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.

Last line of chapter 7 'Levin stopped listening, and waited for the professor to go'. Perfect! I'm definitely with Levin on this😅

I loved the made-up names of academics that show what Tolstoy thinks about it. Very good :)

It's great to have footnotes at the end of chapters in the P+V Kindle version.

Footnotes at the end of chapters sounds good. I have the Bartlett version on kindle and am too lazy to check at the 'back' to see what most of the asterisks refer to! I am also irritated by the fact that it hasn't been divided up into chapters from a reading progress point of view - I start each chapter with 3 hours and so many minutes to go (presumably referring to Part One). I like to know how much I have left to read. The Briggs version of War and Peace did not treat me like this😅

I have a clothbound classics subscription with Berts Books and this month Anna Karenina turned up so apparently I am joining in the readalong!

I'm all caught up now, it's been years since I read this. One thing that strikes me on this read is from the chapter introducing Dolly she sounds like she might have an overactive thyroid (whether it's supposed to read like that or not I'm not sure)

Levin has the same problem as Laurie in Little Women, he doesn't mind which sister he marries. And as for the fact he could only love someone beautiful... grr!

Found this thread during a night of insomnia and left it open to remind me to dig out my copy whenever morning came. I've managed five chapters and will catch up on six and seven this evening. Another one using the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation for Vintage Classics, 239 chapters in total.

Ooh. Think I need a subscription like this!!

Everyone needs a clothbound classics subscription! Burts are great because if you already have any you can tell them what you have so you dont end up with duplicates (I'm not an employee I promise just a happy customer )

Part 1 Chapter 7

•	Koznyshev (the famous writer) is actually Levin's half-brother.
•	Levin has been staying with Koznyshev while in Moscow, and after he gets home, he wanted to ask his brother's advice about proposing to Kitty.
•	Koznyshev is having a debate with a philosophy professor over whether or not there's a difference between psychic and physiological phenomena in human behavior—and if yes, where that split is.
•	
•	In other words, Koznyshev disagrees with the idea that everything we can know of the world comes from our senses. He seems to be arguing for some kind of innate, preexisting notion of being.
•	The professor, on the other hand, argues that consciousness is the result of your sensory impressions. In other words, he argues that who you are emerges as a result of what you see, touch, taste, and so on.
•	Koznyshev acknowledges his brother, introduces him to the professor, and then the two continue their debate.
•	Levin, listening to this debate, is frustrated: he feels that they are both missing the point. He asks: if our bodies die, then, is there nothing left of us? Levin is asking about the immortality of the soul, which neither Koznyshev or the professor seem to care about.
•	The professor dismisses Levin's question as something that can never be known.
•	Levin waits for the professor to leave.

I love Shmoop for chapters like this.

Thanks Desdamona.

☺️👍

I love the sound of the Clothbound Classic subscription, and have a few already. I love my kindle, but there's something about a beautiful, physical book that makes my heart soar.

I still can't decide which translation to get (am still on the Kindle samples!) Can anyone tell me whether there are long passages in French in AK like in W & P?

Not really that I can recall. My personal preference is versions where their names are not anglicised, but that just personally annoys the hell out of me. Some of the early versions do this. Steven for Stepan etc. I’ve always found P&V infinitely readable, but someone upthread was less keen and I think opted for Bartlett. Both of these I think give the modern reader a decent experience and are probably (though I’ve not checked) possibly closer in breakdown.

Can I join? I’ve just downloaded it on Kindle and read chapters 1-8 to catch up!

Not sure what version I’ve got as just downloaded the first that came up but some of the names are definitely anglicised.

Good ole Tolstoy... Levin is the perfect age to be searching for a spouse and yet Dolly, who must be a similar age if not younger given Stepan is 35, is old, washed out and past her best!

Hoping that the titular Anna turns out to be a lot more interesting and fleshed out than the majority of his female characters.

I was the same until I compared the first chapters in Kindle samples. I decided on the Bartlett as I preferred her lyrical style. It seemed to flow better and capture the emotion more. Her description of a 'shaft of light' rather than P&V's 'strip of light', and his feet feeling about for the slippers:

'And, noticing a strip of light that had broken through the side of one of the heavy blinds, he cheerfully dropped his feet from the sofa, felt for the slippers trimmed with gold morocco...'

I just preferred it to P&V's:

'And, noticing a strip of light that had broken through the side of one of the heavy blinds, he cheerfully dropped his feet from the sofa, felt for the slippers trimmed with gold morocco...'

I pasted the P&V twice in my last post 🙄- my preferred Bartlett is below:

'And noticing the shaft of light seeping in at the side of one of the cloth blinds, he jauntily threw his feet down from the sofa, felt about with them for the gold morocco slippers...'

I am caught up! And enjoying it thus far

Please can I join?

@Thon thank you for the comparison between bartlett and p&v - it was good timing as i wanted to catch up before reading the full thread but was wondering which translation to buy. I've bought the former for my kindle.

Will catch up and join the group properly in a few days.

That's interesting, Thon, the Bartlett translation is definitely more idiomatic!

I heard that Pevear/Volokhonsky translated more literally, and I actually wanted a more literal translation, so I went for theirs. I also enjoyed their translation of War and Peace, so thought I would stick with them. I don't think there's any French in Anna K (though I could be wrong).

StColumb, thanks for your comments interpreting the characters through a historical lens! Very thought-provoking. As individuals, I'm currently drawn more to Levin than to Stepan, because Stepan seems both more sure of himself and more shallow.

Clearly Levin's desire for Kitty is largely based on fantasy and projection, but that's true of a lot of us when we fall in love I think. On the other hand, men projecting their fantasies onto women is a particular gender dynamic and often a very sexist one! Am keen to see how it all unfolds.

Part 1 Chapter 8

•	Levin and his brother chat, but it's clear that the two men have very different interests and tastes.
•	Koznyshev, for example, thinks that District Councils (also called zemstvos) are important, and Levin does not.
•	Koznyshev wants Russia's zemstvos to bring freedom through representation to the countryside, but he feels that Russians are incapable of committing themselves to this kind of governance because they are too complacent and pleased over their failures. (These are Koznyshev's words, not ours!)
•	
•	Then Koznyshev tells Levin that their older brother Nicholas (a.k.a. Nikolai) is back again.
•	Nicholas wasted all his fortune, and he's not on good terms with his brothers or with Russian society.
•	Koznyshev got a note from Nicholas, asking his brothers to leave him alone.
•	Levin decides that he should see Nicholas.
•	But before he does, he goes off to find Kitty.

Thank you @Thon

I reread the first 8 chapters yesterday and the 9th today. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with Kitty. It's very readable so far.