Anna Karenina Readalong, 2023

[StColumbofNavron]

Following the success of W&P in 2022, we’ve decided to stick with Tolstoy for 2023 and read Anna Karenina, one chapter per day.

For newbies: we simply read one chapter a day and discussion is allowed with a broader chat at the end of each section. Tolstoy’s chapters are nice and short, flicking through average length is about 4 pages.

I have used the Penguin Classics (2001, 2003) trans. by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky for the breakdown below. More on editions below.

There are 249 chapters in this edition and the book is in 8 parts taking us to 14 September with a break of a day between each book. Hopefully, irrespective of the edition you pick the finishing of each ‘book’ will hopefully align.

Book 1, ch. 1-34 (1 Jan-3 Feb)
BREAK, 4 Feb
Book 2, ch. 1-35 (5 Feb-11 Mar)
BREAK, 12 March
Book 3, ch. 1-32 (13 Mar-13 Apr)
BREAK, 14 Apr
Book 4, ch. 1-23 (15 Apr-7 May)
BREAK, 8 May
Book 5, ch. 1-33 (9 May-10 Jun)
BREAK, 11 Jun
Book 6, ch. 1-32 (12 Jun-14 Jul)
BREAK, 15 Jul
Book 7, ch. 1-31 (16 Jul-15 Aug)
BREAK, 16 Aug
Book 8, ch. 1-29 (17 Aug-14 Sept)

Some info on different translations and editions in the links below. Maud, Aylmer and Pevear and Volonkhonsky all present once again.

Wikipedia here
Tolstoy Therapy
New York Times
Some thoughts on Pevear and Volonkhonsky contenting the Russian Lit market

For reasons best known to me (largely foolish) I decided look up and work it all out on my phone instead of laptop, so apologies for any inaccuracies, typos etc. I am certain I have forgotten something, got my numbering wrong somewhere, but hopefully broadly correct.

All that remains is to say welcome back to those who are remaining committed to Tolstoy, thank you to those who organised and helped the last read run smoothly and welcome, do come in to those joining.

p.s. I would love to see the covers of your books.

25/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 13

•	In this chapter we're back to the drama of Anna and her husband.
•	

Little known fact about Karenin: he can't watch a woman or child crying and remain calm.
•
When Anna bursts into tears after confessing her relations with Vronsky, Karenin seeks to suppress all his emotions and tried not to move or look at her. This makes him look like death, according to Anna.
•
• At home, he helps her out of the carriage and tells her he will inform her of his decision about what to do tomorrow.
•
Oddly enough, Karenin experiences a feeling of liberation by having his worst fears confirmed.
•
Karenin begins thinking about what the best way out of the situation is—the way that would most benefit him.
•
He thinks about other female infidelities in high society.
•
He rejects the idea of dueling with Vronsky.
•
Because of the scandals they would cause, he discards the idea of divorce or separation. He also dislikes the idea of Anna and Vronsky being happy. He is suddenly seized with a desire to make them suffer.
•
Karenin decides that the only solution is for his marriage to continue, under the condition that Anna stop seeing Vronsky. He's pleased that this decision coincides with what religion would tell him to do.
•
• He sees no point in changing his relations with his wife, although he will never respect her in the same way. Also, he believes she should be unhappy.

26/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 14

•	When Karenin arrives in Petersburg, he goes straight to his study and orders his servants not to admit anyone.
•	

He writes Anna a letter expressing his confidence that she has repented of her actions and asking her to return to Petersburg as soon as possible. He encloses money.
•
Karenin is extremely pleased by the letter.
•
He sits down to enjoy a French book, but he looks at the portrait of Anna in his study and is distracted. She seems to be challenging him.

•	He goes back to his book but can't concentrate.
•	

He begins thinking about some complicated official business.
•
After he writes out a summary of his ideas for fixing the problem, he feels good. The portrait no longer bothers him, and he can concentrate on his book.

I feel the same way @JamesGiantPledge1. My sympathies are with Anna because she is a vibrant personality whereas her husband is such a cold fish. But on the other hand it's quite natural for him to feel vindictive towards someone who has cheated on him with another man.

27/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 15

•	Despite what she told Vronsky, Anna has been longing to come clean to her husband about her affair.
•	

So after confessing everything to Karenin after the races, Anna feels better. She feels that despite what may come, her position will be clear, and there will be no more need for lying or deceit.
•
The next morning, Anna wakes up and thinks about what she said to her husband. She is horrified and wishes that she hadn't said everything that she did.
•
• Then she thinks about Vronsky, whom she saw last night but didn't tell. She realizes that she kept quiet because she was ashamed.
•
Anna realizes that her husband has the power to drive her out of her house, and she feels like a burden to Vronsky.
•
This line of thought leaves her with nowhere to go. Anna can't make up her mind about anything, and has no desire to interact with anyone.
•
Anna's maid Annushka comes in, saying that she thought she heard a bell. Annushka gives Anna a note from Betsy, inviting Anna for a game of croquet.
•
Anna dismisses her maid, and continues feeling completely lost. Although she repeats "my God!" over and over again, she knows that religion cannot help her, in the same way that Karenin cannot help her.
•
She clutches her hair with both hands.
•
Annushka comes in to tell Anna that her son is waiting for her.
•
• The idea of her son jerks Anna out of her hopelessness and gives her a direct goal. She can't leave her son. She decides that she must take her son and go away.
•
She goes down to breakfast and spends time with her son for a while.
•
Later, she decides that they will go to Moscow, taking only Annushka, Seryozha, and bare necessities.
•
She goes back to her room to write notes to Karenin and Vronsky.
•
She writes to Karenin that she can no longer remain in the house and that she is leaving with their son.
•
She begins a letter to Vronsky, but can't finish it.
•
She tells her staff that she is leaving that evening for Moscow, and begins packing.

28/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 16

•	Despite what she told Vronsky, Anna has been longing to come clean to her husband about her affair.
•	So after confessing everything to Karenin after the races, Anna feels better. She feels that despite what may come, her position will be clear, and there will be no more need for lying or deceit.

•	The next morning, Anna wakes up and thinks about what she said to her husband. She is horrified and wishes that she hadn't said everything that she did.

•	Then she thinks about Vronsky, whom she saw last night but didn't tell. She realizes that she kept quiet because she was ashamed.
•	
•	Anna realizes that her husband has the power to drive her out of her house, and she feels like a burden to Vronsky.
•	This line of thought leaves her with nowhere to go. Anna can't make up her mind about anything, and has no desire to interact with anyone.

•	Anna's maid Annushka comes in, saying that she thought she heard a bell. Annushka gives Anna a note from Betsy, inviting Anna for a game of croquet.

•	Anna dismisses her maid, and continues feeling completely lost. Although she repeats "my God!" over and over again, she knows that religion cannot help her, in the same way that Karenin cannot help her.

•	She clutches her hair with both hands.

•	Annushka comes in to tell Anna that her son is waiting for her.

•	The idea of her son jerks Anna out of her hopelessness and gives her a direct goal. She can't leave her son. She decides that she must take her son and go away.

•	She goes down to breakfast and spends time with her son for a while.

•	Later, she decides that they will go to Moscow, taking only Annushka, Seryozha, and bare necessities.
•	She goes back to her room to write notes to Karenin and Vronsky.
•	She writes to Karenin that she can no longer remain in the house and that she is leaving with their son.
•	
•	She begins a letter to Vronsky, but can't finish it.
•	She tells her staff that she is leaving that evening for Moscow, and begins packing.

29/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 17

•	Two important guests at Princess Betsy's party, Liza Merkolov and Sappho Stolz, both belong to a new, select social circle that is openly hostile with Anna's. To make things even more awkward, Liza Merkolov's admirer, an old man named Stremov, is one of Karenin's enemies in the office. So Anna had initially not wanted to go to this gathering, but she changes her mind because she wants to see Vronsky.
&bull;	Anna arrives early and sees Vronsky's footman; she remembers only then that Vronsky had said the day before that he was <span class="italic">not</span> going to attend the party.
&bull;	It's already too late for her to turn back or to send a note with Vronsky's footman, so she enters.
&bull;	
&bull;	Betsy and Anna go have a cozy chat over tea.
&bull;	Anna lies and says that she can't stay long, because she says she promised to go see Countess Vrede.
&bull;	Betsy takes the note from Vronsky's footman and tells Anna that Vronsky can't come today. Although Anna is certain that Princess Betsy knows all, the casual way that she mentions Vronsky to Anna makes it appear as though she genuinely knows nothing of the affair.
&bull;	

They make small talk about the party's guests, but Anna can tell by Betsy's face that her friend is formulating a plan.
•
Betsy says that she has to respond to Vronsky's note, and writes something. Then she leaves Anna in the room for a moment. Anna runs over and writes her own note to Vronsky asking him to be at Vrede's garden at six o'clock.
•
Betsy sends off the note.
•
Betsy and Anna talk about Lisa Merkolov, who admires Anna. In fact, Betsy tells Anna that Liza has described Anna as "a real heroine from a novel and that if she were a man she would have committee a thousand follies for [Anna]" (3.17.22).
•
The other guests arrive.

30/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 18

•	The women guests to Princess Betsy's house are beautiful, striking, and have fabulously extravagant clothes.

•	Anna finds Liza Merkolov more attractive than Baroness Sappho.
•	

Liza asks Anna her secret to never being bored.
•
Old Stremov makes a point of being particularly flattering and cordial to Anna.
•
Anna is pleased by this company—it's fun and easy, whereas what awaits her in Countess Vrede's garden is hard and difficult.
• Nevertheless, Anna expresses her regrets and leaves for her rendezvous with Vronsky

31/03/23

Part 3, Chapter 19

&bull;	In spite of the fact that Vronsky <span class="italic">seems</span> like this young guy about town, he's actually really particular about keeping his accounts in order.
&bull;	When he was young, he tried to get a loan and got refused and the humiliation has made him totally serious about keeping himself financially squared away.
&bull;	In keeping with this hidden nature, Vronsky does his accounts from top to bottom five times a year.
&bull;	This is one of those days, and we get a detailed summary of his financial situation.
&bull;	It turns out that Vronsky is not as wealthy as he would like to be. His mother has been withholding money due to her displeasure over his affair with Anna. In her last letter, she essentially tried to bribe him into giving up the affair. He refuses, writing a short, sharp letter to his mother, and instead resolves to borrow ten thousand from a moneylender, to cut down his expenses, and to sell his racehorses to cover all of his bills.

A minor point, but I had to laugh when the character repeatedly referred to as 'old Stremov' and 'an old man' turns out to be ... drumroll ... 50!

I know we've seen before that Tolstoy has a habit of describing middle-aged women as old. At least we're getting a bit of gender equity I guess? 😀

I think Stremov still fares better than his middle-aged female counterparts. The description of his looks seems to paint him as suave and debonair, where there is no saving grace at all for women past their twenties. I'm still cross at Tolstoy's description of a female character's squat figure and stumpy legs at the spa (I can't remember her name at the moment. The religious woman who was an invalid).

Chapter twenty outlines Vronsky's shifting moral code. He sounds flakey to say the least, which is what we were surmising since the start of their affair.

01/04/23

Part 3, Chapter 20

•	Vronsky's life is both contented and simple because he follows his own, unquestionable set of rules, which govern all the possibilities in his narrow range of experience. This includes extramarital relationships: he knows all about how to treat a woman he's sleeping with on the down low (i.e., treat her with all respect; her husband's just an interfering tick; if the husband challenges Vronsky to a duel, he'll be available to answer it).
•	Lately, however, his relationship with Anna has been taking new directions outside of his comfort zone, and he doesn't know what do anymore. For instance, he doesn't know how to deal with the fact that Anna is pregnant. This is a new situation for him.
•	
•	He decides that he can't take her away if he continues serving in the military.
•	This line of thought leads him to think about his guiding passion: his own ambition.
•	He made a mistake early in his career in trying too hard to display his independence.
•	For a time, his affair with Anna distracted him from his ambition.
•	Last week, however, his childhood playmate and colleague of the same age, same wealth, same education and same rank, Serpukhovskoy, was promoted twice and awarded important distinctions unusual for an officer of his youth.
•	Vronsky decides that it actually doesn't matter, because he has something more important: Anna's love. With her love, he decides, he has put his emotional affairs in order: Anna's like that ten thousand rubles he borrowed from that moneylender in the previous chapter.
•	He now feels serene and resolute because he has put things in order.

I’ve been trying to catch up for weeks, but finally caved and paid £2.99 for the Penguin Kindle version. I have my own Penguin battered copy, but I realised that because it’s in actual book form and the print is really quite little, I can only read it at certain points of the day and if I miss the window then I get behind. Ridiculous really, as I enjoy reading on my Kindle, but I’m just very attached to this copy with all the creases in the spine from other readings and attempted readings.

I am also really enjoying it, even the Levin farming bits, I’m enjoying those far more than I did last time, though I’ve never hated them as some do. I think Tolstoy gets a good balance of not allowing us to be bored with either strand putting it down just as we are getting into it.

Whats interesting from Betsy and her salon is that Anna and Vronsky are not particularly unique in carrying out an affair and of course we are given no insight into what the other affairs are like but it all seems to be broadly ok at some level.

02/04/23

Part 3, Chapter 21

•	Petritsky comes in to their shared cottage, and tells Vronsky that their colonel is expecting him.
•	Vronsky asks why music is playing.
•	Petritsky tells him that Serpukhovskoy has arrived (that's the childhood friend of his who has just gotten two promotions and a decoration). Having decided to sacrifice his ambition for his love for Anna, Vronsky no longer feels any sort of jealousy. In fact, he's looking forward to catching up with his old friend.
&bull;	Debauchery ensues at the party for Serpukhovskoy. Particularly notable is a keg&mdash;yes, a <span class="italic">keg</span>&mdash;of vodka.
&bull;	
&bull;	Vronsky and Serpukhovskoy have a conversation that turns to ambition versus women. Serpukhovskoy argues that Russia needs men like Vronsky (i.e., men of independent means who are harder to buy off, as opposed to agitators like the communists) and that women are the primary obstacles to men advancing in their career. Marriage, Serpukhovskoy argues, is the only answer.
&bull;	According to Vronsky, Serpukhovskoy has simply never been in love.
&bull;	Serpukhovskoy says that's possible, but tells Vronsky to remember that women are more materialistic than men, and that men tend to view love as something vast and abstract.
&bull;	A footman comes up with Betsy's note. As soon as he reads it, Vronsky promptly says he has a headache and must go home.

03/04/23

Part 3, Chapter 22

•	Vronsky uses Yashvin's hired carriage so that he's not recognized as he heads over to his date with Anna.
•	He's quite cheerful and happy to be meeting the woman he loves.
•	When he gets to the gardens, he recognizes Anna immediately although she is veiled.
•	Anna tells him that her husband now knows everything.
•	Vronsky becomes stern and proud because he believes Karenin will challenge him to a duel. Anna misinterprets his expression, believing instead that he feels offended for some reason.
•	
•	They don't understand each other. Anna feels betrayed and thinks that her situation must continue as before, and Vronsky feels that there's no way Anna can continue being Karenin's wife.
•	Anna then brings up the question of Seryozha.
•	Both of them feel miserable and helpless, particularly Vronsky, who feels like everything is his fault.

I keep on reading the wrong chapters!

Good point about the middle-aged (old!) women being depicted as even less attractive than the middle-aged (old!) men.

And I agree, Vronsky's moral code seems mostly to be about reinforcing his own image of himself. Duels -- he's up for them!

He's not the kind of man you can turn to in a crisis, which is what poor Anna is discovering.

StColumbo said, Whats interesting from Betsy and her salon is that Anna and Vronsky are not particularly unique in carrying out an affair and of course we are given no insight into what the other affairs are like but it all seems to be broadly ok at some level.

That's interesting, and the fact that the book started out with an extramarital affair (Stepan Oblonsky cheating on Dolly) is also worth remembering. I think we see a spectrum of views about marriage in this novel: at one end of the spectrum is Levin, very idealistic; and at the other end are Betsy and the members of her salon. Anna and her husband (and maybe also Dolly and her husband?) are stuck somewhere in the middle, trying to negotiate the competing demands of familial obligation and desire.

In Ch 15 it's said of Anna that 'everything was beginning to go double in her soul, as an object sometimes goes double in tired eyes.' Such a great metaphor. And Tolstoy comes back to it in the next chapter: 'Again she felt that things had begun to go double in her soul.'

This is a bit random as an anecdote, but I read AK a long time ago (I read a lot of long 19th c. novels in my late teens and early twenties, and they didn't really stay with me for the most part). And literally the only bit I remembered about this novel was that Anna's husband, when he found out she'd been unfaithful, spoke to her using the French 'vous' form instead of the formal Russian 'you', because the formal Russian you was too formal. I don't know why this weird detail stuck in my head. I suspect it was because I was learning French at the time, and the French 'vous' already seemed very formal to me, so it was strange for me to imagine an even more formal 'you'! Anyway, I started to wonder whether I had hallucinated this detail about the novel, but no, there it was in Ch 14! It's Alexei A writing his 'what I expect of you' letter to Anna. Very gratifying, ha. Although I noticed that Vronsky is said at one point to say 'vous' to Anna as well.

Just geeking out here a little over forms of 'you' address in different languages 😁

04/04/23

Part 3, Chapter 23

•	On Monday, Karenin has a Commission meeting during which he successfully reaches his objectives (which are not elaborated). He's successful in convincing everyone of his point of view on National Minorities; the next day no one talks about anything else. What's even better, he manages to triumph over that rival of his we met at Princess Betsy's croquet party, Stremov.
•	On Tuesday, Karenin is in his study, completely absorbed in work with his secretary. He forgets that today is the day he told Anna to return home.

•	He ignores her for a while, even after a servant tells him of her arrival.

•	Finally, she goes in to see him. He blushes, which is not something he does frequently. He tries to say something, but keeps stopping. In spite of herself, Anna feels sorry for him.
•	
•	Anna takes the lead in the conversation. She really wants her position to be clarified. She doesn't see how they can go on living as husband and wife under the circumstances.
•	Karenin's retort is that she doesn't have to perform her wifely obligations (read: sleep with her husband), but that he doesn't ever want to see Vronsky in the house, and that he doesn't want either society or the servants to have just cause to reproach her.

@cassandre loved your post, I geek out over that sort of thing too!

05/04/23

Part 3, Chapter 24

•	We now return to Levin in the country. After his transformative experience out on the haystack, Levin now feels completely disappointed with farming. That moment when he wanted to become a peasant has left him feeling, perversely, even more at odds with the peasants who are working for him: he's disgusted by their resistance to his reforms.
•	

He has profitable innovations he wants to implement, but the laborers want to work as easily as possible, with lots of breaks and without having to think too hard. They don't want to alter the way they've been farming.
•
Making everything worse is the presence of Kitty Shcherbatsky less than twenty miles away. Still, he refuses to go and see her. He doesn't want to be Kitty's fallback plan—it would be terrible for her to accept him as her husband just because Vronsky didn't want her.

•	Dolly tries to engineer a meeting between the two by sending over a request to Levin for a sidesaddle that she knows he has. He sends the saddle over without going himself, and he's furious with Dolly for trying to arrange a meeting between Kitty and himself when he's sure that Kitty doesn't want to see him.
•	

To take his mind off his troubles, Levin decides to visit his friend Sviyazhsky. He has excellent snipe marshes, and Levin had long ago promised to go shooting with him.

I hadn’t picked up as much as I should have that Anna was about to go double in her soul. It’s a great phrase and can apply to so many scenarios in life where there is no clear cut and easy answer. I keep now thinking of that.

And poor Anna, Vronsky is so not equipped for dealing with a pregnant mistress who already has a child by another man. Something I’ve seen in my friends - a man enjoying an affair, it’s all exciting and he probably believes he’s up for this and saving the woman from her unhappy life. He’s a hero and saviour in his mind. And then the reality hits - pregnant woman who isn’t feeling on top form, the custody battle over the child, disposable income no long stretching to doing fun things as now there are more expenses ………. It’s a show motion car crash.

FFS, Levin is a total pillock, isn't he. I can just imagine him going to the gym for 5 minutes then mansplaining how to use the kit to some woman who's been working out for the last X years. I'm really hoping that Kitty won't marry him now, surely she can do better than either Vronsky or Levin - there must be other men out there?

(For the record, I've used an old school horse drawn tedder, bits fall off all the sodding time. Yes much faster than turning by hand, if you have the skills to coddle it into good behaviour. Strangely, if you're a peasant whose landlord doesn't believe in education, that's perhaps less likely. )

06/04/23

Part 3, Chapter 25

•	Since there's no other form of transportation to the Surovsky District (where his friend Sviyazhsky lives), Levin drives himself.
•	

He stops halfway at the home of a rich peasant to feed his horses.
•
The old man talks easily to Levin, has a wonderfully prosperous farm, and is not at all against innovation.
•
The old man has carefully expanded his farm through hard work. He began by leasing land that he eventually purchased. He then used the profits from farming his first plot of land to lease a second and so on. He has been plowing his hundred acres alongside his own sons, nephews, and daughters-in-law. The farm holds together because it is the group effort of a strong family. Each member of the family does his or her own work, and are willing to try their own innovations because it's all in the name of advancing the family's profits.

•	The old man's household is happy and impresses Levin.

I kind of like Levin! I like how he gets swept up in things in the heat of the moment. I agree that he's being a pillock where Kitty is concerned though.

Thanks for the farming input @Sadik!

Every time I start to like Levin, he says something that puts me off him again.

Finding myself highly amused by Levin's desperate attempts not to look at a provoking décolletage today. That's very Levin!