Anna Karenina — Part 1

Contents

Chapter 1

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

• Prince Stepan “Stiva” Arkadyveitch Oblonsky had an affair with the family’s former French governess.
• His wife, Princess Darya “Dolly” Alexandrovna Oblonsky, finds a note from the governess that Stiva left in his study.
• Stiva is in despair, but not actually remorseful. He’s more ashamed of his “idiotic smile” when Dolly confronted him than anything else.

Chapter 2

There was no solution, but that universal solution which life gives to all questions, even the most complex and insoluble. That answer is: one must live in the needs of the day – that is, forget oneself.

• Dolly is the mother of seven children: five living and two dead.
• Stiva wishes he had hidden the affair better.
• Stiva receives a telegram from his sister Anna Arkadyevna Karenina saying she will be visiting tomorrow.
• She is coming alone, not with her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin.

Chapter 3

Except deceit and lying nothing could come of it now; and deceit and lying were opposed to his nature.

• Stiva receives a letter from someone who wants to buy a forest on Dolly’s estate. He wants to sell it, but this is bad timing.
• He reads the liberal paper. He doesn’t really have views of his own, but just goes along with the popular views and fashions.
• Tanya (his eldest girl, and favorite) and Grisha (his youngest boy) are running around, and he gives them chocolates.
• The widow of a captain named Kalinin comes to see Stiva with an impossible request. He tries to give her advice.
• Stiva resolves finally to face his wife.

Chapter 4

He looked at her, and the fury expressed in her face alarmed and amazed him. He did not understand how his pity for her exasperated her. She saw in him sympathy for her, but not love.

• Dolly is conflicted about whether to take the children to her mother’s.
• Stiva enters Dolly’s bedroom and tells her Anna is coming today.
• They have a heated confrontation. Stiva begs for forgiveness, but Dolly yells that he is loathsome and repulsive, and tells him to go away.
• In private, Dolly grieves about how she loved him. She questions whether she still loves him, or possibly loves him even more.

Chapter 5

Levin suddenly blushed, not as grown men blush, slightly, without being themselves aware of it, but as boys blush, feeling that they are ridiculous through their shyness, and consequently ashamed of it and blushing still more, almost to the point of tears.

• Stiva got his job through Anna’s husband Alexei. But he has many connections, and would have got a good job even without Alexei.
• Everyone likes Stiva for his good humor and bright disposition.
• Stiva is with his colleagues Philip Ivanitch Nikitin and Mihail Stanislavitch Grinevitch when his friend Konstantin “Kostya” Dmitrievitch Levin arrives.
• Levin is the half-brother of a famous author, Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev.
• Levin owns over six thousand acres in the Karazinsky district.

Chapter 6

But Levin was in love, and so it seemed to him that Kitty was so perfect in every respect that she was a creature far above everything earthly; and that he was a creature so low and so earthly that it could not even be conceived that other people and she herself could regard him as worthy of her.

• Dolly’s parents are the Prince Shtcherbatsky and Princess Shtcherbatskaya.
• She has one brother, the younger Prince Shtcherbatsky.
• She has two younger sisters, Princess Natalia Alexandrovna Lvova and Princess Katerina “Kitty” Alexandrovna Shtcherbatskaya.
• Levin is in love with the whole family, and especially Kitty.
• He has been living in the country, but came back to Moscow to propose.

Chapter 7

The professor, in annoyance, and, as it were, mental suffering at the interruption, looked round at the strange inquirer, more like a bargeman than a philosopher, and turned his eyes upon Sergey Ivanovitch, as though to ask: What’s one to say to him?

• Levin is staying with his half-brother Koznishev in Moscow.
• Koznishev argues with a philosophy professor on the line between psychological and physiological phenomena in humans.
• Every time the conversation approaches the spiritual, they retreat.

Chapter 8

There was a struggle in his heart between the desire to forget his unhappy brother for the time, and the consciousness that it would be base to do so.

• Levin was determined to tell Koznishev about Kitty, but after the scene with the professor, he can’t bring himself to do it.
• When Koznishev asks about the district council, Levin says he resigned.
• Their brother Nikolay Dmitrievitch Levin has turned up in Moscow. He is a ruined man who has squandared all his money and estranged himself.
• Koznishev shows Levin a note from Nikolay asking to be left alone.
• Levin decides he find Kitty first, then visit Nikolay in the evening.

Chapter 9

He knew she was there by the rapture and the terror that seized on his heart. […] There was apparently nothing striking either in her dress or her attitude. But for Levin she was as easy to find in that crowd as a rose among nettles. Everything was made bright by her. She was the smile that shed light on all round her.

• Levin finds Kitty at the Zoological Gardens skating grounds.
• Everyone, including Kitty, knows that Levin is the best skater.
• He repeatedly compares her to the sun in his mind.
• They skate together. He is extremely nervous and excited in her presence.
• He tries to imitate a skating trick that a younger man does.
• When she asks how long he’s staying, he says “It depends on you,” and then is immediately horrified at what he said.
• Kitty knows she doesn’t love him, but she likes him and she is confused.
• Before Kitty leaves with her mother, Levin gets invited to their home.
• Stiva arrives and finds Levin. They go to a restaurant for dinner.

Chapter 10

“You must understand,” said he, “it’s not love. I’ve been in love, but it’s not that. It’s not my feeling, but a sort of force outside me has taken possession of me.”

• Stiva orders a lot of food, including three dozen oysters. Levin eats them, but he would have preferred simple bread and cheese.
• Stiva thinks the aim of civilization is pleasure; Levin strongly disagrees.
• Stiva guesses that Levin has come to propose to Kitty. He approves of it, and says Dolly is sure that Kitty will say yes.
• Levin is overcome with joy. He almost cries and can barely stay in his seat.
• He talks of his sins in contrast to Kitty’s innocence; from Stiva’s point of view, Levin is pretty innocent himself.

Chapter 11

That’s your strong point and your failing. You have a character that’s all of a piece, and you want the whole of life to be of a piece too […] You want a man’s work, too, always to have a defined aim, and love and family life always to be undivided – and that’s not how it is. All the variety, all the charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow.

• Stiva tells Levin about Kitty’s other suitor, Count Alexey Vronsky. He is from Petersburg, son of Count Kirill Ivanovitch Vronsky.
• Levin’s happiness fades away and he is extremely disappointed.
• Stiva thinks Levin still has good odds, but that he should propose soon.
• Stiva tries to get advice on his situation with Dolly. He speaks about his loathing for “fallen women,” and acts as though it’s understandable and inevitable that he was unfaithful to Dolly.
• Levin is disgusted by this, but he also feels guilty for his own sins.
• As the dinner goes on they each are thinking more of their own problems.

Chapter 12

She wished for what her mother wished for, but the motives of her mother’s wishes wounded her.

• Kitty is eighteen years old. It’s her first winter out in society.
• Her father likes Levin. Her mother does not; she strongly favors Vronsky. She’s anxious because he still hasn’t proposed.
• Her mother reflects on how marriage customs have changed since her day.
• A week ago, Vrosnky told Kitty that his mother was due to come from Petersburg to visit. Kitty’s mother thinks this is a good sign.
• Kitty doesn’t want to talk about Levin. She feels conflicted and overwhelmed by the whole situation.
• Kitty promises to have no secrets from her mother.

Chapter 13

She was breathing heavily, not looking at him. She was feeling ecstasy. Her soul was flooded with happiness. She had never anticipated that the utterance of love would produce such a powerful effect on her. But it lasted only an instant.

• Kitty is extremely nervous about Levin and Vronsky meeting.
• She recalls happy childhood memories of friendship with Levin.
• Being with Levin feels perfectly simple and clear, while with Vronsky she feels there is a false note; but the future seems misty with Levin, while with Vronsky she can imagine brilliant happiness.
• Levin arrives early and very awkwardly and nervously proposes to Kitty.
• She feels ectasy for an instant, but then remembers Vronsky and refuses.
• Levin is crushed but feels that rejection was inevitable.

Chapter 14

She had already had time to look at Vronsky, and looked round at Levin. And simply from the look in her eyes, that grew unconsciously brighter, Levin knew that she loved that man, knew it as surely as if she had told him so in words.

• Levin stays around until he can leave inconspicuously.
• Kitty’s friend, Countess Nordston, wants Kitty to marry Vronsky.
• The Countess and Levin despise each other and make fun of each other.
• Vronsky arrives. Levin doesn’t hate him, but is curious to know what he has that makes Kitty prefer him.
• They discuss table-turning; Levin doesn’t believe in it and speaks heatedly.
• Kitty’s father arrives and takes Levin’s side of the argument.

Chapter 15

Whether she felt remorse at having won Levin’s love, or at having refused him, she did not know. But her happiness was poisoned by doubts.

• Kitty thinks she did the right thing, but she feels bad for Levin.
• Her father is furious at her mother for supporting Vronsky.
• He thinks Vronsky isn’t serious and that Levin is a much better man.

Chapter 16

He could not believe that what gave such great and delicate pleasure to him, and above all to her, could be wrong.

• Vronsky never had a real home. He has no memory of his father.
• He is in the circle of wealthy Petersburg army men.
• He doesn’t love Kitty. He finds it fun to flirt with her and doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with it. He has no intention of marrying.

Chapter 17

What he had just heard about Kitty excited and delighted him. Unconsciously he arched his chest, and his eyes flashed. He felt himself a conqueror.

• Vronsky goes to the railway station for his mother and runs into Stiva, who is there waiting for his sister Anna Karenina.
• Vronsky remembers the name Karenina and thinks he might know her.
• Stiva tells Vronsky that Levin probably proposed to Kitty.
• In his heart, Vronsky neither respects nor loves his mother.

Chapter 18

It was as though her nature were so brimming over with something that against her will it showed itself now in the flash of her eyes, and now in her smile. Deliberately she shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in the faintly perceptible smile.

• Vronsky’s eye is caught by a woman getting out of the train.
• The woman turns out to be Anna Karenina, and she has been chatting with Vronsky’s mother during the train ride.
• Anna is worried about leaving her eight year old son alone at home.
• A worker was run over by the train in an accident. Vronsky gives the widow 200 roubles, seemingly to impress Anna with his generosity.

Chapter 19 … 34

I haven’t read this far yet.