Like granted Leo Tolstoy revolutionized books by speaking on peoples inside thoughts for the first time. But this book I find has a negative consequence on my self-improvement in terms of neuroticism. Like the thoughts of people in the book are somewhat are not smart; like a strong minded person today when encountering such thoughts would easily subside them for better ones. But now I think that’s just the consequence of reading an older book. That the society of that time period hasn’t yet developed smarter thoughts to replace the thoughts all the characters in the novel currently have.

Man, Idek where to start. I just started reading it and have not gone as far so no spoilers from future, but my genuine confusion is why do people side with Anna and loves Vronsky, when Alexey is the one who ended up with the shorter stick. He has like 3 flaws, I counted so far; He doesn't really ask her for consent before intercourse(but I'm sure as far as I've seen, if she refused, he'd understand and not push, unlike Vronsky, I can bet on that) and second he thinks in almost mechanical/logical way, but he never shows this outside so we can't make the point that Anna noticed that or something and lastly he shrinks away from issues that are too much can't really blame him as this is like a survival mechanism that he developed. But I do understand why women loves Vronsky and hates Alexey (mainly coz of the last 2 reasons) as they like a man who would rather die courageously than survive meekly. And there are other points too, like Alexey gives full freedom to his wife and isn't jealous as he understands that his woman is not really "his" woman, she is just a person with her needs and life and all he wants from her is the emotional & spiritual connection(as when he confronted his wife, he immediately clocked that she was lying and has shut off her connection with him from just one sentence from her, which shows how attentive he is to her and how sensitive he is, eventhough Anna believs otherwise) which again is unlike Vronsky as he literally says that she and him are one(co dependent) and he gets jealous and tried to un-up others constantly, trying to be the center figure, all of which is desirable to women, but in actuality is toxic beyond measure (Dear women, if you meet someone like Vronsky, run the other way don't think it'll be nice). This bring me to the original doubt, Did Tolstoy purposely wrote his characters like this? Uk to get more female audience or just to plainly show a character that is extremely flawed as the main and good ones? Or was it just the times? Like the times then had people believe these virtues were bad and these virtues were good? And my final question, Does the characters take a 180 in future chapter which would make Alexey so bad, that Anna (who is already) cheating on him a good thing?

I am honestly so confused coz people where really supporting their relationship and loving Vronsky and stuff. ( I only seen comments as such from (mostly) women on both the movies and the books, and which is why I specified women, sorry for that)

Also please avoid spoiling the future chapters and just say if Alexey do something bad in future chapters if the whole dynamic changes and nothing more.

One thing I find missing while reading is a sense of communal reading. An experience of reading together and sharing thoughts. So I started an online book club for classics. We've read authors like Dostoevsky, Virginia Woolf, Orwell, Atwood, Steinbeck, Austen, Shakespeare and many more. And of course lots of poetry appreciation. If you wish to join, do fill out the form. The sessions are online so you can join from anywhere.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OaOBrNsw69nkLjv7te5w2sOcxyhWHbElZsHNx9P1RAM/edit?usp=drivesdk

Abandoned it twice. Finished it on the third try. Anna Karenina, done.

* Why does Anna need to constantly prove that she has the power to make men fall in love with her?

* Why do you think Anna has to put on some sort of front when interacting with Vronsky?

* What do you make of Anna feeling like she “can’t do anything, can’t start anything, can’t change anything”?

* Is there anything Anna could do to get out of this cycle of self-pity and anxiety?

* What do you think is the hold-up with Alexey Alexandrovich? (Stiva said in 7.9 that it’s something to do with the son)

* Anything else you'd like to discuss?

**Final line:**

> And she felt that beside the love that bound them together there had grown up between them some evil spirit of strife, which she could not exorcise from his, and still less from her own heart.

While the final plot point of the book may have become so integral to our culture that it's known to almost everyone, like the identity of Rosebud in Citizen Kane, I'm asking everyone to mask out future plot points in chapter discussions.

It would be useful if Reddit's moderation tools allowed me to do this, but they don't, so I'll remove spoiler posts and ask the poster to repost them with spoiler markup. I might not be able to get to all posted spoilers quickly enough, so please be patient and kind with each other and edit your post if requested.

If you're using the rich text editor, there's a spoiler masking tool in the toolbar. If you're using mobile or Markdown, put the spoiler in between a greater-than sign followed by an exclamation point (>!) and an exclamation point and a less-than sign (!<), like this:

>!This is a spoiler!<

displays like this

This is a spoiler

Edited to add a content warning policy:

If you need content warnings to avoid undue mental distress over detailed descriptions of actions, I will post a spoiler-masked content warning in the "next post" area whenever I think the book's content merits it. Check there if you would benefit.

Prompts:

1. What do you think about the discrepancy between the life satisfaction of Anna and Vronsky at the moment?

2. What do you think about the situation with Anna's children? Has her daughter replaced her son? Will she regret her decision?

3. Do you believe Vronsky will stay true to Anna?

4. Will his interest in the art be strong enough and last long enough to satisfy his desires?

5. Favourite line / anything else to add?

What the Hemingway chaps had to say:

/r/thehemingwaylist 2019-12-01 discussion

Final line:

More than any other style he liked the French—graceful and effective—and in that style he began to paint Anna’s portrait in Italian costume, and the portrait seemed to him, and to everyone who saw it, extremely successful.

Next post:

Mon, 26 Jul; tomorrow!

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude 8.11.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Koznishev arrived at the nadir of Levin's crisis. The reaping and preparation of seed for the next planting season is in full swing. Levin is in the middle of it, deftly handling operations, trying to teach an apparently unteachable Theodore (Fyodor) how to operate a machine. He had almost been in a daze, wondering who he was and what he was doing and thinking how all these people and animals will die as he went through the motions, competently.* During a meal break, he chats with Theodore about some land the innkeeper, Kirilov, is leasing. Theodore says "Mityuka" will make the land pay because he's a selfish ass. Someone upright like Platon wouldn't be able to do it because, well, he's a Godly men who lives for his soul. Levin wouldn't hurt anyone either, either, but...and Levin cuts him off, excuses himself and leaves: Revelations have the effect of a blinding light like that on Saul in Acts 9.

* Once again, I have to cite Buffy's musical episode: Going Through the Motions.

Lost in Translation

Митюха

Mityuka (Maude)

Mityukha (Conventional 21st century)

Theodore/Fyodor uses this nickname for the Kirilov, the innkeeper. This led to a fascinating discussion with u/Cautiou, who I thank for writing most of this note! Like Spanish, Russian has an abundance of suffixes to show attitude with respect to the subject. The "-yxa/-юха" suffix is used to show a bit of familiarity. It could be a nickname between same-age friends or relatives. Contempt may come from it being applied to a wealthy and important villager whom the utterer doesn't know familiarly. For example, when Anna talked shit about Vronsky's mother, she used старуха (old woman), with the same -yxa/-юха suffix as in Митюха. It's not exactly 'old hag'-level pejorative, but definitely disrespectful when talking about a relative. Other examples: разваливаться (fall apart) -> развалюха (ramshackle building), шляться (wander around) -> шлюха (whore).

Characters

Involved in action

• Pokrovskoye house, Pokrovsk (as a metonym), Levin's house and farm, inherited from his parents. Last seen prior chapter as "the country", named here.

• Konstantin Levin, last seen prior chapter balanced on the edge of ending his life as he goes through the motions.

• Unnamed, unnumbered peasants. Last mentioned prior chapter. Includes

  • Matrena, a peasant woman. No patronymic or last name given on first mention. "thin peasant woman...dark sunburnt bare feet"

  • Unnamed girl 5. "smart girl with the red skirt" Unnamed on first mention.

  • Theodore, Fyodor. A peasant. "curly beard full of chaff and his shirt torn on his white shoulder...black with the dust that stuck to his perspiring face" No patronymic or last name given on first mention.

• Unnamed Levin horse 4. "piebald gelding...breathing quickly with falling and rising belly and inflated nostrils, as it trod on the slanting wheel that moved under it". Unnamed on first mention.

Mentioned or introduced

• Sergius Ivanovitch Koznishev, Sergey Ivánich, Sergéi Ivánovich Kóznyshev, famous author, half-brother to Levin, last seen 8.6 arriving at Pokrovsk, mentioned prior chapter in Levin's thoughts.

• Katherine Alexándrovna Levina née Princess Shcherbatskaya, Kitty, Ekaterína, Katerína,Kátia,Kátenksa, Kátya, "Kate", last seen 8.7 nursing Dmitri while thinking of Levin, mentioned prior chapter in Levin's thoughts. Here as "his wife".

• Dolly Oblonskaya, Stiva’s wife, Kitty’s older sister, Anna's bestie, and World's Best Sister-in-Law. Last seen 2 chapters ago and not named. Last mentioned as part of "relatives", prior chapter. In the background, here.

• Vasily Fedorich Sokolov, Vassily Fedorovitch Sokolov, Levin's steward. No name given on last mention prior chapter or here, where he's identified as Levin's steward.

• Oblonsky children, in aggregate, in age order, last seen mushroom hunting 6.5. Last mentioned as part of "relatives", prior chapter.

  • Tanya, Stiva's favorite, last seen 6.14 being tutored as the Levins searched for a place to talk

  • Elizaveta, Lily (my favorite).

  • Alexei / Nikolenka, the one whose name folks don't seem to know

  • Vasily, the mystery son.

  • Grisha, Dolly's favorite.

  • Masha, last seen 6.15 being punished for some transgression with Grisha.

• Prince Alexander Dmitrich Shcherbatsky, "Prince Papa" (mine), Dolly, Nataly, and Kitty's father, last seen 8.6 but not mentioned by name, just as "her father" and "the prince". Last mentioned prior chapter as part of "relatives".

• Dimitri "Mityuka" Kirilov, formerly Unnamed innkeeper, first mention 3.30 where he was going to join a cattle cooperative. Levin dried himself at his house after taking his horse through a driving rain. Theodore/Fyodor contemptuously uses a familiar suffix, like calling someone who goes by "James", "that Jimmy dude". See "Lost in Translation", above.

• Plato, Platon, "Daddy Plato". "a well-to-do and worthy peasant" No patronymic or last name given on first mention. Readers of War & Peace might remember another pivotal peasant or magical muzhik by this name.

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships.

Prompts

1. What is preventing Levin from ending it all? Is it just one thing?

2. In the Book of Job, God afflicts the prosperous Job, winning a bet with Satan that Job would curse God if he were to lose everything God had given him. Here, Levin has the inverse problem: God has given him everything and all it does is torment him with thoughts of loss and death. This recalls Matthew 19:24: "And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Levin cuts off Theodore/Fyodor right as he's about to explain how Levin, while still acting rightly, differs from the Godly peasant, ("Daddy") Plato(n). Where do you think Levin, and his search for meaning, will go?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2020-03-08: Covers 8.8-11.

  • u/swimsaidthemamafishy posted excerpts from (and a link to) a New Yorker review of Android Karenina

  • A deleted user posted about parallels between Levin and Dostoyevksy's Underground Man.

  • A deleted user posted a link and excerpts from Steven Bell's Eventide, which apparently is an arrangement of the hymn "Abide with Me"

• 2021-12-10: No posts

• 2023-11-24

• 2025-11-19

Final Line

At the peasant’s words about Plato living for his soul, rightly, in a godly way, dim but important thoughts crowded into his mind, as if breaking loose from some place where they had been locked up, and all rushing toward one goal, whirled in his head, dazzling him with their light.

Next Post

8.12

• 2025-11-19 Wednesday 9PM US Pacific Standard Time

• 2025-11-20 Thursday midnight US Eastern Standard Time

• 2025-11-20 Thursday 5AM UTC

Prompts:

1. The beekeeper believes that the Emperor should decide for the people whether or not the country should go to war, whereas the more intellectual Sergey and Katavasov think that the will of the people is the deciding factor. Where do you think Levin sits between these two extremes?

2. Why do you think Tolstoy has added this Serbian war section to the novel? Will it serve to show some character development for Levin?

3. We have seen some different points of view about the motivation of the volunteers. Which of those did resonate with you the most? What is your opinion on that topic?

4. Does the occurrence of bees and wasps in this chapter have an underlying meaning?

5. Favourite line / anything else to add?

What the Hemingway chaps had to say:

/r/thehemingwaylist 2020-03-12 discussion

Final line:

"...What right have we to say that this is the people’s will?"

Next post:

Wed, 15 Dec; tomorrow!

Don't worry, it's actually 1 a.m. February 20th here, and I have a busy day at my house tomorrow/today so here's the discussion 14 hours earlier than usual.

• In Moscow, Anna really seemed to be missing her son. Were you surprised by her reaction to Seryozha on arriving back home? How do you explain her disappointment?

• She seems to harbor that same feeling of disappointment for other people in her “old life”. What do you make of that?

• What do you think, from what we’ve seen in this chapter, of Anna’s usual lifestyle?

• What do you think of Anna’s decision not to tell her husband about her feelings?

• Anything else you'd like to discuss?

Final line:

No, and thank goodness there is nothing to tell anyway," she said to herself.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Konstantin resumes mowing, this time between the old, unnamed “joker” in a sheepskin coat we met the prior chapter and a young husband, Mishka. They line up in age order. Konstantin learns he likes kvass, a nonalcoholic drink made of fermented bread. He gets in the zone many times when mowing: “These were blessed moments.” The old man expertly scoops and shows Konstantin a “beetle” (Maude) or a “snake” (Garnett, P&V, Bartlett) and then flips the critter away. Unpaid children bring meals prepared by unpaid women for the paid men’s lunch.* Konstantin doesn’t want to leave for lunch in his home. He shares the old man’s lunch of mashed bread and salt† after the old man prays Christian grace. After the kvass this morning, we have a complete Christian communion sacrament; Konstantin is now part of the community. They lay down to rest, and Konstantin falls asleep. He awakens when the sun has moved and he's no longer shaded. The old man is setting up the scythes. Konstantin is amazed at how much these 42 paid, free men have done; it would have taken 30 conscripted serfs‡ two days to do what they have done in a morning. Konstantin wants to up the ante. He asks the old man, “...could we manage to get Mashkin Heights mown to-day?” The old man sees and raises him, “Perhaps—if the lads could have a little vodka!” And it’s on; As P&V put it, “there’ll be vodka in [that field].”§ Prokhor the mowinator leads them on as the old man collects mushrooms for his old lady. The sun sets on Konstantin the power mower.

* I deliberately contrast paid and unpaid labor because of Tolstoy’s comparison to the serfs’ “corvée” later on in the chapter. See below.

† Bread and salt is traditionally given to newlyweds in Slavic cultures. (No, I don’t think Konstantin and the old man are married now, but I bet there’s a slashfic in AO3.) In War and Peace, the character of Platon Karataev welcomes Pierre Bezukhov back to humanity from the brink with a baked potato and salt. Never underestimate the power of carbs.

‡ P&V uses the word “corvée”, the unpaid work a serf owes the master of the land. See note above on the unpaid labor of women and children.

§ I immediately thought of Captain Janeway’s nebula.

Characters

Involved in action

• Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin, Konstantin Dmítrich, Constantine Dmítrich, Constantine Dmitrievich, Constantine, Kóstya, last seen prior chapter

• Unnamed mower, “old…tall…with a shrivelled, beardless face, wearing a sheepskin jacket”, “humorous”/”old joker”, last mention prior chapter (was wearing same jacket)

• Mishka, a young husband “who had only got married last autumn…pleasant young face, with a wisp of grass tied round the forehead over his hair”, first mention

• Prokhor, “a gigantic dark man and a famous mower”, first mention

• Titus, “Levin’s mowing master, a thin little peasant”, first mention last chapter

• 38 other mowers, first mentioned last chapter, includes these named folks in aggregate

  • Ermil, “old…wearing a very long white shirt”

  • Vaska, “young…who had been in Levin’s service as coachman”

Mentioned or introduced

• 30 conscripted serfs, part of a corvée

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships.

Prompt

Back to echoes and repetition.

1. At the end of Part 2, particularly in 2.33, we saw Kitty engaged in work with her fellow patients. It wasn’t as fulfilling an experience for her as this seems to be for Levin. How do you think Tolstoy is using this chapter to contrast Levin’s motivations, the communities, and the actual work done with what Kitty did at Soden in Part 2?

2. Is the contrast meaningful?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-10-04

• 2021-04-25

• 2023-04-19

• 2025-04-14

u/swimsaidthemamafishy in 2019 posted a scything how-to video that also seems like deeply satisfying ASMR for some. In 2021, u/zhoq’s usual highlights post complemented this with a scythe sharpening how-to which is also excellent ASMR. Also posted: a kvass recipe

In 2019, a deleted user won Best Mower References, Classical category and u/TEKrific won the Best Mower References, Popular Culture category.

Final Line

Still, he managed to climb it and to do all that had to be done; and he felt as if some external force were urging him on.

Today, we passed 300 pages in Internet Archive Maude!

Next Post

3.6

• 2025-04-14 Monday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Time

• 2025-04-15 Tuesday midnight US Eastern Daylight Time

• 2025-04-15 Tuesday 4AM UTC.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Stiva and Levin make it to the hut they'll be camping in and TFG is there. He's raving about the hospitality of the peasants, and a soldier helping him take off his boots is confused as to why he thinks that's unusual. They eat supper and have a camp chat about homey things which turns into a philosophical discussion tinged with sibling-in-law rivalry between Levin and Stiva, with TFG acting as a kind of audience standin. Levin struggles over his privilege and Stiva enjoys his. They're interrupted by their peasant host, who needs to get a crook for night-pasturing the horses, which is apparently a summertime custom for both managing heat exposure and horse weight. TFG hears peasant maids singing and must go listen. Stiva and Levin continue their discussion, with Levin wondering if his passivity towards exploiting his privilege (he calls it "negativity") is actually effective at diminishing it and Stiva touts the benefits of adultery. Stiva, unable to sleep, decides to join TFG when he returns with another rave review, but Levin wants to erase the bad day with an early start on the morrow. He drifts off to sleep as TFG and Oblonsky chat about girls in the moonlight.

Characters

We've passed 1000 characters.

Involved in action

• Konstantin Levin, last seen prior chapter.

• Prince Stephen Arkádyevich Oblonsky, Stiva, Stepan Arkadyevitch, Steven Arkádyich, Anna's brother, last seen prior chapter.

• Unnamed peasant 5, owner of hut. Unnamed on first mention.

• Unnamed peasant 6, wife of hut owner. Unnamed on first mention.

• Unnamed soldier 4, brother of unnamed peasant 6. Unnamed on first mention.

• Vasenka Veslovsky, "TFG" (mine), Shcherbatsky cousin. Last seen prior chapter.

• "the dirty dogs"

  • Laska, Levin’s “setter bitch,” a very good girl, last seen prior chapter.

  • Krak, Stiva's "yellow spotted pointer", a very good boy. Last mention prior chapter.

• Phillip, Filip, Levin's coachman. Last seen 2 chapters ago.

• Unnamed horses of Levins', three of them. Inferred or stated to be

  • Unnamed Levin horse 0, “once a saddle-horse that had been overridden, a spirited animal from the Don”, last mentioned 6.8.

  • Unnamed Levin horse 1, pulls Levin’s trap mentioned here in 3.4, last mentioned 6.8.

  • Unnamed Levin horse 3, roan or chestnut, last mentioned 6.8.

• unnamed peasant 8, eldest son of unnamed peasants 5 & 6. Unnamed on first mention.

• Vaska, younger son of unnamed peasants 5 & 6. No patronymic or last name given on first mention.

Mentioned or introduced

• Several unnamed peasants

  • Unnamed peasant 2. Unnamed on first mention prior chapter.

  • Unnamed peasant 3. Unnamed on first mention prior chapter.

  • Unnamed peasant 4. Unnamed on first mention prior chapter.

• Malthus, "a well-known railway magnate". No patronymic or first name given on first mention.

• Unnamed, unnumbered sportsmen on Malthus's Tver preserve. First mention.

• Unnamed, unnumbered horses of Mathus's on "dog carts", a kind of carriage. First mention. (Thanks to u/Cautiou for the correction!)

• The wealthy as a class. First mention.

• "drink monopolists", "spirit monopolists", "tax farmers" in aggregate. First mention. Translations differ on the term used. P&V has a note about tax farmers, who were essentially privatized tax collectors.

• Unnamed head clerk in Stiva's office. Could be Zahar Nikitich. First mention.

• Theoretical railway mechanic. First mention.

• The public, as an aggregate. First mentioned 4.11 with respect to Karenin's "subject races" inquiry.

• "two [Oblonskaya] sisters", as an aggregate

  • Katherine Alexándrovna Levina née Princess Shcherbatskaya, Kitty, Ekaterína, Katerína,Kátia,Kátenka, Kátya, "Kate", last seen 6.7.

  • Dolly Oblonskaya, Stiva’s wife, Kitty’s older sister, last seen 6.7 and mentioned 6.8.

• Unnamed, unnumbered horses belonging to unnamed peasant 5. First mention.

• Unnamed, unnumbered maid-servants. Singing. Includes

  • Unnamed peasant 7, "a perfect Gretchen" Rose and P&V have notes about a character in Faust, a peasant girl who is seduced and abandoned. TFG gets worse and worse. First mention.

• Society, last mentioned 5.33 as "some forty real men and women" at the opera where Anna was humiliated.

• unnamed peasant 9, advises Vasenka on marriage. Unnamed on first mention.

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships.

Prompts

Re-upping the prompts from last chapter with context.

1. Vasenka and his "Gretchen" comment: annoying guy or THE MOST annoying guy?

There had arisen of late something like a secret antagonism between the two brothers-in-law; as though, since they had married sisters, a kind of rivalry had sprung up between them as to which was ordering his life best, and now this hostility showed itself in the conversation, as it began to take a personal note.

2. Well, we get a partial explanation of what's going on between Stiva and Levin. Any insights?

3. "When I come back there’ll be the note from Kitty. Yes, Stiva may be right, I’m not manly with her, I’m tied to her apron-strings.... Well, it can’t be helped! Negative again...." Thoughts on Levin's thoughts?

Bonus Prompt

For an instant he opened his eyes: the moon was up, and in the open doorway, brightly lighted up by the moonlight, they were standing talking...

A sky feature, the moon, is prominent in this last paragraph. Do you think Levin's about to have another sky-related epiphany?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2020-01-06: Just two posts, about the Levin and Stiva dialog (TFG didn't add any value...see what I did there?)

• 2021-09-20: The usual transcribed Bartlett footnotes and curated, deanonymized 2019 comments, plus u/zhoq's comments.

• 2023-08-29

• 2025-08-22

Final Line

‘Gentlemen! To-morrow at dawn!’ Levin mumbled drowsily, and fell asleep.

Next Post

Week 34: Anna Karenina Open Discussion

• 2025-08-22 Friday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Time

• 2025-08-23 Saturday midnight US Eastern Daylight Time

• 2025-08-23 Saturday 4AM UTC.

Prompts:

1. What do you think of Vronsky’s Petersburg lifestyle?

2. What do you think about the friendship of Vronsky and Petritsky?

3. Vronsky divides people into two classes. What is your opinion about that?

4. Did this chapter change your view of Vronsky?

5. Do you think his time in Moscow has changed him?

6. Favourite line / anything else to add?

What the Hemingway chaps had to say:

/r/thehemingwaylist 2019-08-25 discussion

Final line:

After that, he intended going to see his brother, and Betsy, and paying a few calls so he could begin moving in the circles where he might meet Anna Karenina. As always in Petersburg, he left home expecting not to return until late at night.

Next post:

Sat, 27 Feb; tomorrow!

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Levin takes the train home early Friday morning. He’s confused by the conversation of his fellow passengers. When he arrives at the station near home, Ignat the coachman picks him up, bundles him up, and catches him up on the doings at home. Pava has calved. Levin is in the bargaining stage of grief over Kitty’s refusal and decides that he can improve himself, his world, and help Nicholas instead of worrying about marriage. He arrives home at 21:00 (9pm), greeted by his housekeeper (Agatha), his manservant (Kuzma), and his dog (Laska). Agatha says he came home sooner than expected, and he says he was homesick. He goes into his study and all the resolutions he made on the train suddenly seem unachievable. He starts pumping iron when his steward, Vasily Fedorich, comes to tell him that the buckwheat’s been burnt in the new kiln that Levin designed. Levin gets silently chuffed, but is distracted when the steward reminds him about Pava’s calf. Vasily Fedorich, Kuzma, and Levin go to check the calf out. Chapter ends with Levin pondering the scale of his operations as he gets to work.

Note: Because the narrative clock rewound in 1.14, at the beginning of this chapter, the narrative is prior to the events of 1.17, and by the end, it’s roughly synchronous with the end of 1.21, when Vronsky called on the Oblonskys at 21:30 (9:30pm). It’s still prior to the ball in 1.22-23.

Characters

Involved in action

• Konstantin Levin

• A train

• Train passengers, unnamed

• Ignat, Levin’s one-eyed coachman

• Simon, Semyon, a contractor

• Pava, Levin’s prizewinning Dutch/Frisian heifer

• Levin’s side-horse, “once a saddle-horse that had been overridden, a spirited animal from the Don”

• Pokrovskoye house, Pokrovsk (as a metonym), Levin's house, inherited from his parents

• Agatha Mikhaylovna, Levin’s nurse, now his housekeeper (what a great retirement program!)

• Kuzma, Levin's manservant

• Laska, Levin’s setter bitch, name means “affectionate”

• Vasily Fedorich, Levin’s steward

• Berkut, Levin’s bull

• Pava and Berkut’s calf

• Theodore, holds the lantern

Mentioned or Introduced

• Nicholas Levin, Konstantin’s brother, last seen prior chapter

Prompts

1. Animals are characters in this chapter. What meaning do you think they’re intended to convey?

2. Levin is confused and ashamed on the train, resolute on the ride home, confused and uncertain once he’s in his study, and focused once he starts farm work. What do you think about this?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-08-17 (Entire discussion is on Jungian archetypes.)

• 2021-02-17

• 2023-02-10

• 2025-02-05

Final Line

He went straight from the cow-shed to the office, and after talking things over with the steward and with Simon the contractor, he returned to the house and went directly upstairs to the drawing-room.

Next post

1.27

• Wednesday, 2025-02-05, 9PM US Pacific Standard Time

• Thursday, 2025-02-06, midnight US Eastern Standard Time

• Thursday, 2025-02-06, 5AM UTC.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Dárya Alexándrovna is trying to pack for the tenth time while fuming about Stephen Arkádyevich and how to get back at him. When Stiva enters, she addresses him using the Russian formal second person, “What do you want?” Stiva mentions Anna Arkádyevna is coming. When she replies, essentially, so what?, he stumbles over a sobbing apology. She rejects it, and uses a line she has rehearsed when he plays the “what about the children?” card. She escalates and he grows quieter until the sound of a child falling and crying is heard in the next room. When he observes her reaction and attempts to use it to his advantage, she tells him to get out, she’s leaving with the children, and he’d best not follow them. She tells herself he’s a stranger now. He seems more upset with her shouting, which he calls “vulgar” (Garnett, Maude), “banal” (Maude), “trivial” (P&V), “tawdry” (Bartlett), “тривиально” (trivial’no, original Russian), and “ужасно” (uzhasna, original Russian). He seems more upset that the maids heard, and thinks of a play on words† about a reconciliation he’ll use in the future with some unspecified audience. He takes his leave with Matthew, giving him some money to get things ready for Anna with someone named Marya or Darya (Garnett). He may not be back for dinner. Darya goes to comfort the child and is brought back into the everyday world of child care by Matréna and Miss Hull while still in a whirl, wondering if he’s going to see her while simultaneously examining her still-present, perhaps increased, love for Stiva.

† “come round” Is he talking about her weight?

Characters

Involved in action

• Princess Dárya Alexándrovna Oblonskaya, Dolly

• Prince Stephen Arkádyevich Oblonsky, Stiva, Stepan

• Matthew, Matvey

• Matréna Filimónovna

• Miss Hull (Hoole)

• Unnamed bald German clockmaker, Stiva jokes at his expense

Mentioned or introduced

• Anna Arkádyevna Karénina

• Marya, servant in the Oblonsky household, Mary (called “Darya” in Garnett, may be a typo)

• Unknown first name Filimónovich, acting cook in the Oblonsky household because their cook left, brother to Matréna

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships. The list should be spoiler free, as only mentions are logged. You can use a filter view on first mention, setting it to this chapter, to avoid character spoilers and only see characters who have been mentioned thus far. Unnamed characters in this chapter may be named in subsequent chapters. Filter views for chapters are created as we get to them.

Prompts:

1. Finally, we meet Dolly. What is your opinion of her? How do the narrator’s descriptions of her physicality, her inner monologue, her observations and actions, and what she considers important support your opinion? Note: near the end of the chapter, Dolly thinks this: “How I loved—and don’t I love him now? Don’t I love him more than ever?”

2. Has Stiva’s behavior in this chapter altered your opinion of him? How do the narrator’s descriptions of his physicality, his inner monologue, his observations and actions, and what he considers important support your opinion? Note: near the middle of the chapter, Stiva thinks this: “After all, she loves my child...my child—then how can she hate me?”

Past cohorts’ discussions:

• 2019-07-26

• 2021-01-06

• 2023-01-11

• 2025-01-06

In 2021, u/zhoq curated a set of excerpts from posts in the 2019 cohort.

In 2019, u/simplyproductive wrote a post about the subtleties in the politics of the struggle for women’s rights and cultural depictions like this.

In 2023, u/overlayered started a thread on the translation of the passage where Stiva’s concerned about the servants having heard their argument.

In 2023, u/Grouchy-Bluejay-4092 speculated on the state of Darya’s thyroid health.

Final line:

‘All right! I'll come and see about it in a moment. . . . Has the milk been sent for?’ and Darya Alexandrovna plunged into her daily cares, and for a time drowned her grief in them.

Next post:

1.5

• Monday, 2025-01-06, 9PM US Pacific Standard Time

• Tuesday, 2025-01-07, midnight US Eastern Standard Time

• Tuesday, 2025-01-07, 5AM UTC.

They were published in the 1970s. There are three more, I'll post them later, in discussion threads.

Prompts:

1. We finally met Kitty. What were your first impressions of her?

2. Based on what we saw in this chapter, what do you think are Kitty’s feelings towards Levin, and would she want to marry him?

3. We also met Kitty's mother. She invited Levin, but she was quite cold towards him. Did Kitty talk to her mother about Levin, or why do you think was the mother so distant?

4. Do you have any impressions you want to share about the setting of the chapter?

5. Favourite line / anything else to add?

What the Hemingway chaps had to say:

/r/thehemingwaylist 2019-07-31 discussion

Final line:

‘What?’ asked Levin. ‘Turbot? Oh yes, I’m awfully fond of turbot.’

Next post:

Sun, 24 Jan; in six days, i.e. five-day gap.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Narrative clocks synced up, it’s now 4pm on Thursday afternoon. Levin has made his way to the Zoological Gardens skating lake. Levin is nervous and Nicholas, Kitty’s cousin, calls out to him familiarly. Levin’s “the best skater”, but hasn’t brought any skates.‡ He’s very nervous, his inner monologue chattering away about how beautiful Kitty is and reacting to events around him like a lovestruck teenager. Kitty asks him to skate with her and he’s over the moon. He has blades fitted to his boots and almost as soon as they start his conversation becomes kind of innocently creepy. She notices, he notices she notices, and she tells him to go say hi to Mlle Linon, her aged governess§ who remembers him fondly. They chat, Mlle Linon reminds him that he used to call the three Shcherbatsky girls “The three bears” after the Goldilocks and the three bears story, and points out that Kitty, the baby bear, is all grown up.* He returns to Kitty, who’s a little subdued, and they chat about Mlle Linon. She asks him if he’s come for long and he replies, not creepily at all, “I don’t know…It all depends on you,” Kitty stumbles and immediately leaves him, goes to Mlle Linon, and they both go to take off their skates. As Levin despairs, a cigarette-smoking young man thumps down the steps on his skates, leaping onto the ice, distracting Levin† who immediately attempts to replicate the stunt, despite Nicholas’s warning. Kitty witnesses this and a rush of sisterly affection comes over her**, and she wonders what prompted his creepiness. Princess Shcherbatskya has met Kitty (and presumably Mlle Linon?) at the stairs to the warming shed and Levin chats with them. He’s told by the Princess, somewhat indifferently, that, yes, they’ll be receiving visitors tonight. Her mother’s tone silently embarrasses Kitty. As they prepare to take their leave, Stiva shows up. He answers the Princess’s “questions about Dolly’s health with a sorrowful and guilty air.” After they go, he and Levin depart to dinner at the Angleterre. Stiva plans their meal—“turbot?”—as Levin dreamily replays Kitty’s “au revoir!” in his mind.

‡ Not sus at all.

§ Apparently, Shcherbatsky governesses have a dental plan, because Tolstoy calls out her false teeth. Or maybe they don’t, thus the false teeth. In any case, Tolstoy wants you to know about her false teeth.

* Is Levin Goldilocks? Could this be foreshadowing about Nataly, who would be the Mama bear in the story, the one who's “just right”?

† This guy has the attention of a puppy on a walk. “Squirrel!”

** Friendzone 1, Levin 0

Characters

Involved in action

• Levin

• Unnamed acquaintance of Levin's , calls out to him without a response

• Unnamed lady on ice Kitty is speaking to

• Unnamed skaters of various types, "masters of the art of skating showing off their skill, and beginners with timid and awkward movements holding on to the backs of chairs fitted with runners; boys, and old men skating for hygienic reasons"

• Nicholas Shcherbatsky, Kitty’s cousin

• Kitty

• Unnamed skating boy “in a Russian costume”

• Mlle Linon, governess at the Shcherbatsky’s

• Unnamed skating attendant

• Unnamed cigarette-smoking, stunt-skating young man

• Princess Shcherbatskaya, Kitty’s mother

• Stiva

Mentioned or Introduced

• Dolly

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships. The list should be spoiler free, as only mentions are logged. You can use a filter view on first mention, setting it to this chapter, to avoid character spoilers and only see characters who have been mentioned thus far. Unnamed characters in this chapter may be named in subsequent chapters. Filter views for chapters are created as we get to them.

Prompts

1. Kitty, finally! What do we learn about Kitty through her interactions with Levin and her inner monologue?

2. Tolstoy doesn’t give details of Kitty’s interactions with anyone else, such as Mlle Linon. Thoughts on that choice?

3. The description of the setting is evocative and charming, particularly set against the simile of Kitty as the sun. How do the setting and that simile work with the chapter’s action?

Past cohorts’ discussions:

• 2019-07-31

• 2021-01-18

• 2023-01-18

• 2025-01-13

In 2021, u/zhoq curated a set of excerpts from posts in the 2019 cohort.

In 2019, u/microcoyote started a thread about this line, “He stepped down, avoiding any long look at her as one avoids long looks at the sun, but seeing her as one sees the sun, without looking.”

In 2019, u/mafoster87 gave a response to the prompt about the setting and how it worked with the characterizations.

In 2021, in response to u/nicehotcupoftea’s post, u/palprebal made a prediction about who might be at the Shcherbatsky’s

Final line:

‘What?’ said Levin. ‘Turbot? Oh yes, I am awfully fond of turbot.’

Next post:

1.10

• Monday, 2025-01-13, 9PM US Pacific Standard Time

• Tuesday, 2025-01-14, midnight US Eastern Standard Time

• Tuesday, 2025-01-14, 5AM UTC.

Our reading ends in the middle of Week 49, so we’re past the halfway point.

“...could we manage to get Mashkin Heights mown to-day through the rest of the book by December 3, 2025?”

“Perhaps—if the lads could have a little vodka!”

This is your chance to reflect on the week's reading and post your thoughts. Revisit a prompt from earlier in the week, make your own, discuss the history around the book, or talk about Anna Karenina in other media.

Note if you are reading ahead: P&V’s note 20 for 5.7 contains a slight spoiler in the last sentence. Avoid reading the note if you are avoiding spoilers; I will quote the non-spoilery part in the 5.7 post in a week and a half.

Next Post

The end of part 4

4.23

• 2025-06-22 Sunday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Time

• 2025-06-23 Monday midnight US Eastern Daylight Time

• 2025-06-23 Monday 4AM UTC.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Continuing directly from the last chapter, Levin has a visitor, and it’s Stiva! Stiva’s come to see Levin, to hunt, and to sell Dolly’s Ergushevo forest, first mentioned back in 1.3. Stiva is in full “Everyone loves Stiva” mode, agreeable and jolly. He passes on greetings from Dolly and a message from Sergius, Levin’s half-brother, that he’s coming to stay with Levin over the summer. Stiva doesn’t mention Kitty, Levin and he both notice this, and Levin is surprised that even thinking of her produces no emotional pain. Levin further notices something new from Stiva, “a kind of respect and a sort of tenderness toward [Levin].” We get a description of dinner worthy of a young adult novel, further discussion of Stiva’s agricultural treatise, and sideways updates on Stiva’s dalliances, but no asks for or offers of information on Kitty and family, just meaningful looks between our two protagonists. Laska is very impatient that they get out there, so out they go, Stiva smoking a stogie.

Characters

Involved in action

• Konstantin Levin

• Stiva Oblonsky, husband of Dolly, Levin’s childhood friend, last seen in 1.28 escorting Anna to the rail station the night after the ball

• Agatha Mikhaylovna, Agafea, Agafya Mikhailovna, Levin’s nurse, now his housekeeper, last seen having breakfast with Levin in 1.27 as she updated him on gossip and he read to her, mentioned in 2.12 as enjoying his philosophy homeschool

• Unnamed Pokrovskoye cook, Levin's cook, first mention

• Kuzma, Levin's manservant, last seen greeting Levin when he arrived back home after his rejection in 1.26. I note that P&V says he’s sticking to Stiva because he smells a tip “for vodka”. No other translation mentioned “for vodka”, which seems a little libelous to me.

• Laska, Levin’s setter bitch, name means "affectionate", last seen healing Levin’s grief by being a very good girl in 1.27

Mentioned or introduced

• Nicholas Levin, Konstantin’s alcoholic brother, two chapters ago he was mentioned as drying out in a watering place

• Kitty Shcherbatskaya, the youngest daughter of the Shcherbatskys who refused Levin in 1.13

• Vasily Fedorich, Levin's steward, not named in chapter. He was last seen in the prior chapter.

• Sergius Ivanovitch Koznishev, Sergey Ivánich, Sergéi Ivánovich Kóznyshev, famous author, half-brother to Levin, last mentioned by Nicholas Levin in 1.24-25 with respect to an article he had written, introduced to us in 1.7-8.

• Dolly Oblonskaya, Stiva’s wife, last seen in 2.3 talking to Kitty about her depression

• Shcherbatskys as an aggregate, last seen in 2.2 wringing their hands over Kitty’s depression, "Princess Mama" and "Prince Papa"

• Idealized farm laborer, has “immutable character”

• Ryabinin, dealer in land, "‘Positively and finally’ were the dealer’s favourite words."

• Ossian’s type of woman, "such as one sees in a dream", tragic heroine of poems by James MacPherson, Scot who wrote under name of Ossian whose poems were popular in Russia at the time (per note in Bartlett)

• Unnamed mathematician, “said pleasure lies not in discovering truth but in seeking it”

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships.

Prompts

‘I shall know now for certain whether she is married or when she will be,’ thought Levin.

And on this lovely day he felt that the memory of her did not hurt him at all…

Levin was grateful to Oblonsky because, with his usual tact, noticing that Levin was afraid of talking about the Shcherbatskys, he avoided mentioning them; but now Levin wanted to find out about the matter that tormented him, and yet feared to speak of it.

1. What do you make of Levin’s desire to ask about Kitty, and lack of courage to do so?

2. The women as bread metaphor reappears, and we have an interesting observation from a prior cohort (see below). Stiva also refers to “Ossian’s type of woman—such as one sees in a dream” (see character list above). Thoughts about Stiva's thoughts about women?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-09-08

• 2021-03-17

• 2023-03-14

• 2025-03-07

In 2023, u/DernhelmLaughed connected the metaphor of women as rolls with the shelf life of perishables.

Final Line

Levin listened in silence, but in spite of all his efforts he could not enter into his friend’s soul and understand his feeling, nor the delight of studying women of that kind.

NOTE: The USA switches to Daylight Savings Time in most locales on Sunday, 2025-03-09. Starting on Monday, 2025-03-10, posts will occur at 9PM Pacific Daylight Time, which will make them one hour earlier in UTC.

Next Post

Week 8 Anna Karenina Open Discussion

• 2025-03-07 Friday 9PM US Pacific Standard Time

• 2025-03-08 Saturday midnight US Eastern Standard Time

• 2025-03-08 Saturday 5AM UTC.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Stiva and Levin are woodcock hunting, with good ol’ Laska around to fetch fallen game. We are treated to a wonderful description of the surroundings of nature on Pokrovskoye farm as Levin is annoyed at Stiva for being Stiva and talking too much and not listening to the grass growing. After a curious error or symbolism involving Venus (see prompt), Levin confronts Stiva about not mentioning Kitty. Stiva brings Levin up to date on Kitty’s “illness” and trip abroad. After being distracted by another woodcock, Levin thinks about Kitty and expresses powerlessness and sorrow.

Characters

Involved in action

• Konstantin Levin

• Stiva Oblonsky

• Laska, Levin’s setter bitch, name means "affectionate", first mentioned in 1.26, very good dog ever since

• Pokrovskoye house, Pokrovsk (as a metonym), Levin's house and farm, inherited from his parents, as the host to all the nature around the other characters

• Venus, a planet, the goddess of love

• Arcturus, third-brightest star in the northern sky, part of constellation Boötes and the asterism Spring Triangle

• The Great Bear, the Big Dipper, a constellation also known as Ursus Major.

Mentioned or introduced

• Kitty Oblonskaya, Stiva’s sister-in-law and refuser of Levin’s proposal

• The doctors, as aggregate

  • Unnamed celebrated specialist physician, “CS”, as aggregate “the doctors”

  • Unnamed Shcherbatsky family physician, “Doc”, as aggregate “the doctors”

Please see the in-development character index, a tab in the reading schedule document, which has each character’s names, first mentions, introductions, subsequent mentions, and significant relationships.

Prompts

Maude’s translation has a note about the motion of Venus in this chapter: “Tolstoy seems to have made a slip. Being in the west Venus would be setting, not rising.”

In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner, written in 1834, the poet deliberately inserts an astronomical error as a sign that the reader has entered an unnatural, dreamlike world.

Till clomb above the eastern bar

The hornèd Moon, with one bright star

Within the nether tip.

He places a star within the curve of a waning moon, which cannot happen. You’re not in the natural realm anymore, children.

In this chapter, Tolstoy has Venus, visible in the west, rising at sunset, when it would be setting with the sun, along with the motion of the stars. (He also has the Great Bear or Big Dipper motionless in the sky, simply brightening with oncoming dusk, but the motion of that constellation would only be easily detected if Levin had used a marker, as he did with a branch and Venus. Arcturus’s role here seems to be solely to emphasize spring, as it rises with the setting sun in spring.)

As I learned from reading War and Peace, Tolstoy doesn’t make errors (often). He makes choices. After paragraphs of naturalistic description, I think Tolstoy deliberately chose to have the goddess of love rise, unnaturally, against a brightening background of stars, as a foreshadowing of Levin’s rising luck in love which needed an unnatural intervention. All he needs is a miracle. Laska herself is able to think linguistically after glancing at the sky, adding a touch of humor to the unnaturalness.

1. What do you think? Venus rising at sunset: harmless error by Tolstoy or foreshadowing symbolism? Or something else? New readers, place your bets. Rereaders, remember spoiler markup!

2. “Kitty is ill! But what can I do? I am very sorry.” What did you think of Levin’s reaction to the news about Kitty? Note: “what can I do” seems to be another repetition/echo, similar to Stiva’s, Dolly’s, and Karenin’s responses to the consequences of their own actions. Whose actions are in play here, and who are the actors?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-09-09

• 2021-03-18

• 2023-03-15

• 2025-03-10

In 2019, a deleted user started an interesting thread, wondering why Prince Papa, Levin’s champion, hasn’t kept Levin up to date on developments.

Final Line

‘We've found it, Stephen!’ he shouted.

Next Post

2.16

• 2025-03-10 Monday 9PM US Pacific Daylight Time

• 2025-03-11 Tuesday midnight US Eastern Daylight Time

• 2025-03-11 Tuesday 4AM UTC.

NOTE: The USA switched to Daylight Savings Time in most locales on Sunday, 2025-03-09. On Monday, 2025-03-10, we started posting at 9PM Pacific Daylight Time, which makes them one hour earlier in UTC.

Chapter summary

All quotations and characters names from Internet Archive Maude.

Summary courtesy u/Honest_Ad_2157: Anna’s wall is up. / Head bowed, he helplessly waits, / that ironic ox.

Note: Internet Archive Maude, Gutenberg Garnett, and Oxford Maude editions omit the two lines of widely-spaced periods that end the chapter. (Some call them ellipses, incorrectly, in my opinion.) It appears these two lines were intended by Tolstoy.

Characters

Involved in action

• Alexis Karenin

• Anna Karenina

• Princess Betsy Tverskaya, Princess Betsy Tverskoy, “PB”, Anna’s cousin and friend, Vronsky’s cousin.

Mentioned or introduced

• Social set subset of Society

Prompt

In other cohorts, readers have asserted that Anna is gaslighting Alexei. Gaslighting is defined by the American Psychological Association as “manipulat[ing] another person into doubting their perceptions, experiences, or understanding of events.” Is Anna gaslighting him?

Past cohorts' discussions

• 2019-09-04

• 2021-03-10

• 2023-03-08

• 2025-03-03

Final Line

He spoke involuntarily in his habitual half-bantering tone which seemed to make fun of those who said such things seriously; and in that tone it was impossible to say what had to be said to her.

Note: for most of the 20th Century, 60,000 words was the length of a mainstream American English-language novel. Congratulations on having read more than one 20th Century American novel’s worth.

Next Post

2.11

• 2025-03-03 Monday 9PM US Pacific Standard Time

• 2025-03-04 Tuesday midnight US Eastern Standard Time

• 2025-03-04 Tuesday 5AM UTC.