at the German spa where she has

gone to recover her health. You recall that after she turned

down Levin's marriage proposal, she became so depressed and

anxious that her doctors suggested she go away.

NOTE: It was common for wealthy 19th-century Europeans to go

yearly to a spa--a country resort built near a mineral spring.

The water from the spring was believed to have curative powers.

'Taking the waters' became an expression meaning 'to go to a

spa.'

While at a spa, guests bathed in and drank mineral water,

followed special diets and exercise programs. Vacationing at a

spa was a 'rest cure' for illness, anxiety, and the

hustle-bustle of daily life.

Kitty's plan for self-improvement while at the spa backfires

in a highly ironic way. She decides to model herself after a

girl named Varenka who takes care of ailing elderly people.

Kitty admires Varenka's apparent selflessness.

Kitty befriends an elderly couple. The husband becomes so

fond of her that his wife comes to suspect Kitty's intentions.

Kitty thus realizes that she is not at heart a professional

do-gooder. She wishes to devote herself to her family and

friends, not to strangers. She also realizes that she wants to

marry and have children--that Varenka's solitary life, devoid of

all sensual pleasure, is not for her.

Kitty's realization is her most important step toward

maturity. She stops patterning herself after others--Varenka,

for example, and her mother's vision of a socially accomplished

young noblewoman--and comes to terms with what she herself

wants. Kitty is a heroine in Tolstoy's eyes. She goes through

the difficult process of getting to know herself; her struggle

may not be as philosophical and torturous as Levin's, but she

does suffer, and she doesn't give up until she has achieved true

clarity. Tolstoy also considers Kitty a heroine because she

wants above all to devote herself to her husband and children.

Kitty doesn't back into this choice; she fights for it. Some

readers feel that Kitty, because she is the quintessential wife

and mother, is not a modern 'liberated' woman. But keep in mind

that Kitty has the grit to hold out for what she wants, and that

is a form of liberation.

By ending Part II with Kitty's illumination, Tolstoy sharpens

the suspense. Surely Kitty's newly won maturity will bear on

the plot of the novel. Tolstoy gives you a hint of what will

happen by starting Part III with Levin.

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK I, PART III

In Part III, both Levin and Vronsky are frustrated by the

feeling that their lives seem suspended, that they are 'spinning

their wheels.' Levin pours his energies into his estate, into

establishing a cooperative land arrangement with the peasants

who work for him. But he knows deep down that his life is

incomplete without Kitty. He also comes to know that he has

been trying to bury himself in work in order to banish from his

mind thoughts of his dying brother--and death itself.

Vronsky is agitated because Anna has not left Karenin. He is

weary of their 'secret life' and aches for a change.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-III

You remember that when Levin came to Moscow to propose to

Kitty he stayed with his half-brother Sergey. They argued then

about politics (specifically the zemstvos, or local councils)

and other intellectual matters. This time Sergey comes to visit

Levin at his estate. As always, the two spend most of their

time in friendly argument. These chapters are interesting,

particularly for what they show you about Levin's intellectual

and spiritual development. You might contrast the ways in which

Kitty and Levin struggle toward self-knowledge.

Conversations between Levin and Sergey center on the

peasants. Sergey, a city dweller, has a rather romanticized

view of them, and when he talks it often seems that he likes

peasants more than Levin does. This irks Levin--he thinks

Sergey is talking through his hat, since he has never worked

with peasants.

Lately, Levin has been struck that Sergey's strictly

intellectual approach to things is dry, lacking 'heart.' Levin

has spent much of his time studying and has always felt a

frustration at his apparent inability to find the answers for

which he was searching. Levin is beginning to realize that for

him the path to knowledge cannot be just an intellectual path.

Levin also resents Sergey's poetic descriptions of the

countryside. To Levin, they only indicate how little Sergey

understands nature. He seems naive about the inherent

fierceness in nature, its kill-or-be-killed aspects, its awesome

fertility. Levin has the impression that, to Sergey, nature is

little more than a pretty scene.

Levin and Sergey's final argument has to do with the zemstvo.

You recall that earlier Sergey was disappointed that Levin had

stopped participating in the council. To Sergey the zemstvos

represent the noblemen helping the peasants out of pure

goodness, with no thought for themselves. Levin takes the line

that no good can come of actions that are not based on

self-interest. Sergey is horrified at the apparent selfishness

in this comment, and to contradict Levin brings up the

emancipation of the serfs as an example of the nobility helping

the peasants with no thought of gain. Levin has a different

view: He believes that the emancipation helped everyone--that

the serfs' bondage was a 'yoke' oppressing peasants and noblemen

alike. To Sergey, the emancipation was an act of charity; to

Levin, it was the (tardy) execution of justice.

NOTE: ON RURAL LIFE AND BOOK LEARNING Tolstoy works two

themes into the conversations between Levin and Sergey: the

relation between peasants and nobles; and the role of book

learning in one's development.

Remember that Russia had always been a country with a strict

class system. Tolstoy believes that the aristocrats have a

responsibility to use their wealth and property in ways that

will benefit not only themselves, but Russia as a whole.

Because Tolstoy believes that serfdom--in which one person

essentially owns others--is wrong, he feels that the nobles had

to give it up. In this way, they purify their own lives as well

as the general atmosphere of Russia. Obviously, Tolstoy makes

these points through Levin.

Sergey's book learning is impressive, but he can't back up

his political theories with personal experience. He loves the

idea of serving on a zemstvo, but he's never done it and so is

ignorant of the practicalities (and hassles) involved.

Sergey loves the idea of nature, but he would never go out

and work in the fields. He loves the idea of men working the

land, but he's never smelled the stench of their--or his

own--sweat, nor has he a gut feeling for the satisfaction you

can get from growing your own food.

Notice that Levin, in emphasizing the importance of personal

experience, shares Kitty's perspective. Perhaps little by

little the two are working their way toward one another.

Do you think that both Levin and Sergey are sincere? Whose

opinion do you think is more trustworthy? Why?

Have you ever had to change your mind about something--a

sport, politics, or falling in love--because the reality

differed markedly from the expectations you had derived from

reading about these experiences beforehand?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS IV-VI

This is the famous mowing scene, one of Tolstoy's greatest

set pieces. You probably remember that a set piece is a very

theatrical scene presented in minute detail. In the mowing

scene you come to understand Levin's complex and rich

relationship with his land and the peasants who work for him.

Levin not only works with the peasants side by side, but he

learns from them, admires their stamina, skill, and natural

grace.

You can read the mowing scene as expressing everything Levin

had wished to say to Sergey but couldn't, because to articulate

his feelings would have been to intellectualize them, to rob

them of 'heart.' Sergey has a driving need to describe, Levin to

experience. Although Sergey may appear better able to share his

thoughts and feelings with others, this doesn't mean his

thoughts are any deeper than Levin's. Levin (and Tolstoy) would

have you believe they are more shallow.

Savor the mowing scene. It has some of the most wonderfully

descriptive language to be found in any of Tolstoy's work. And

it's a rare sort of scene, for it's an unusual writer who really

knows how to mow a field. And a rarer one still who can make

his readers yearn to scythe as well.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS VII-XI

The Oblonskys' financial picture is still bleak. To cut down

on expenses and to get a rest from the city, Dolly and her

children move to her family's estate, which is located near

Levin's. Like many of Tolstoy's characters, Dolly regains her

equilibrium in the country. Her husband's infidelities bruise

her less there, and she finds increased happiness with her

children.

Dolly tells Levin that Kitty will be coming for a visit.

Levin says that he will not come to call, that he's tried and

will continue to try to forget Kitty. But one evening he's out

walking and sees a carriage coming his way. He peers inside as

it passes, and his eyes meet Kitty's. He realizes that he loves

her and always will.

Again Tolstoy has pulled a fast one. He uses abrupt changes

for two reasons: They make the plot more exciting, and they

reinforce his theme that our truest perceptions come from our

feelings rather than our brain. Levin doesn't have time to

intellectualize a denial of his love for Kitty; as soon as he

sees her, feelings of love spontaneously wash over him.

Tolstoy 'ripens' Levin for this realization. Before he sees

Kitty's carriage, Tolstoy has Levin meet a young peasant couple,

newly married and very much in love. They are working together

in a field, and to Levin they represent the harmony he hungers

for.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XII-XXIII

From a vision of harmony, Tolstoy plunges you into the tense

triangle made up of Anna, Karenin, and Vronsky.

Karenin considers challenging Vronsky to a duel but finally

decides against it. He then considers divorcing Anna but

decides against that, too, since by Russian law he would have to

present proof of her affair, which would certainly cause a

scandal.

Karenin decides that the best thing is for him to insist that

his and Anna's life continue outwardly as though nothing were

wrong. In this way, he reasons, his honor will be saved, he

won't have the headaches of a divorce, and--not least--Anna will

suffer. Anna, he believes, must suffer, for in his eyes she

alone is guilty.

Karenin puts his plan into action by sending Anna money, with

a proper but cold note. He then buries himself in his work.

Anna, who is staying at their summer home and receiving

visits from Karenin on weekends, realizes with a start that she

too is horrified at the prospect of public disgrace. By staying

married to Karenin maybe she can avoid a scandal and continue

her affair with Vronsky. She seeks advice from Princess Betsy,

who counsels her to perfect her arts of deception. Anna

realizes that she feels comfortable in Princess Betsy's drawing

room, that the buzz of society gossip calms her.

Take note that Anna seeks help from a character Tolstoy has

let you know is a villain. This not only lets you know what

Tolstoy thinks of Anna's behavior, but might be a clue as to

what eventually will happen to Anna.

Vronsky has his frustrations, too. He dislikes situations

that are unclear, and Anna's apparent inability to leave Karenin

makes him very uncomfortable. Another unresolved aspect of his

life is his career. He is by nature ambitious, and he is not

progressing as quickly as he had expected. He meets an old

school friend whose career is going along brilliantly. Vronsky

takes special note when his friend tells him that women are the

chief stumbling blocks in a man's career. Vronsky worries that

he might be ruining his chances for success by hanging on to a

love that is doomed.

Karenin, Anna, and Vronsky are all trying to act in their own

self-interest. How different their understanding of this is

than Levin's. Tolstoy is drawing a line between selfishness and

self-interest. How would you differentiate between the two?

Think back to Levin's discussion with Sergey on the emancipation

of the serfs.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXIV-XXXII

These chapters, though not especially action-packed, are

nonetheless exciting, for they let you see the manner in which

Levin's thoughts--on life and on his part in life--begin to

crystallize with startling speed.

He goes to visit his friend, Sviazhsky, who lives a

considerable distance away. En route, he stops to feed his

horses at the home of a wealthy peasant family. Levin talks

with the head of the family and learns that he is in the

practice of renting land to other peasants and taking a

percentage of their crop yield. His conversation with the old

man haunts him during his trip. Can you guess why? Review what

you already know about Levin's project to revolutionize

farming.

Levin is nervous about seeing Sviazhsky and his wife, for he

knows that they would like him to marry the wife's younger

sister. At dinner, the young woman is wearing a low-cut dress,

probably to capture Levin's attention. Levin is distracted,

made miserable by the sight of the woman's plunging neckline.

This points up his (and Tolstoy's) discomfort with sensuality

unless it is in the context of marriage.

Levin excuses himself from the ladies and joins the men for a

discussion on farming methods. Everyone has complaints.

Sviazhsky considers Russia a doomed country. The nobility, he

asserts, really favors serfdom, which he sees as a fatal flaw in

the Russian social make-up. He says that every year he shows a

loss because, even after emancipation, the peasants don't feel

they have enough stake in the system to work hard. Another

man--an old-fashioned type of landlord--believes the serfs were

better off before emancipation. He says they are too ignorant

to be able to fend for themselves.

Levin responds by arguing that the solution is to cure not

their ignorance first but their poverty. He concludes that the

only way to do this is to share all profits equally with the

peasants--thereby giving them a vested interest. As a result,

he says, everyone's income will increase. Levin realizes that

what bothered him about the old peasant's practice of renting

land to other peasants is that it is too similar to the way

things were done in the past--it's still a landlord-tenant

relationship. Levin wants a full partnership with the people

who work for him.

He vows to start this new system on his estate that very

season. He goes home and begins working feverishly.

NOTE: In the late 1840s (the emancipation happened in 1861),

Tolstoy tried to make the peasants at Yasnaya Polyana his

partners by selling them bits of land. Although the peasants

liked Tolstoy personally, they couldn't understand why a

landlord would do such a thing. Crestfallen at his failure,

Tolstoy returned to Moscow and spent 1848-1850 there. But after

emancipation, Tolstoy made it work.

Levin's life as an estate proprietor is based on Tolstoy's

experience as a landlord.

Nicholas arrives unexpectedly, saying that his health is much

improved. Clearly, though, he is worse--he is dying. Levin

realizes with a jolt that his discomfort with Nicholas has

stemmed from the fact that for a long time now he had associated

Nicholas with death. Levin is terribly depressed. He takes

comfort in the thought that maybe his work--if it's good enough

to live on after him--will, in a sense, save him from death.

It will pay to read these chapters a second time. Anna

Karenina is not only about the lives of the characters--it is

about Tolstoy's view of, and vision for, Russia. Levin is his

spokesman. You see, through Levin, Tolstoy's own

development--his intellectual false starts, crash landings, and

final soaring.

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK I, PART IV

The events in Part IV--the last part in Book I--mark a

turning point in the novel. After giving birth to Vronsky's

daughter, Anna becomes gravely ill. Karenin forgives her on

what he believes to be her deathbed. When she recovers,

however, he realizes that Anna despises him, and consents to a

divorce. Anna refuses the divorce because she doesn't want to

give up her son, but goes to live abroad with Vronsky.

Kitty and Levin become engaged.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-XVI

Anna and Karenin live together as though nothing were wrong.

Of course, Anna continues to see Vronsky, and Karenin knows it.

His one condition is that Vronsky never come to their house.

One night, however, Anna begs Vronsky to come while Karenin

is to be at a meeting. Karenin comes home unexpectedly, meets

Vronsky on his doorstep, and bows to him politely. But beneath

his polite exterior, he is boiling mad. Karenin tells Anna he

plans to divorce her and to arrange for Seriozha to be raised by

his aunt.

Soon after, Anna tells Vronsky she has had a dream that told

her she will soon die. It is the dream in which a small peasant

fumbles in a sack, muttering, near railway tracks. This dream

will recur throughout the rest of the novel.

Why do you think Anna first has the dream after Karenin tells

her they will divorce? What does divorce mean to Anna, and why

does she--even subconsciously--connect it to her death? You

might think back to the epigraph, and Tolstoy's insistence that

'the bitter things come from God.' Has Anna set in motion her

own destruction by transgressing God's commandments? You may

not be able to answer at this point in the book, but keep the

question in mind as you read.

The Oblonskys' finances are as shaky as ever, but Stiva still

entertains his friends at restaurants and gives parties at his

home. At one of his get-togethers, Levin, who happens to be in

town, unexpectedly meets Kitty. He recognizes that she loves

him by the look in her eyes. He proposes to her, using secret

signals that only she understands.

Kitty and Levin are able to come together not because one

makes a declaration to the other, but because, as soon as they

see each other, they communicate their feelings by their

expressions, postures, and so forth. They relate to one another

intuitively.

Contrast this harmony between Levin and Kitty with the ways

in which words often bring Anna to cross purposes with Vronsky

as well as with Karenin.

Also contrast Anna's indecision--her inability to create a

clear situation for herself with either Vronsky or Karenin--with

Levin's clarity of feeling and decisive action with Kitty.

Levin asks formally for Kitty's hand, although the young

woman has already accepted him. The prince and princess are

both delighted. Take note that Kitty has brought her mother

around to her point of view on Levin.

Levin feels he must ask Kitty's forgiveness for the fact that

he is not a virgin. He gives her his diary, which recounts

certain episodes of his youth. She reads it and is horrified,

but in the end forgives him.

NOTE: Tolstoy places those women who seem cut out by nature

to be wives and mothers on a higher moral plane than other

women, to whom such roles in life might seem burdensome.

Levin's investing Kitty with the power to forgive and absolve

drives home Tolstoy's point. The gesture also serves to

underscore that marriage must be sanctified, that one must

prepare and cleanse oneself for it.

What do you think of Levin's confession to Kitty? Is this

something you would wish to do? Would you expect this of your

prospective husband or wife? Do you think Kitty should have

refused to read the diaries?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XVII-XXIII

Smarting over Anna's betrayal, Karenin thinks about the

Christian principle of forgiveness. But it's hard for him.

Just as earlier in the novel Anna had advised Dolly to forgive

Stiva, so now Dolly counsels Karenin to forgive Anna.

Karenin receives a telegram from Anna telling him she is

dying and asking him to come to her. He doesn't believe it--she

has lied to him so many times--but he can't help but think that

her death would solve all his problems.

When he arrives, Anna, despite having given birth safely to a

daughter, is delirious with fever. She begs Karenin to forgive

her affair with Vronsky and begs him to forgive Vronsky as well.

Karenin does. Now Anna feels ready to die, and wishes for

death.

Vronsky, humiliated before Karenin and desperate at the

thought of Anna's death, attempts to commit suicide. He shoots

himself after he has gone back to his room, but before he bleeds

to death his servant finds him and summons help.

Karenin is surprised at the tenderness and compassion he

found within himself--he even feels affection for Anna and

Vronsky's daughter and vows to raise her himself after Anna's

death. He knows inward peace for the first time in his life.

To Karenin's astonishment, however, Anna begins to recover.

His feelings toward her change. He realizes that Anna fears

rather than loves him. He receives an unexpected jolt when he

learns from Princess Betsy that Vronsky is leaving for a job in

the provinces and that Anna wishes to see him before he leaves.

Karenin is back in his old predicament. He wants to act so that

others will have no cause to condemn him, but the thought of

permitting Anna to resume her affair with Vronsky makes his

blood boil.

NOTE: APPEARANCES CAN BE DECEIVING From a dramatic point of

view, Tolstoy uses the birth of Anna's child and Anna's

subsequent illness in a highly ironic way. Karenin's kindness

and Anna's contrition lead you to believe that the two will

reconcile. This is supported by the fact that Vronsky plays a

very small role in the deathbed scene.

You've seen Tolstoy do this before. Just when you think you

know what will happen next, Tolstoy pulls a switch. This

technique keeps you on your toes, but that's not the only reason

Tolstoy uses it. He believes that appearances are often

deceiving. Anna is a perfect case in point: Just before she

began a torrid love affair with Vronsky, she was the picture of

the proper, faithful wife of a prominent gentleman. On the

basis of Anna's past actions and words, no one had any reason to

suspect that she would suddenly (or ever) leave her family.

Princess Betsy, a woman who loves intrigue, takes upon

herself the role of go-between. After telling Karenin about

Vronsky's plans, she goes to see Stiva, telling him that Karenin

will be the death of Anna. Stiva, concerned for his beloved

sister, begs Karenin to give her a divorce. Deeply upset,

Karenin finally agrees.

Princess Betsy goes to Vronsky to tell him the news. Vronsky

immediately visits Anna, who tells him she belongs to him. They

decide to go to Italy to live together.

Vronsky gives up the promising job he was offered, and Anna

refuses Karenin's offer of divorce because he refused to grant

her custody of Seriozha. The lovers leave, but many matters are

still undecided.

Many readers believe the deathbed scene to be the most

critical scene in the novel. Tolstoy is telling you that the

nearness of death brings out the best in people. Anna no longer

wants to be deceitful, Karenin is forgiving, Vronsky feels

shame. Anna's returning health, however, complicates things.

Anna goes back to Vronsky, Karenin again feels a thirst for

vengeance, and Vronsky devotes himself to a desperate love

rather than to a clear-cut, comparatively wholesome life.

At Anna's deathbed, they all seem to exist in a suspended

moment. But this is not how life works, and perhaps our true

desires can only be recognized in the crush of everyday life.

Do you think we recognize what we really hope for and aspire to

in times of crisis?

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK II, PART V

A lot happens in Part V. Kitty and Levin marry in another of

Tolstoy's famous set pieces. They have a rocky adjustment to

married life. Nicholas dies just before the newlyweds learn

that Kitty is pregnant.

Anna and Vronsky are also adjusting to life together. (From

here on, you'll want to compare and contrast the relationships

between Kitty and Levin, and Anna and Vronsky. Remember that

Anna Karenina is as much a novel about domestic relations as

anything else.) Anna misses her son terribly and one morning,

when she can't stand being apart from Seriozha another day, she

sneaks into his nursery. Desperately lonely--all her former

friends snub her now that she's 'living in sin' with

Vronsky--she goes to the opera, causing a scandal. Anna has a

hard time keeping her head together in the face of so much

rejection, and begins to blame Vronsky for her unhappiness. For

his part, Vronsky is displeased that she would flaunt herself in

society. Anna and Vronsky are discovering some difficulties

between them that will ultimately prove their undoing. They go

to the country to 'get away from it all' and for a while are

distracted from the tensions festering between them.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-VI

These chapters deal primarily with Kitty and Levin. Levin

realizes that Kitty doesn't understand the particulars of his

book on farming, nor does she care to. Only knowing that it's

important to Levin makes it important to her. Notice that Kitty

doesn't wish to share in her husband's work the way Anna would

wish to share in Vronsky's. Kitty has a clear idea of what her

own work is--to care for her husband and the children she will

have with him.

Stiva tells Levin that in order to be married he will need a

certificate of confession. It's been years since Levin made

confession. He doesn't believe in the ritual of confession and

communion; in fact, he doesn't really believe in God. But he

goes to see the priest anyway, and confesses that his chief sin

is doubt. The priest asks him how he can doubt the existence of

God when he looks every day on God's creation. He asks Levin

how he will answer his children's questions about death, birth,

evil, goodness. Levin realizes that the priest is raising some

valid points. But he knows that, at present, he still does not

believe in God. Nonetheless, deep within him, he feels as

though a voice were telling him to have patience, that faith

will come.

It is Kitty's love that helps prepare Levin for the

possibility he might find faith. Levin's spiritual search is a

long and hard one, and he is still closer to its beginning than

to its culmination.

Chapters II-VI are devoted to Kitty and Levin's wedding.

Tolstoy describes the hours preceding the ceremony and the

ritual itself in painstaking detail. He does this not only for

dramatic purposes--a wedding is a highly theatrical event--but

to emphasize that Kitty and Levin will live a traditionally

Russian and harmonious life. Tolstoy cuts back and forth

between the wedding guests and the couple, splicing--as though

this were a film--gossip, criticism of Kitty's appearance, and

small talk from the crowd with phrases from the marriage vows,

prayers, and bits of Levin's running interior monologue. This

technique underscores that weddings are seminal events for

society--that a wedding is a grand occasion with importance for

all who take part in it. It also emphasizes that Kitty and

Levin--because they are fully conscious of marriage as a

sacrament--are apart from those who participate in the wedding

as if it were merely a big party. Kitty's joy--pure, radiant

with appreciation for the momentousness of the event--infects

everyone, bringing unity (however brief) to all who are there.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS VII-XIII

Tolstoy immediately contrasts Kitty and Levin with Anna and

Vronsky. You go directly from the wedding scene to Italy, where

Anna and Vronsky have been living together for three months.

Anna feels 'unpardonably happy' in her life with Vronsky. She

feels that she should be suffering, especially since she has

left her son behind and ruined her reputation, but she can't

make herself feel unhappy.

But Vronsky--though loving and attentive--begins to feel

bored. He gave up his career for Anna and really has nothing to

do. He takes up painting, working in traditional styles, and

shows considerable skill. They go to visit a Russian painter

named Mikhaylov, who lives nearby. They are impressed with the

old man's work and Vronsky commissions him to do a portrait of

Anna. Vronsky gives up painting after admitting to himself that

he hasn't anywhere near the talent of the old Russian, let alone

the Old Masters. Now he becomes really frustrated and grows

increasingly restless.

NOTE: THE CREATIVE PROCESS The chapters dealing with

Mikhaylov, the Russian painter, don't have much to do with the

plot of Anna Karenina, but they are nonetheless interesting.

You see the contrasting ways in which an artist and nonartist

see the creative process. Anna, Vronsky, and their friend

Golenishchev--intellectuals--visit the painter at his studio.

They are immediately put off by his appearance: His clothes are

badly out of fashion, and his manner is rough. By this detail,

Tolstoy tells you that the artist is usually out of step with

the fashionable world, that the making of art is not a tidy,

genteel activity.

The artist and his visitors have conflicting feelings about

each other. Mikhaylov feels some scorn for Golenishchev,

Vronsky, and Anna because he suspects they don't know much about

art but believe they do because they know which artists are in

vogue and which are not. Yet he wants them to say something

intelligent about his work, something that will convince him

that they do understand. Why? Because as an artist, Mikhaylov

desperately wants his work to communicate.

Golenishchev, Vronsky, and Anna talk about technique as

though it were all-important. To Mikhaylov, technique is

secondary to the making of art. For Mikhaylov, what counts most

is inspiration and the artist's faithfulness to his own vision.

Tolstoy is talking through Mikhaylov.

Notice that Anna is content to bury herself in a sort of

never-never land of romance, while Vronsky feels an increasing

discomfort at living removed from his own society. Why is

romance alone not enough to override these shortcomings in

Vronsky's life? If you were in Anna's place, would you be

completely satisfied with your life? If not, why not?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XIV-XX

These are important chapters. Levin must finally confront

what haunts him when Nicholas dies--his horror of death.

Kitty and Levin's first several months of marriage find them

quarreling a lot, much to their surprise. Their fights are

productive, though, for after each one they understand each

other better and feel closer than before.

Just when things are beginning to settle down between them,

the two receive a telegram from Masha, saying that Nicholas is

dying. Levin is astonished when Kitty insists on going with him

to Moscow.

Levin is upset--to the point of inaction--by the seediness of

Nicholas's hotel, by his brother's suffering and nearness to

death, and by the presence of Masha, a 'fallen woman.' But Kitty

knows instinctively what to do. She has Nicholas moved to a

better room, has it cleaned, puts fresh linen on the bed, washes

and changes Nicholas, and convinces him to take extreme unction.

To Levin's surprise, Kitty and Masha get along well.

You see clearly the contrast between Levin and Kitty--or, as

Tolstoy would have you understand it, between the intellectual

and intuitive approach to life. Levin tries intellectually to

come to terms with death and suffering. That is why he fails.

Kitty--Tolstoy's consummate wife and mother in this novel--has

an intuitive understanding that birth and death are part of the

same cycle, that both have their particular significance. Levin

sees that he must try to learn from Kitty. He realizes that

love--not work, as he had previously thought--will keep him from

despair.

Nicholas dies an agonizing death in Chapter XX, the only

chapter in Anna Karenina to have a title ('Death'). Soon

afterward, Levin learns that Kitty is pregnant. The timing of

these two events underscores Tolstoy's theme that death and

birth are united, and that a person must come to terms with

both.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXI-XXX

You remember that Karenin had decided that the best way for

him to handle his life was to continue his normal routine as

much as possible. But the routine doesn't make him feel any

better about things. He is completely lost; his life makes no

sense to him. He can't understand how he can still love Anna,

feel tenderness for her and Vronsky's daughter, do his best

(with his limited emotional resources) to raise his son--and

still be ridiculed by many in society.

He's easy prey for Lydia Ivanovna, a society lady given to

impulsive love affairs and religious faddism. She arrives at

Karenin's home and announces that she will run his house and

advise him on all personal matters. Though Karenin had

previously had contempt for Lydia Ivanovna, he feels so

desperate that he is comforted by her attention. The first

thing the woman does to set Karenin's house in order is to tell

Seriozha that his mother is dead. From here on, Lydia will do

everything in her power to hurt Anna, and to make Karenin fall

in love with herself.

Others in society are also trying to destroy Anna. Princess

Betsy, pretending to offer friendly advice, tells Vronsky that

he shouldn't be seen with Anna, a 'fallen woman,' while they are

in Saint Petersburg. She talks to Vronsky in honeyed tones,

appealing to his insecurities about his career and chances for

success. Princess Betsy also visits Anna, under the guise of

friendship. She tells Anna that she herself, of course, is very

liberal and is not bothered by Anna and Vronsky's living

together, but that others are not so open-minded. She does this

just so she can see the effect of her painful words on Anna.

Anna's reaction is to rebel even further. She sneaks into

Karenin's house in order to see Seriozha. The visit completely

unnerves her, especially when she realizes the boy had been told

she was dead. When she goes back home, she can no longer feel

love for her daughter, and never will again. In her mind, her

daughter has deprived her of Seriozha, and she resents her for

it.

Hysterical beneath a relatively calm exterior, Anna starts

acting in a way that Vronsky considers reckless. He has been

influenced by Princess Betsy's talk and wants them to keep a low

profile in Saint Petersburg. Anna, however, announces that she

is going to the opera that evening; Vronsky can barely contain

his horror.

Vronsky also goes to the opera, but sits apart from Anna. He

feels angry that she is so beautiful--her loveliness, he can't

help thinking, is what got him into this mess in the first

place. Anna's presence at the opera does, in fact, cause a

scandal. The people in the next box leave rather than sit next

to a 'sinful woman.'

Anna and Vronsky fight at home after the opera. Anna blames

Vronsky for leaving her alone too much. They make a tentative

peace and leave the next day for the country.

Vronsky shows himself to resemble Karenin in his concern

about the opinion of others. Anna again finds that she is with

a man who is unable to think and act independently.

Tolstoy shows urban society at its most hypocritical. Most

of the people who now scorn Anna are themselves adulterers. But

they do it secretly, playing by 'the rules.' Who do you think is

more dishonorable--Anna or those that condemn her?

Anna's mind starts to slip in these chapters. She fantasizes

that Vronsky no longer loves her, and begins acting as though

her fantasy were true. More and more, Anna will be unable to

tell the difference between what she imagines and what really is

happening. As you read, try to pinpoint the events and

circumstances that drive Anna mad.

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK II, PART VI

In this part, Tolstoy shows in high relief the differences in

the lives of his three principal female characters. The Levins'

quiet life in the country is interrupted by visitors from the

city. Not only does Levin's work suffer, but he finds himself

jealous of the attention one of the guests shows to Kitty.

Dolly goes to visit Anna and realizes that though her own life

is far from perfect, she wouldn't want to be in Anna's shoes.

Anna, resisting the role of wife and uncomfortable with that of

mistress, is increasingly in need of Vronsky's undivided

attention.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-VII

The Levins' house is filled with summer guests, among them

Koznyshev and Varenka, a pretty young woman. Koznyshev you

learn, had a fiancee who died before they could marry. Since

then, he has remained true to her. But he's lonely and

attracted to Varenka. Just as he is about to propose, though,

he backs down, to the chagrin of both of them.

NOTE: INTELLECTUALS AND MARRIAGE Again Tolstoy expresses a

theme through a particular character, Tolstoy is emphasizing

that the only way a man can be truly happy is to be happily

married. Koznyshev, an intellectual, is faithful more to a

principle than to his young fiancee, who, of course, is no more.

It is the idea of his faithfulness that he can't give up--his

life with her was ended, after all. He prefers to be miserable

but true to his idea than to change and be happier.

Notice how Tolstoy takes a seemingly unimportant, though

diverting, scene involving minor characters, some of whom appear

only once, and uses it to make a thematic statement. In this

way, Tolstoy expresses his themes in various contexts and from

several different angles (Sergey is one type of unfulfilled

intellectual, Koznyshev is another). An advantage to the epic

form is that it gives authors lots of room: they can explore

the many ramifications of a given theme without seeming to

hammer away at it. The epic also allows authors to change

scenes and bring in new characters, to keep the story lively as

well as to deepen the treatment of their themes.

Stiva arrives with a friend named Veslovsky. Levin is

offended that Veslovsky flirts with Kitty. Later Veslovsky will

visit Vronsky and Anna, and flirt with Anna. The two women

respond differently to Veslovsky's attentions, and so do Levin

and Vronsky. You'll want to compare and contrast the two

couples and their reactions to an intrusive third party.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS VIII-XV

These chapters comprise another set piece. Levin, Stiva, and

Veslovsky go hunting. Levin is annoyed by the two city

gentlemen who have little appreciation for the land and the

peasants. They stop for the night at a peasant's home. Stiva

and Veslovsky each go to bed with a peasant girl. Levin sleeps

alone, furious with his companions.

He comes around to thinking that he really has no right to

judge others, as long as they don't prevent him from living as

he chooses. By the end of the trip, the three are back on

friendly terms.

But when they get back to Levin's estate, Veslovsky again

flirts with Kitty, whereupon Levin tells him to leave. Levin's

family considers his gesture extreme. But Levin doesn't care,

he has what he wants--peace and quiet.

There's something else. Levin regards Kitty as exalted, as

practically sacred because she is pregnant. To him Veslovsky is

'the worm in the Garden of Eden,' and he won't have his home

contaminated. What do you think of Levin's conduct here?

Remember, Levin is struggling to achieve greater clarity in his

life. Levin's gesture can be seen either as heroic--in that he

makes a clear statement on his moral standards--or a little

paranoid. What do you think?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XVI-XXV

The main purpose of this chapter is the contrast between Anna

and Dolly. Dolly goes to see Anna where she is living with

Vronsky. Dolly is nervous because she looks shabby, although

she's wearing her best dress. Anna, as always, looks beautiful

and is glad to see Dolly, but somehow they have trouble talking.

Dolly feels sad to realize that Vronsky has a lot of

activities--a stud farm, a hospital he has built for his

peasants, a park--that Anna doesn't share. It seems her job is

always to look stunning--she changes clothes several times a

day. Anna doesn't even plan menus or oversee the house

servants; Vronsky does that. Anna, it seems to Dolly, is a

guest in Vronsky's home rather than a full-fledged companion.

Vronsky takes Dolly aside and asks her to convince Anna to

get a divorce. He would like to have more children with Anna

and knows that they would legally be considered bastards unless

he and Anna marry.

Veslovsky, the man Levin threw out of his house, comes for

dinner. Dolly is shocked to see Anna flirting with him.

Vronsky, unlike Levin, isn't the least bit upset. In fact, he

seems flattered that another man would notice Anna's charms.

As they prepare for bed, Anna comes in to talk with Dolly.

Dolly prevails upon Anna to get a divorce from Karenin. Anna's

reply shocks her. Anna says that she does not want to have more

children--that she practices birth control (highly unusual for

those times). She tells Dolly that she knows if she isn't

eternally alluring to Vronsky he will leave her. To become

pregnant, to be burdened with the tasks of child rearing, would,

she fears, take away from her sexual attractiveness. She feels

insecure because she's not married to Vronsky, but she's afraid

of being like Dolly. Vronsky has said that Dolly is 'nice, but

terre a terre,' which means that she's too down to earth.

Either way, Anna fears losing Vronsky, and so tries to stay

between the two roles.

After Dolly leaves, you get another look at Anna and

Vronsky's life together. Anna is bored. To occupy herself, she

reads voraciously, trying to keep up on subjects of interest to

Vronsky. Vronsky feels increasingly confined in their life. He

has become active politically and spends a lot of time away from

Anna at meetings. They fight frequently about this. Anna is

nearly out of her mind with loneliness. Vronsky resolves he

will give Anna anything she wants except his 'freedom as a

man.'

NOTE: LOVE AND ROMANCE Tolstoy condemns Anna not because she

lives unconventionally, but because her refusal to have children

means she has turned her back on her rightful place in the life

cycle. Tolstoy believes that the purpose of love is to beget

children. Romance can exist within love--look at Kitty and

Levin--but love can't flower within a strictly romantic

relationship. Anna yearns for love but will neither give up the

trappings of romance nor accept love's obligations.

You may notice that there is a lot of French in this section.

This is one way in which Tolstoy lets you know that he

disapproves of Anna and Vronsky's set-up. Remember, speaking

French was a habit among upper-class Russians who wished to act

'cultivated.'

What do you think of Tolstoy's definition of love and the

distinction he draws between love and romance? What do you

think of Vronsky's attitude? Anna is trapped. What do you

think Anna could do in order to free herself?

Dolly goes home feeling that her own life has integrity. It

may be hard for readers in this day and age to accept Tolstoy's

solution for Dolly. Many readers find that Dolly is too

long-suffering, has borne too much humiliation, to be an

admirable female character. But bear in mind that Tolstoy's

point is not that women should suffer (and he makes clear that

Stiva is far from an ideal husband); his point is that a woman's

chief responsibility, and joy, is to have children. Dolly's

life isn't perfect, but she does find happiness in it.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXVI-XXXII

Anna and Vronsky and Kitty and Levin are again contrasted in

these chapters. Both couples are separated--the women are at

home, the men are at an election conference.

Vronsky's frequent separations from Anna have her feeling so

desperate she takes morphine every night in order to sleep.

Kitty is with her family in Moscow, peacefully awaiting the

birth of her child.

Levin and Vronsky find themselves opposed on most of the

issues raised at the conference. Vronsky represents a new breed

of farmer, one who doesn't shy away from modern methods, who

doesn't see any harm in industrializing farming. Though Vronsky

doesn't mistreat his peasants, it doesn't occur to him to make

them equal partners. Levin doesn't want to see farming become

an industry. He holds more than ever to his plan to forge a

partnership with the peasants.

In the midst of the meeting, Vronsky receives a note from

Anna saying that their daughter is very ill. He returns home,

finding that the baby was never as seriously ill as Anna tried

to make him believe. Vronsky is furious that she would try to

manipulate him so crudely.

Anna feels so desperately insecure that she writes to Karenin

asking for a divorce on any terms. Then she and Vronsky move to

Moscow and set up housekeeping like a married couple, expecting

any day to receive news from Karenin that a divorce is under

way.

Both couples are anticipating major changes: Kitty and Levin

are preparing to become parents; Anna and Vronsky to become

married. Again on a note of suspense, Tolstoy closes a Part of

the novel.

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK II, PART VII

Many readers find this the most exciting part of Anna

Karenina. Kitty gives birth. Karenin has a 'religious

conversion,' falls under the sway of a fake clairvoyant (a

friend of Lydia Ivanovna), and refuses to divorce Anna. Anna

commits suicide.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-XII

By now the Levins have been in Moscow two months waiting for

Kitty to give birth. Levin, although he doesn't particularly

like city life and is worried that things are very expensive, is

much more at ease in town than ever before. The 'rough edges'

in his character that earlier caused him to throw Veslovsky out

of his house seem to have been smoothed. He renews

acquaintances with some of his college friends, and enjoys

talking with them about his ideas on agriculture.

One night while at his father-in-law's club, Levin is

introduced by Stiva to Vronsky. The two men find that they

rather like each other and are both glad that the unspoken feud

between them is over.

Vronsky even invites Levin to his home. Kitty, too, meets

Vronsky by chance while out walking with her father. Like her

husband, she feels none of the hostility toward him she felt in

the past. Both Kitty and Levin are learning to put their pasts

behind them.

Levin goes with Stiva to Anna and Vronsky's home. Anna

beguiles Levin with her charm, intelligence, and wit. But she

startles him when, as he's leaving, she asks him to give her

regards to Kitty, saying, 'If she cannot forgive me my

situation, I wish her never to forgive me. To forgive, she

would have to live through what I have lived through, and may

God preserve her from that!'

The scene between Anna and Levin is complex. They are drawn

to each other, which underscores that Tolstoy places them on a

higher plane than he does his other characters. They are both

seekers; neither is satisfied to live an unexamined life

dictated by society.

But Anna flirts with Levin, and her mention of Kitty is

shifty. She raises the possibility that Kitty could end up

where Anna has; she raises the possibility of infidelity,

divorce, ruined reputations.

This not only serves to emphasize that Levin and Anna--for

all they share--are essentially different, but foreshadows

Anna's ruin. Levin is the hero of this book; no principal

character can cross him and have a happy life.

After Levin and Anna's meeting both couples argue. Kitty

notices that Levin has an uncommon gleam in his eye and is

afraid that her husband has fallen in love with Anna. After

talking about it all night, they fall asleep, totally

reconciled. It's different with Anna and Vronsky. Vronsky's

been away a lot and this makes Anna insecure. She thinks that

she's more attractive to other men--she knows the effect she had

on Levin--than to her lover. In order to get Vronsky to pay

more attention to her, she tells him she is 'near disaster and

afraid of myself.' Anna can't help herself; she feels that an

'evil spirit of strife' exists side by side with their love, not

only in her heart but in his as well. This 'spirit of strife'

seems bigger than both Anna and Vronsky. Do you think it is one

of 'the bitter things from God' to which the epigraph refers?

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XIII-XVII

These chapters are devoted to the birth of Kitty and Levin's

baby. To Levin, it seems that everything is happening in a

dream. Kitty, although this is her first child and she is in

pain, has an intuitive comprehension and feels peaceful. When

he sees his newborn son at Kitty's breast, Levin is astonished

at his feelings: He feels pain, because he knows that his

son--being human--is destined to suffer.

NOTE: TOLSTOY ON CHILDBIRTH Scholars say that Tolstoy wrote

the single most elaborate childbirth scene (five chapters!) in

the history of literature to his time. He clearly did so to

underscore a strong belief that childbirth is a momentous

occasion. He also develops his theme that women are in touch

with the awesome processes of life to a far greater degree than

men. That Kitty is surrounded by her family during her

pregnancy as well as during childbirth highlights Tolstoy's

theme that marriages exist primarily for the creation of

children, that the primary purpose of sex is not personal

pleasure but procreation.

Tolstoy places this scene as rebuttal to the views that Anna

expressed to Dolly on pregnancy and motherhood.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XVIII-XXII

Here you get a glimpse of Tolstoy's nightmare vision of the

future: an industrialized and bureaucratized Russia.

You remember that the Oblonskys' finances are in bad shape.

Things are worse than ever, and Stiva decides he must take

drastic means to improve them. He applies for a well-paying

bureaucratic post, membership on the Committee of the Joint

Agency of the Mutual Credit Balance of Southern Railways and

Banking Houses. Stiva starts talking to all his friends (and

friends of friends) in government.

NOTE: RAILROADS AND FARMING Tolstoy deplored the rise of the

types of committees to which Stiva wants to belong. He felt

sure that a bureaucracy would ruin Russia. Cooperation between

railroads and banks was especially worrisome to Tolstoy, for he

knew that farmlands would have to be destroyed to build

railroads.

This would be devastating on two accounts, believed Tolstoy.

Agriculture had always been the mainstay of the Russian economy,

and the farming life the backbone of Russian tradition. Tolstoy

believed that Russian peasants were different from the peasants

in European countries, because they believed that their destiny

was to inhabit the vast, sparsely populated lands in the east

and south. To build railroads in those regions would not only

destroy the practice of farming, but a part of the Russian

psyche as well.

Karenin agrees to help Stiva get the job he wants. Why do

you think this is? After all, Stiva has been asking Karenin to

divorce Anna, something he doesn't want to do.

Stiva, while visiting with Karenin and other friends in Saint

Petersburg, learns that Karenin has fallen under the influence

of a man named Landau, a so-called clairvoyant who has taken

society by storm. One of the socialites went so far as to adopt

him and give him the title of Count Bezzubov. Karenin asks

Stiva to meet him later that evening at Countess Lydia's; there,

he says, he will give him his decision on divorcing Anna.

Lydia tells Stiva about Karenin's religious 'conversion,'

letting him know that Karenin's decision will be dependent on

Landau's advice. They enter a particularly weird scene. Landau

goes into a trance listening for voices, uttering strange

phrases. Suddenly, Landau says that Stiva must leave. The next

morning Stiva receives a note from Karenin saying that a divorce

is impossible.

Tolstoy's contempt for Karenin and Countess Lydia and her

crowd couldn't be made more plain. That they could be taken in

by a fake like Landau--that they could lionize him--points up

that they have no genuinely religious feelings. Karenin is

using 'religion' to justify his desire to punish Anna; he fools

himself into thinking that he has piously turned himself over to

a higher power. The seance scene shows Karenin to be not only

pathetic and self-deceiving, but spiteful and cruel. Think

about the ways in which Tolstoy develops Karenin as an

essentially weak individual. Trace his decline.

Think back to this scene later when Levin has his spiritual

revelation. You'll want to contrast the two men and the ways in

which they deal with religion.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS XXIII-XXXI

This is the end of Anna. In writing Anna's final hours,

Tolstoy is at the height of his dramatic and descriptive

powers.

Anna is at her wit's end. She's exceedingly lonely, nervous,

impatient for her divorce, distrustful of Vronsky, wildly

jealous. She has convinced herself that he is in love with

Princess Sorokina who is a sort of secretary to his mother.

Vronsky is also at the end of his rope. Anna is very

difficult to live with. He continues to go to the theater,

opera, concerts, and so forth, even though Anna cannot go with

him. Do you think Vronsky is merely being cruel? Do you think

he's being cowardly in not taking Anna with him when he goes

out? Do you think that the only way he can keep his head above

water is to get away from Anna from time to time?

After another fight, Anna and Vronsky decide to return to the

country. Vronsky has one item of business he must attend to.

When Anna realizes that he'll have to see Princess Sorokina in

the process she creates a terrible scene.

The next day Anna says she won't be ready to go to the

country. This is typical of the sudden reversals that have come

to characterize her actions. The same day Stiva sends Vronsky a

note saying the prospect isn't good regarding Anna's divorce.

Vronsky tries to comfort Anna by saying that she and the

children they will have together mean everything to him. Anna

replies that his mention of children means he gives no thought

to her. Anna is being impossible, yet Vronsky does his best to

remain cool and polite. Anna misinterprets his reserve for icy

hatred.

After he leaves, Anna makes up cruel things he might have

said to her and believes them. She goes to bed with a headache,

directing a servant to tell Vronsky she prefers not to be

disturbed. She then tells herself, 'If he comes to my room, he

still loves me; if not, he doesn't.' This is totally irrational.

Vronsky, respecting what he believes are her wishes, goes to bed

alone in his study.

That night she has her nightmare again of the man near the

railroad tracks.

The next day Princess Sorokina drops by with some papers for

Vronsky to sign. Anna flies into a rage and again refuses to go

with Vronsky to the country. Vronsky, not knowing how to deal

with Anna's unreasonable behavior, leaves the house.

Anna sends him a note begging forgiveness, but the messenger

doesn't get there in time. Anna sends the servant to Vronsky's

mother's home. She then goes to Dolly's house where she meets

Kitty. Anna immediately thinks that Vronsky regrets not having

married Kitty. She deliberately tells Kitty how much she

enjoyed meeting Levin, hoping to make her jealous. But Anna is

so obviously unhappy that Kitty can only feel sorry for her.

Hastily, Anna leaves.

At home Anna receives a telegram from Vronsky saying that he

won't be home until ten o'clock. She's furious and resolves to

go to his mother's to meet him. She doesn't realize that he

hadn't received her note when he wired, and that he doesn't know

what she's feeling.

In the carriage on the way to the train station, Anna tells

herself silly jokes, torments herself with thoughts of Vronsky's

supposed infidelities, with thoughts of her husband and son.

She forgets why she is going to the station. Her servant

reminds her.

She boards the train thinking that she has finally learned

the key to life: All people are born to suffer, life is nothing

but a torment.

When she arrives at the station where she will have to change

trains, she receives a note from Vronsky apologizing that her

note didn't reach him earlier. No matter, Anna is burning

mad.

All she can think of is her desire to punish Vronsky. She

kneels down so that the train car will run over her, then tries

to get up, but it's too late.

NOTE: THE DEATH OF ANNA KARENINA In her final moments, Anna

sinks to Karenin's level: Both of these characters are driven

by their desire for revenge. Some readers feel that this is

Tolstoy's strongest condemnation of Anna.

You should also give some thought to the fact that Anna tried

at the last moment to run from death. You know that Tolstoy

believes that birth-life-death constitute one positive cycle.

Anna twice tries to put herself outside this cycle--by her

refusal to have children with Vronsky and by thinking of her

death as a means to do harm to Vronsky. Anna has no trace of

Kitty's intuitive understanding with the life cycle and none of

the tough-mindedness that Levin shows as he grapples with his

fear of death.

Try to look at Anna's death from all angles. To what extent

do you think Anna's society is responsible for her downfall? To

what extent is Vronsky responsible? How does Anna bring about

her own misfortune? Her refusal of Karenin's first offer of

divorce can be seen two ways: either she refuses because she

wants a better deal, i.e., custody of Seriozha; or because she

feels so guilty toward Karenin that she wants to punish

herself.

One can't deny that Anna suffers because of the way her

former friends reject her, but her greatest suffering is due to

the turmoil within her. This seems to refer to the epigraph.

Notice how Tolstoy's descriptions of Anna grow increasingly

detailed and lush in this section. He kills her off, but in

doing so he seems to be killing a part of himself as well.

Tolstoy may have intended to punish Anna, but his compassion

equals his disapproval. What about you? What do you feel for

Anna Karenina?

ANNA KARENINA: BOOK II, PART VIII

In this part, Tolstoy steps back from the lives of certain of

his characters and deals with them as though they were bit

players in the epic story of Russia. Because of the political

content, Tolstoy's original publisher refused to print this part

of the novel. He summarized it in a prose section entitled

'What Happened After the Death of Anna Karenina.' A crucial

event in this part is Levin's religious illumination. This is

important in personal terms because Levin is the hero of the

book, and in larger terms because Levin represents Tolstoy's

hope for the future of Russia.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS I-V

Tolstoy launches right into the Slavic question--you recall

that in 1875 the Slavs living in the Ottoman Empire revolted

against the Turks' discrimination against them. A good number

of Russians supported fighting on behalf of the Slavs.

Take careful note of which characters support the Slavic

cause. Sergey, Levin's very intellectual half-brother (you

remember his and Levin's arguments on the zemstvos and the

peasants earlier in the novel) joined the cause after the book

he'd been working on for years got terrible reviews and sold

poorly. Stiva, who is doing his best to maneuver his way into

government, also supports the Russian campaign. Vronsky, too,

is a supporter.

Again there is a scene at a train station. Vronsky, you

learn, was next to death himself after Anna's suicide. He seems

to be going to war as an honorable way of committing suicide.

Once the stalwart soldier, he now appears feeble, wracked by

grief, and suffering monstrously from, of all things, a

toothache. Tolstoy seems to be making fun of Vronsky here:

It's one thing for a soldier to die heroically, quite another

for him to suffer a toothache. You may recall that Tolstoy

previously used Vronsky's strong jaw and even teeth to symbolize

his masculinity.

All of the characters who participate in the Slavic campaign

are in some way defeated individuals. Tolstoy uses them not

only to express his own opposition to Russian involvement in the

Slavic war, but to express his belief that men like these will

be the ruin of Russia if allowed to have a strong hand in policy

making.

ANNA KARENINA: CHAPTERS VI-XIX

Sergey goes to visit the Levins, and the scene shifts to

their estate.

The big excitement there is that the baby has begun to

recognize those close to him. Kitty, musing on this

development, reflects on her husband's restlessness as well.

The more Levin studies, the more lost he feels. He can't

reconcile himself to the fact that when Kitty was in labor he

prayed, although he never recognized in himself anything

resembling faith in God. His mind tells him not to believe in

God, yet somewhere in himself is a longing for faith.

Levin's turning point comes when he has a talk with Theodore,

a peasant. Theodore tells him that one must not live for one's

belly, but must remember God and live for one's soul. Levin

sees the light--he equates God with goodness, realizing that

goodness is beyond the chain of cause and effect. It's

important that a peasant helped Levin to this realization--it

underscores Levin's full partnership with those who work for

him.

Levin feels euphoric, thinking that he'll never again be

cross with anyone, that he'll only be kind. But then he snaps

at a peasant, and is made aware that just because he has found

faith does not mean he'll be perfect. But in his new state of

grace, Levin can live with the fact that to be human is to be

flawed.

On his way back home, Levin is told that his wife and son

have gone to the woods. Suddenly, there is a thunderstorm. He

is terrified that they might be struck by lightning. When he

reaches them, he finds them drenched but safe. The storm has

symbolic value: Remember that Tolstoy has used a stormy sky to

represent the storminess in Levin's soul. After the rain, the

sky is clear. And water is a traditional symbol of

purification; it is as though Levin is baptized by the rain.

The final incident in Anna Karenina shows Mitya recognizing

his father. For the first time, Levin sees that not only is the

older generation constantly thinking of the younger, but that

the younger thinks also of the older. It is as if a great

circle is finally complete.

ANNA KARENINA: TOLSTOY AT WORK

When Anna Karenina began to appear in the Russian Herald,

long galley proofs were sent to Father, which he corrected and

revised till the proof sheets were so blotched and blackened

that no one but maman could decipher the black web of signs,

transpositions, and deletions.

She would sit up all night making a fresh copy of the whole

thing. In the morning the new pages, covered with her small

clear handwriting, would be neatly piled on her table, ready to

be sent back by post 'when Lyovochka gets up.' But first papa

had to take them to his study to look over them 'for the last

time,' and by evening it was the same thing all over again:

everything had been rewritten and scribbled over.

-Ilya Tolstoy, Tolstoy, My Father, 1971

ANNA KARENINA: ON THEMES

Anna Karenina is not a book with a single theme, but many

themes. We can easily assume that Tolstoy wanted to

recapitulate for himself and for his readers everything that he

knew about men, women, and life. In this great summing-up,

however, there is no catharsis, no resolution. For just as

Anna's despair intensified but distorted her sensibilities just

before her suicide, the edge of crisis and conversion sharpened

and deepened Tolstoy's already comprehensive vision of life.

And because Tolstoy was morally and artistically no longer

capable of simplifying that vision, the many themes of Anna

Karenina resist resolution and coexist only in a fragile

equilibrium.

-Ruth Crego Benson, Women in Tolstoy, 1973

The real tragedy of Anna, and of certain characters in

Hardy's novels who perished like her, is that they are

unfaithful to the greater unwritten morality. All the while,

by their own souls they were right.

-D. H. Lawrence, as quoted in

D. H. Lawrence and Tolstoy: A Critical Debate,

by Henry Gifford and Raymond Williams, 1959

ANNA KARENINA: ON WOMEN

And his attitude toward women is one of implacable

hostility. There is nothing he likes so much as to punish

them--unless they are just ordinary women like Kitty. Is it

the revenge of a man who has not achieved as much happiness as

he is capable of, or the hostility of the spirit toward the

'humiliating impulses of the flesh'? Whatever it is, it is

hostility, and very bitter, as in Anna Karenina.

-Maxim Gorky, Lev Tolstoj. Sobranie socinenija, 1951,

as quoted in Women in Tolstoy

I was sitting downstairs in my study and observing a very

beautiful silk line on the sleeve of my robe. I was thinking

about how people get the idea in their head to invent all those

patterns and ornaments of embroidery, and that there exists a

whole world of woman's work, fashions, ideas, by which women

live. All that must be very cheerful, and I understood that

women could love this and occupy themselves with it. And, of

course, at once my ideas moved to Anna and suddenly that line of

thought gave me a whole chapter. Anna is deprived of all these

joys of occupying herself with the woman's side of life, because

she is alone. All women have turned away from her, and she has

nobody to talk to about all that which composes the everyday,

purely feminine occupations.

-Leo Tolstoy, as recorded in his wife's diary,

November 20, 1876

How many unforgettable, personal and characteristic feelings

and sensations of Anna Karenina are preserved in our memory--but

not one thought, not one personal, peculiar word exclusively her

own, not even about love. her complete absorption in passion

is such that she shields us precisely from intelligence,

consciousness, higher selflessness and the unsensual aspect of

the soul. Who or what is she beyond love? We know nothing

of this, or almost nothing. Yet surely it is possible that

we see the body and soul, even the 'personality' of Frou-Frou

with no less clarity, for Vronsky's horse also has her own

'night soul,' her elemental-animal face--and this face is one of

the characters of the tragedy. If it is true, as someone

affirms, that Vronsky seems like a stallion in an aide-de-camp's

uniform, then his horse seems like a charming woman. And, not

without purpose, there emerges an elusive, mysteriously ominous

fusion of the 'eternally feminine' in the charm of Frou-Frou and

Anna Karenina, which later deepens more and more.

-D. S. Merezhkovsky,

L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky:

Life, Work, Religion, 1912

ANNA KARENINA: ON STRUCTURE AND STYLE

The unity in structure is created not by action and not by

relationships between the characters, but by an inner

continuity.

-Leo Tolstoy, in a letter, January 27, 1878

Two words about Anna Karenina--this is indubitably your best

work. The book lacks architectonics. Two themes not

connected in any way develop in the novel side by side, and they

develop magnificently. How I enjoyed the acquaintance of Levin

with Anna Karenina. You must agree that this is one of the best

episodes of the novel. Here the opportunity presented itself to

tie together all the threads of the story and to provide a

unified conclusion. But you did not want this. Anna

Karenina will nevertheless remain the best contemporary novel

and you the first contemporary writer.

-S. A. Rachinsky (a university professor in Moscow

who wrote frequently about literature), 1878

We are not to take Anna Karenine as a work of art; we are to

take it as a piece of life. A piece of life it is.

-Matthew Arnold, 'Count Leo Tolstoy,' first published

in the Fortnightly Review, December 1887

Tolstoy is the greatest Russian writer of prose fiction.

Leaving aside his precursors Pushkin and Lermontov, we might

list the greatest artists in Russian prose thus: first,

Tolstoy; second, Gogol; third, Chekhov; fourth, Turgenev. This

is rather like grading students' papers and no doubt Dostoevski

and Saltykov are waiting at the door of my office to discuss

their low marks.

One discovery that [Tolstoy] made has curiously enough never

been noticed by critics. He discovered--and certainly never

realized his discovery--he discovered a method of picturing life

which most pleasingly and exactly corresponds to our idea of

time. He is the only writer I know of whose watch keeps time

with the numberless watches of his readers. All the great

writers have good eyes, and the 'realism,' as it is called, of

Tolstoy's descriptions, has been deepened by others; and though

the average Russian reader will tell you that what seduces him

in Tolstoy is the absolute reality of his novels, the sensation

of meeting old friends and seeing familiar places, this is

neither here nor there. Others were equally good at vivid

description. What really seduces the average reader is the gift

Tolstoy had of endowing his fiction with such time-values as

correspond exactly to our sense of time. It is a mysterious

accomplishment which is not so much a laudable feature of genius

as something pertaining to the physical nature of that genius.

This time balance, absolutely peculiar to Tolstoy alone, is what

gives the gentle reader that sense of average reality which he

is apt to ascribe to Tolstoy's keen vision. Tolstoy's prose

keeps pace with our pulses, his characters seem to move with the

same swing as the people passing under our window while we sit

reading his book.

No wonder, then, that elderly Russians at their evening tea

talk of Tolstoy's characters as of people who really exist,

people to whom their friends may be likened, people they see as

distinctly as if they had danced with Kitty and Anna or Natasha

at that ball or dined with Oblonski at his favorite

restaurant, Readers call Tolstoy a giant not because other

writers are dwarfs but because he remains always of exactly our

own stature, exactly keeping pace with us instead of passing by

in the distance, as other authors do.

-Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Russian Literature, 1981

THE END