Anna Karenina, Part III

This is what I have read so far. I'm 510 pages into this novel, and I'm not even halfway through it yet. See my previous Anna Karenina posting for my remark about long books.

Though much of Part III seemed unnecessary to me, I did find it had some wonderful lines. For instance, on the first page, Tolstoy writes, "To Konstantin Levin, the country was the background of life, that is of pleasures, endeavors, labor." I loved that sentence. It captures Levin's character to a tee. And the mowing chapter, Chapter 4, is delightful. Levin's brother has come to visit, but is only interested in lying about. Levin, on the other hand, finds satisfaction in hard work. I love the scene in which Levin returns from a day in the field only to have his brother remark, "Well, so you're content with your day. And so am I. First, I solved two chess problems and one a very pretty one--a pawn opening." Tolstoy seems to love marking stark contrasts between Levin and other characters.

I wrote comments in the margins next to several lines in this part. I'll share a couple of them here, with my comments in orange italics.

"Perhaps it may all be very good; but why should I worry myself about establishing dispensarie which I shall never make use of, and schools to which I shall never send my children, to which even the peasants don't want to send their children, and to which I've no very firm faith that they ought to send them?" Hmm. Sounds like Savannah Chatham County Public Schools.

"And truly Levin had never drunk any liquor so good as this warm water with green bits floating in it, and a taste of rust from the tin dipper." I just love this image from the mowing chapter.

And then there's Anna's confrontation with Karenin and his refusal to divorce her. I must say, although I wasn't surprised at his attitude toward her, I felt sorry for the poor son, who did nothing to deserve Karenin's contempt: "Everything relating to her and her son, towards whom his sentiments were as much changes as toward her ceased to interest him." Poor kid. He's only about nine year old, right? Up until this point I sympathized with Karenin, but no more. I find it interesting that "Alexey Alexandrovitch could not without horror contemplate the idea of a pistol aimed at himself and never made use of any weapon in his life." How ironic that Karenin can't stand the thought of a duel over Anna, yet Anna later shows she has the constitution to throw herself in front of a train.

So when I got to the next scene in which Karenin has tea in his study, I was struck by the following line: "Over the easy-chair there hung in a gold frame an oval portrait of Anna, a fine painting by a celebrated artist. Alexey Alexandrovitch glanced at it. The unfathomable eyes gazed ironically and insolently at him. Insufferably insolent and chalenging was the effect in Alexey Alexandrovitch's eyes of the black lace about the head, admirably touched in by the painter, the blackhair and handsome white hand with one finger lifted, covered with rings. After looking at the portrait for a minute, Alexey Alexandrovitch shuddered so that his lips quivered and he uttered the sound 'brr,' and turned away." What a wienie.

Chapter 13 is one of the more boring chapters in Part III, but it also has some of the best lines. Tolstoy describes a party attended by "Sappho Shtoltz and a young man beaming with excess of health, the so-called Vaska. It was evident that ample supplies of beef-steak, truffles, and Burgundy never failed to reach him at the fitting hour." I laughed a lot at that line.

Later, though Tolstoy describes Sappho Shtoltz as a "blonde beauty with black eyes." In the margin, I wrote, "Yeah. That would happen." Why is it that so many authors want to give their characters black eyes? I've never seen anyone with black eyes, let alone a blonde person.

But eyes are not the only striking aspect of Sappho, oh no: "On her head there was such a superstructure of soft, golden hair--her own and false mixed--that her head was equal in size to the elegantly rounded bust, of which so much was exposed in front." More laughter from me there.

Chapter 19 includes what I think is probably the longest paragraph in western literature. It spans 2 1/2 pages. Perhaps Tolstoy was a strong influence on William Faulkner. At the end of page 445, I wrote, "And so ends another chapter in which absolutely nothing happened." I think that was the chapter in which Vronsky balanced his check book.


And so we finish another part of Anna Karenina. For those of you following along (all two of you), here's a sixty-second synopsis:

After making a scene at the horse race, Anna confronts her husband. "I hate you. I never want to see you again. I love Vronsky." Karenin, however, stands his ground: "Tough beans, chick. I'll not let you bring scandal to my house. Now pack up your summer duds and get back home to me by Tuesday." Anna complains to Vronsky, who expects a duel. He need not worry. Karenin shudders at the thought. Meanwhile, our friend Levin gets over Kitty's rejection of him by mowing the fields on his farm. When Kitty moves to the neighborhood, he takes special care to avoid her. Though he has no interest in public service, he shows much interest in the well being of his workers and eventually resolves to organize labor on his farm. However, when his brother labels him a communist, he gets mad. Apparently nobody ever taught him about sticks and stones.

Now on to Part IV...