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.

Yes, I had the same thought progression, Tarahumara: assuming it was all in Levin's head and then realising it wasn't all in his head; V's flirting was just considered within the range of acceptable social behaviour.

@StColumbofNavron , how was the play?

@cassandre It was ok, it got great reviews but not sure it totally worked for me. No spoilers but does anyone envisage Dolly as a shouty, sweary woman? It was clever but not quite for me.

Um no, that isn't how I see Dolly at all!

I really don't see Dolly as shouty either. I imagine her as a frazzled mum posting about her useless DH & (in other threads) fretting about school choices & the difficulty of getting DC to do their homework.

Bit torn about Levin - Veslovsky was dumped on them, and is obviously annoying, but equally he shouldn't be jumping to conclusions about Kitty's responses. I do love his directness in getting rid of him though. The sort of thing one would be advised to do on here with a troublesome guest, but could never actually carry out IRL.

I agree, that portrayal of Dolly seems quite different to the one in the novel. I also imagine her as a frazzled mum, one who seems more exhausted than angry. Though today's chapter says that she's inherited her father's gift for comic storytelling, and that surprised me a little. Maybe I have been imagining her as too passive.

😁at Levin behaving with a directness that would win the approval of MNers!

27th June
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 16

•	Dolly goes to see Anna.
•	Rather than letting her hire horses from the village, Levin, knowing Dolly's financial situation and mindful of his duty as a host, insists that she use his own. Dolly had originally meant to hire horses, because she knows that the Levin family wants absolutely nothing to do with Vronsky.
•	During the four-hour drive, Dolly is able truly to reflect on her life. She realizes that her whole existence consists of having children and raising them—a lot of morning sickness, sleepless nights, and endless grumpiness. Her husband doesn't find her attractive and now all of them are barely staying afloat financially.
•	
•	Looking at a crowd of merry peasant women, Dolly envies their joy in living. She thinks of other women she knows, Anna in particular, who are fully living life.
•	Dolly starts to envy Anna, even though Anna has been thrown out of society, and Dolly starts to daydream about all the men who have admired her over the years. Maybe she could have an affair with one of them, she thinks, grinning as she imagines the look on her husband's face when she tells him she is in love with another man.

It's a bit of a coincidence that we were just talking about Dolly, and today's chapter was completely devoted to her! I thought it was a great chapter and really fleshed her out as a character. I liked the way she identified both with the peasant girl and with Anna.

I'm not sure what to make of the peasant girl's attitude toward her deceased child though. Hope Tolstoy's not implying that peasants feel things less deeply 🙄

28th June
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 17

•	They stop to ask a peasant for directions to the count's estate, but four horses suddenly appear. It's Anna, Vronsky, Veslovsky, and Princess Barbara.
•	Anna appears dignified, calm, and elegant. Although Dolly thinks that the sight of a mature woman on horseback is a little unusual, she still thinks that Anna manages to pull it off.
•	Anna is overjoyed to see Dolly.
•	Dolly greets Vronsky and Veslovsky as well, but is noticeably displeased by the presence of Princess Barbara (or Varvara, in some later translations), who spends her life freeloading off of her rich relatives.
•	
•	Vronsky's riding party has a really elegant charabanc (a kind of carriage) to take them home, and Dolly feels awkward with her dirty carriage and unmatched horses. (In this society, if you had four horses drawing your carriage, you wanted them all to look alike. Wealthy people should have matching horses.)
•	Dolly and Anna ride in Dolly's carriage. Dolly is struck by Anna's beauty—the beauty of a woman in love.
•	Some peasants are observing the scene, and they mistake Veslovsky for a woman because he's riding sidesaddle even though he's wearing pants.

29th June
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 18

•	Anna looks at Dolly and thinks that she's grown uglier—she's thin and, in an evocative image, the narrator describes her as having dust in her wrinkles.
•	Anna's about to comment on Dolly's change when she realizes that would be rude, especially when she, Anna, is looking so much prettier. So instead, she says that, while it may seem impossible given her situation, she is unbelievably happy.
•	Dolly tells Anna that she's always loved her, and that if you love someone, you love them as they are, and not as you want them to be.
•	
•	Anna narrows her eyes, an expression that Dolly has never seen before, which seems to convey emotional consideration on Anna's part.
•	As the carriage barrels along to the estate, it's clear that the estate is wealthy. The house is beautiful, too.
•	Dolly receives an apology for the state of her guest room, but she finds it to be full of every kind of luxury.
•	Dolly makes a point of saying that she's comfortable staying with the Levins. She, however, oddly ill at ease answering questions about her children.
•	Anna tells her that she's going to change for dinner, and will send a maid over to Dolly.

30th June
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 19

•	The maid who comes in to assist Dolly is fashionable and expensive-looking. Dolly feels ill at ease in her old, mended clothes.
•	Anna takes Dolly to see Annie, the baby.
•	The nursery is also filled with nice, expensive things. It's clear, though, that Anna is far from being an attentive parent.
•	When Seryozha comes up in the conversation, Anna narrows her eyes again, as she did in the previous chapter.
•	Anna gives Dolly a rundown of all the people in the house.
•	
•	Anna explains that Princess Barbara has a kind heart, despite what Dolly and Oblonsky think of her (i.e., that she's a leech on her wealthy relatives).
•	Sviyazhsky is that friend of Levin's of whom we see so much in Part 3, who seems to live his life completely at odds with his political convictions. He's there because he wants something from Vronsky.
•	Veslovsky is also visiting, as is an estate manager, a doctor, and an architect. Anna gives a crooked smile to Dolly when she mentions that she's heard something about a fight between Levin and Veslovsky, which she can't believe because Veslovsky seems like such an innocent man.

1st July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 20

•	Anna takes Dolly to Princess Barbara, who immediately starts talking in the most condescending and complacent way about doing her duty to keep Anna company. It is not for her to judge the relationship between Vronsky and Anna.
•	Dolly thinks that Princess Barbara is okay with their adultery simply because of all the comforts she can get out of Anna and Vronsky.
•	In general, Dolly feels uncomfortable with the company.
•	They have two hours until dinner, and all sorts of amusements are proposed.
•	
•	In the end, they tour a hospital that Vronsky is building. He's passionate and proud of it.
•	During the tour, Dolly sees how Anna could have fallen for him. She is attracted to his excitement and passion.

2nd July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 21

•	Vronsky asks to talk to Dolly. She notes that he's going bald.
•	Vronsky is concerned about legalizing his family situation. If, for instance, he has more children with Anna, they would all legally be Karenin's kids.
•	He begs Dolly to use her influence with Anna. Apparently, Anna refuses to talk about the situation every time Vronsky brings it up for discussion.
•	Vronsky says that he and Anna are bound together for life. Vronsky also talks of the many responsibilities he has assumed and speaks passionately about them.
•	
•	Dolly suddenly realizes that Anna's new habit of narrowing her eyes always happens when a topic of conversation arises that Anna doesn't want to address. Dolly speculates that Anna is trying to shut her eyes to the world.
•	Dolly promises to try to talk to Anna.

3rd July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 22

•	Before dinner, Anna leaves Dolly to change, which Dolly thinks is rather funny, because she has already worn her best dress.
•	Dolly cleans up a little with the help of the maid, whereas Anna comes into the room wearing her third beautiful dress of the day.
•	Anna notes that her life is rather formal, in a sort of condescending way.
•	Dinner is a grand affair.
•	Dolly, as the head of a household, looks at all the details with a hostess's eye. She knows that none of these wonderful details is effortless. After some speculation, Dolly realizes that Vronsky is responsible for all the magnificence. Anna is as oblivious as the rest of the guests to all the effort that such a grand dinner requires.
•	
•	Anna does, however, direct the flow of the conversation to involve everyone from the estate manager to the architect, both of whom occupy a lower social stratum than the rest of the aristocratic guests.
•	Dolly notes an unfavorable new trait in Anna of youthful coquetry.
•	Veslovsky flirts with Anna, who looks displeased but does not put a stop to it.
•	Vronsky doesn't seem to mind at all, but rather encourages it.
•	Later the conversation turns to Levin and his antipathy for public service. The general opinion is unfavorable, although Dolly sticks up for him. She worries later that she may have been too rude.
•	Vronsky has many new governmental posts, which Dolly can tell that Anna doesn't wholeheartedly support.
•	Dolly feels ill at ease at dinner. To her, all that opulence was better suited for a ball or formal dinner parties, not the small and intimate group that gathered that night.
•	After dinner, they all play lawn tennis, which Dolly also feels uncomfortable doing. It seems artificial and contrived.
•	
•	Dolly would really like just to go to bed, but she knows that Anna will be coming in to see her soon.

I do wonder where all the money is coming from all V&A's opulent and extravagant lifestyle.
Anna must have left her marriage without a penny (or is she independently wealthy?) and wasn't Vronsky in debt earlier in the book?
Are they living massively beyond their means and it's all going to come tumbling down about their ears?

4th July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 23

•	Throughout the day that has just passed, Anna kept bringing up topics of conversation that had to be shelved for later.
•	Now that Anna is finally alone with Dolly, she has forgotten everything she wants to say.
•	At last Anna asks about Kitty, expressing her hope that Kitty isn't too angry. Dolly says that she is forgiving, but acknowledges that there are some things you just don't get over.
•	Dolly brings up the idea of divorce, arguing that any other children that Vronsky and Anna have will not be legitimate.
•	
•	To Dolly's surprise and shock, Anna says that she won't be having any other children. After her illness (and here there's an ellipsis, a series of dots that marks that something is deliberately being left out). But the implication is that Anna asked the doctor to make sure that she couldn't conceive any more children. Dolly is horrified by this news, because she finds it unnatural.
•	Anna tells Dolly quite pragmatically that, if she loses Vronsky, she will have nothing. She has to keep herself attractive and focused on him, and pregnancy would spoil her figure. Anyway, all of her children would be "unfortunates" (i.e., bastards) unable to respect either their father or their mother.
•	Dolly thinks bitterly of her own beauty having been eroded after six children, but she still can't believe that Anna would not want children. What is more, she thinks of Oblonsky's frequent affairs, and realizes that relationships based solely on looks never last. So she feels profoundly concerned for Anna.
•	Dolly feels suddenly that there are depths of Anna's soul that she cannot penetrate, topics that the two women can't discuss.

I wonder if Vronsky has come into his inheritance. I don't think it was mentioned, but it seems like all his money troubles are behind him. He's loaded! I can't remember when it came up, but he refers to 'my fortune'.

No wonder Dolly feels uncomfortable and wants to go home. It's so awkward being a go-between. Anna and Vronsky don't seem capable of having an honest conversation with each other. They are on shaky ground if he's looking forward to having a son and she has decided otherwise as per the implication with the mysterious ellipses! And the reason to prevent pregnancy is to keep her figure rather than not putting her life in danger giving birth. Anna comes across as being superficial. I suppose she is dependent on Vronsky now and needs to stay attractive for him. Also, divorcing Karenin means he will block access to their son, so she is in a bind. There is a suggestion that her liaison with Vronsky has changed her and not for the better <narrows eyes> :)

5th July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 24

•	Dolly insists on the importance of regularizing Anna's position.
•	Anna admits that not a day goes by without her thoughts turning to a divorce, and that whenever she thinks about it she can't fall asleep without taking morphine.
•	Anna runs through the ideal situation, then bumps up against the impossibility of gaining custody of her child, Seryozha. She tells Dolly that the only beings she loves more than herself are Seryozha and Alexis (Vronsky), and that having them both is an impossible dream.
•	Anna bursts into tears in her unhappiness.
•	Dolly goes to bed dreaming of her home life and children.
•	
•	After leaving Dolly's bedroom, Anna takes some morphine and goes into her own bedroom in a cheerful mood.
•	Vronsky looks for signs of a conversation about divorce, but Anna hides her thoughts well.
•	The next morning Dolly leaves for Levin's house. She asks the servants for their thoughts on the Vronsky estate, and finds that they coincide with her own thoughts: rich, but dull. The servants also think that, at heart, Vronsky's a bit of a miser.
•	Dolly gets home and says only nice things about her stay at Vronsky's. In fact, in talking about the visit, she gets so excited that she genuinely forgets the vague dissatisfaction she felt at being there.

6th July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 25

•	Vronsky and Anna spend the entire summer and part of the fall living in the country, in the same grand way that Dolly witnessed on her visit.
•	Anna spends her time on her appearance and on reading a lot of books. Her memory is so sharp that when Vronsky has a question for her on agriculture or horse breeding or whatever, she can give him the answer.
•	Vronsky stays involved in agriculture, architecture, horse breeding, and public affairs.
•	
•	At the end of the day, Anna's whole existence is bound up in serving and pleasing Vronsky. He realizes this, and wants to test the limits of his freedom.
•	Vronsky runs a tight financial ship; he is increasing his fortune.
•	In October the elections for the nobility to hold public office for Kashin Province take place. Vronsky, Sviyazhsky, Koznyshev, Oblonsky, and Levin are all eligible to vote, as their property is in Kashin.
•	Anna and Vronsky almost fight over his departure to the election site. Vronsky is stern and chilly in his manner of informing Anna of his departure, but Anna takes it calmly.
•	Vronsky is relieved and happy to have his independence.

For anyone who's interested, I've fallen down a horse drawn reaper-binder rabbit hole. If you look at 1m46s into video you can see the cutting mechanism that Anna is trying to describe (actually perfectly reasonably I reckon) at dinner.

video shows a reaper in action - massively quicker than having a team of people scything. But obviously a which binds the sheaves as well is a big step up again. They're still used in fact in place of a combine either on very small plots but also if you want to use the straw for thatching.

7th July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 26

•	In September, Levin moves to Moscow for Kitty's pregnancy. He has nothing to do.
•	Koznyshev prepares for the elections and invites Levin to go along.
•	Kitty secretly orders the necessary nobleman's uniform and persuades her husband to go. After all, Levin has some business to take care of regarding his sister's estate.
•	When Levin tries to resolve his sister's issues, he meets a ton of bureaucratic red tape.
•	
•	After getting married, however, Levin has become much more patient with the suggestions of his peers.
•	For example, he's willing to give this whole election business a shot, even though he doesn't understand it and thinks it's pointless.

Love that @Sadik! What a great internet rabbit hole.

Do we need to send someone to rescue Sadik from down the rabbit hole?! 😅

That was actually very interesting. I was thinking it reminded me of a giant sewing machine just before he said it.

8th July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 27

•	On the sixth day of the gathering, the provincial elections take place.
•	Levin turns up and sees Oblonsky and Koznyshev. He observes that the noblemen are strongly divided by generation into younger and older groups, but these social groups don't coincide with the political parties they belong to.
•	Though Levin isn't clear about what is going on, he does realize that there's some kind of issue with who should be admitted to the elections from a certain section of the province: will this guy Snetkov be nominated? And what about this guy Flerov: should he be admitted to the election even though he's "currently under investigation" for something or other?

9th July
Anna Karenina Part 6, Chapter 28

•	Levin is has no idea about what is under discussion. All he observes is that several noblemen appear to be getting excited about supporting the views of their own parties. This fellow Flerov: should he be included in the elections or not? His party says yes, the other party says no.
•	He finds their agitation distasteful, and calms himself down by hanging back and observing the give and take of the waiters.
•	By the time it's Levin's turn to cast the ballot, he is confused about what is happening. He lowers his voice and asks Koznyshev what he should do, and is embarrassed when Koznyshev frowns and tells him that it depends on his own individual point of view.
•	
•	Levin is so embarrassed that, after tossing his ballot somewhere, he winds up in the furthest corner of the room talking to an old marshal of his acquaintance, whom he finds appealing and pitiful.
•	Meanwhile, the new party proves victorious. They manage to pass the ballot measure 126-98. So now it's on to the real elections.