Even though Anna and Vronsky are the focus of this section (for the most part), I am more worried about Kitty. She's so young and so destroyed by the betrayal of Vronsky and Anna. I hope she can recover and reconsider life with Levin, who is so far my favorite character in this book.
Anna in St. Petersburg taking up with the more frivolous of her friend sets is an interesting development and not one that seems to lead to happiness. All these cynical "friends", watching this unfold, seem so contemporary - like all the internet rubberneckers that we see today.
In fact, my main takeaway from this month's reading is that it all seems like it could happen today, and probably does in some places.
Great point – perhaps why it feels like such great literature. The setting is so sepcific, and yet the characters, dynamics and relationships feel universal.
Thanks, Henry - insightful views and an interesting article on the English novel. Thanks for sharing.
I’m continuing to enjoy seeing the story unfold. Some random thoughts on this section:
I was unsure if we see the ‘hand of the author’ at the start of Chapter 24: “… despite the ridicule of his fellow students his brother had lived like a monk … strictly observing all the religious rites … avoiding all pleasures and especially women; and then how he suddenly broke lose”
Levin’s reflections on returning home are universal - “one must not submit to the past and one can do anything with oneself”. This is echoed in Anna’s thoughts on the train: “it was unpleasant… to follow the reflection of other people’s lives. She was too eager to live herself.”
“Anna’s soldering had not proved durable” - more realistic that Dolly and Stiva still have problems, and some likely foreshadowing for Anna. Also thought this was a nice contrast between Dolly and Kitty - jaded experience v innocent expectation.
Karenin’s thoughts as he considers Anna’s interaction with Vronsky were a window into his character - turning away from “the abyss” and making it a technocratic problem, reflecting his world view.
Great writing, great character development and great plot. Onwards!
Thank you John! Yes I thought that 'soldering' line was telling – our first impression of Anna is influenced in part by the way she so effortlessly effects the rapprochement between Stiva and Dolly. But in one sentence that achievement falls down – and our view of her changes.
Thank you Henry. Agree with all that you say. It’s very interesting to read a contemporary - even if novelised - response to (I assume) ‘The Principles of Communism’ (1847) in Lévin’s thought about Nikolai, “Then his brother's talk of Communism, to which he had not paid much attention at the time, now made him think. He considered a revolution in economic conditions nonsense; but he had always felt the injustice of his own abundance compared with the poverty of the peasants”. It will be interesting to see if his thoughts develop further through the novel. Lévin’s idealism is further shown in respect of marriage which he clearly sees as entirely part of being in love with someone whilst his contemporaries see it simply as a social mechanism. The meeting between Vronsky and Anna on the train was electrifying, “there was nothing unpleasant or sad about that nervous tension or the visions which filled her imagination: on the contrary, they seemed joyful, glowing, and exhilarating.” That scene was thrown into relief by the following chapters about Anna’s interactions with her husband - and her unkind(?) thoughts about him and his lack of understanding of the arts and even his sticky out ears! Although Karenin clearly does have a great, dull, sense of self as when he “warns” Anna about her friendship with Vronsky and can’t quite believe he has to deal face to face with real life in this way. I really enjoyed the descriptions of upper class society and its divisions and its “smallness” I suppose. It is quite a highly charged conclusion to this section as you say Henry, yet not ‘explicit’ at all. Finally, talking about the writing in general, and hazarding a perhaps obvious theory, I realise how this story is emerging from the mouths and actions of the protagonists very naturally. Conversations aren’t full of clever “zingers” but are truly relative to the character speaking, banal or not. I don’t know if I’ve made myself clear there but, sometimes I feel we are in an era of what one might call “prescriptive fiction” , that is, when an author tells us why the character is saying something, I find Tolstoy’s trust that the unsaid motivation will be evident, thoroughly refreshing. May I quickly add that I’m also enjoying and learning a lot from the comments of other readers in this read-along. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Henry, for your comments, they truly have an expansive effect on my reading experience. And, thank you readers, for your comments and observations, as well.
There are so many aspects of my first ever reading of Tolstoy that I could discuss for this second Anna Karenina installment! One that stands out for me is Tolstoy’s masterful use and attunement to the complex dynamics between children and adults/parents. He seems to use this to elaborate subtly felt, often unconscious, communications and relationship dynamics between the children and adults that give us exquisitely specific experiences of the main characters’ psychological complexion, as it were.
From our first installment reading, I’m remembering how Tolstoy highlighted that Vronsky, in his soul, did not respect nor love his mother and how he upheld an extremely obedient and deferential attitude towards her that only served to continue to diminish his respect and love. This is such an important aspect, for me, of thinking of Vronsky’s intentions with any and all women! And, it has made it difficult for me to trust him since.
In the second installment, I’m thinking of the scene where Tolstoy describes how Dolly’s children had been most excited by Anna’s arrival at Dolly and Oblonsky’s home and later, with her preoccupations of Vronsky and her preparations to depart Moscow, they felt she was no longer interested in them. Tolstoy depicts this as “Anna on this day was not at all like how she had been on the (day) when they had so fallen in love with her”. This is such a familiar perspective for a child, responding to an enigmatic strangeness in an adult, and believing that the child is, herself, responsible in some way for the adult’s unconscious communication. And, thinking more of the language Tolstoy uses here, it seems as if it might hold some clues/foreshadowing as to how Anna’s internal world impacts the love that she evokes and generates from those around her.
Vronsky is now the murderer of Anna “And so the murderer falls on this body with a malevolence which is almost like passion, drags it away, and cuts it up.” The horror of this line tells us so much.
I'm writing this on a train - delays, disruptions and cancellations - so have a jaundiced view of railway journeys.
This section is fascinating - and we're not seeing some of the characters at their best. I'm surprised that I'm feeling more sympathetic to Vronsky than I expected (but not very much).
Henry has picked up on what Anna and Vronsky got up to, but I wondered whether - when Anna first arrived home - Karenin saying they should go to bed was his idea of foreplay. It wasn't romantic.
What LT really captures is the confusion of relationships. Anna seems to want to be faithful but also wants to give in. Both Anna and Vronsky seem caught up in the thrill of the chase - and, at this point, I'm wondering whether they would actually like each other.
So many characters I don't warm to in this section - Levin's brother's crowd, Princess Betsy and some of her associates. Maybe Anna and Vronsky appear more attractive because they are not quite of that social group, even though they mix with them.
I'm also rereading W&P, and I have to say LT isn't fond of doctors, is he?
Last thought: if Thameslink was in charge of Russian railways, Anna Karenina would still be alive today!
I was also struck by Karenin basically scheduling sex with Anna, a sign of a completely self absorbed man. When he begins to suspect Anna and Vronsky it’s as if he is flabbergasted that Anna could possibly have any thoughts or feelings of her own.
I’m sure you are right, but I still believe he would be difficult to live with. As we move further along in the book we learn that he goes away for months at a time, doing his own thing.
I’m not at all sympathetic to Vronsky in this reading. Actually, I feel like he is behaving like a rogue!! His pursuit of Anna doesn’t feel like love it just feels cruel and seems like a desperate pursuit to fulfill a momentary desire. As in part 1 chapter 16, when Vronsky is thinking about Kitty : “he did not know that his pattern of behavior with regard to Kitty had a specific name that it was the leading on of young girls without the intention of marrying them, and that this leading on was an example of the bad conduct commonly encountered amongst brilliant young men like himself .”
Thanks Henry, another great summary. As a quick sidetone, the John Sutherland books are available again, re-published by Icon Books in 2018. There's no omnibus edition sadly.
Your point about the voyeurism of Betsy (and us) is echoed in War and Peace, when the marriage between Pierre and Hélène is being arranged, with Pierre powerless to resist. And I think there's a similar powerlessness that Anna and Vronsky feel here, that their fates are out of their control. There's a sense of inevitability about their relationship, in contrast to Levin, for whom nothing is inevitable.
Lovely comparison to W&P - thank you Andrew! And that's great news about Icon Books – I didn't know that! Here's the link for anyone interested. https://www.iconbooks.com/?s=sutherland
I really am wondering what Anna sees in Vronsky. Apart from him being a complete opposite from her husband I suppose? The nightmare of both of them making love to her felt somewhat disturbing. Perhaps this is to help us to understand how disturbed Anna is feeling?
I think so, and I think to convey her fright at being found out and the conflicting feelings about demolishing her life for this guy. She's now crossed the Rubicon with this affair.
Thanks for all the thoughts! That scene in Chapter 11 is soooo haunting. "All is over. I have nothing but you. Remember that"; and the murderer image; and the choice of words: Horror, despair, shame... Talk about buyer's remorse...
I was hoping this part would be discussed, Linda. I would love to hear what others think the line "no one in the world now except him" means for Anna's relationship with her son?
I believe if Anna got caught having an affair, her husband would have grounds to divorce her and would automatically get custody of any children. So I interpreted that line as Anna knowing that, now that she has actually physically cheated on her husband, what happens to her and whether she gets to keep her family and her lifestyle is at his mercy and she could very well lose everything, including her son.
The Sutherland passages were lovely- thank you for sharing ! He writes trains are ominous so I get a sense of foreboding. Indeed all the crucial turning points in the novel so far happens in trains- Anna meets first meet Vronsky while getting off a train and in this section Vronsky “said the very thing that (Anna’s) soul desires but her reason feared” we also see Anna “journeying” from mending her brother’s marriage - she says “Oh, no, no! I’m not like Stiva,…..I’m telling you this because I don’t allow myself to doubt myself even for a moment” and then we see her doing the exact opposite in the train. All of which finally ends with her giving in to her passions and treating her husband’s entreaties as if he is speaking nonsense. In some ways yes she is exactly like Stiva. Tolstoy shows us how people change …
That’s a great observation about trains being the scene of important turning points. Trains and train stations are not comfortable places, they are no one’s home, people pass through on their way to somewhere else. They are transitional. So it makes sense that some of the more fateful moments occur in these places. Where Vronsky meets Anna for the first time. Where the man is hit by the train - so full of foreshadowing. Where Anna reunites with her family and finds herself disappointed by them.
I find myself experiencing all sorts of emotions towards the characters, pity, love, hate, back to pity, sympathy, empathy, etc.
When I first read the passage of Anna seeing her husband and feeling “dissatisfied” with herself, I felt for her and was instantly reminded of Edgar Allan Poe: “I did violence to my own heart, and married, for another’s happiness, where I know that no possibility of my own existed”
It looks like most marriages in their society are matters of convenience, as opposed to love, which obviously was the case for Anna. When it’s all said and done, will I be happy that at least Anna felt love, even if it becomes the cause of her ruin?
Also, what a messed up society, in which a “friend” sits back and watches the downfall of someone. There is something very rotten in their midst. It doesn’t sound like affairs are rare, is it all a game? They encourage and then shun the parties involved?!
No need to apologize. Your thoughts are right on. And why was it ok for men to have affairs and continue on in society but not women? And as for Kitty—she was brought up stupid. What a system to find a husband—if he comes to visit once a week on the official visiting day for a few months he is supposed to ask her to marry him???? And she is supposed to say yes???? No wonder everyone and affairs.
Henry, I saw the snow storm differently. Inside, Anna wanted to as free as the wind and snowflakes whirling around, nothing holding them back. This society hemmed in a lady who should have been running with the wolves.
Ah how interesting! A liberating tempest as opposed to torment of the soul – I like that reading – and perhaps Tolstoy was hoping to suggest elements of both?
For this section, I jotted quick notes for each chapter with a pithy heading. As I listened to this video, I opened my notes and tried to see if I had captured the gist of things. It was interesting to confirm parts and find other parts where I had to go back and re-read or look for something I missed, like the "scythe upon a stone" bit. Or the parts I thought were important but were not mentioned to see if I gave them too much or just different weight. All in all, it was a satisfying way to recap.
Henry, thank you for this month’s very interesting summary. I plan to go back to review key passages now that I’ve watched and read your post. The timing of this slow read provides time to do this, which is quite helpful. I am particularly fascinated by what you shared about Tolstoy’s views of English novels in general, and I will keep this in mind as we progress further into the novel. I was a 2024 slow reader of War and Peace, and—since it is so fresh in my mind—I can’t help but think about some of the aspects of this novel in comparison to W and P. Tolstoy’s descriptions of the natural world in both books are superb! I happened to be reading the description of the blizzard at the train station just as we were experiencing a huge snowstorm outside my window! If nothing else, Tolstoy is accurate! In terms of characters, Vronsky reminds me—so far—of Anatole in W and P. Kitty reminds me of a young Natasha. I’m still getting used to the idea that AK is very much a novel, whereas W and P was something else…..
I’m slightly behind with my reading this month so I haven’t watched or read your discussion yet Henry, but my eye was caught by the John Sutherland books.
Just in case anyone would like copies, World of Books have pre-loved copies of the books, and the omnibus too, (with free delivery), but there are now only 4 copies left.
Even though Anna and Vronsky are the focus of this section (for the most part), I am more worried about Kitty. She's so young and so destroyed by the betrayal of Vronsky and Anna. I hope she can recover and reconsider life with Levin, who is so far my favorite character in this book.
Anna in St. Petersburg taking up with the more frivolous of her friend sets is an interesting development and not one that seems to lead to happiness. All these cynical "friends", watching this unfold, seem so contemporary - like all the internet rubberneckers that we see today.
In fact, my main takeaway from this month's reading is that it all seems like it could happen today, and probably does in some places.
Great point – perhaps why it feels like such great literature. The setting is so sepcific, and yet the characters, dynamics and relationships feel universal.
Thanks, Henry - insightful views and an interesting article on the English novel. Thanks for sharing.
I’m continuing to enjoy seeing the story unfold. Some random thoughts on this section:
I was unsure if we see the ‘hand of the author’ at the start of Chapter 24: “… despite the ridicule of his fellow students his brother had lived like a monk … strictly observing all the religious rites … avoiding all pleasures and especially women; and then how he suddenly broke lose”
Levin’s reflections on returning home are universal - “one must not submit to the past and one can do anything with oneself”. This is echoed in Anna’s thoughts on the train: “it was unpleasant… to follow the reflection of other people’s lives. She was too eager to live herself.”
“Anna’s soldering had not proved durable” - more realistic that Dolly and Stiva still have problems, and some likely foreshadowing for Anna. Also thought this was a nice contrast between Dolly and Kitty - jaded experience v innocent expectation.
Karenin’s thoughts as he considers Anna’s interaction with Vronsky were a window into his character - turning away from “the abyss” and making it a technocratic problem, reflecting his world view.
Great writing, great character development and great plot. Onwards!
Thank you John! Yes I thought that 'soldering' line was telling – our first impression of Anna is influenced in part by the way she so effortlessly effects the rapprochement between Stiva and Dolly. But in one sentence that achievement falls down – and our view of her changes.
Ah my translation says "The union Anna had cemented turned out to be of no solid character"
I rather like soldering better.
Thank you Henry. Agree with all that you say. It’s very interesting to read a contemporary - even if novelised - response to (I assume) ‘The Principles of Communism’ (1847) in Lévin’s thought about Nikolai, “Then his brother's talk of Communism, to which he had not paid much attention at the time, now made him think. He considered a revolution in economic conditions nonsense; but he had always felt the injustice of his own abundance compared with the poverty of the peasants”. It will be interesting to see if his thoughts develop further through the novel. Lévin’s idealism is further shown in respect of marriage which he clearly sees as entirely part of being in love with someone whilst his contemporaries see it simply as a social mechanism. The meeting between Vronsky and Anna on the train was electrifying, “there was nothing unpleasant or sad about that nervous tension or the visions which filled her imagination: on the contrary, they seemed joyful, glowing, and exhilarating.” That scene was thrown into relief by the following chapters about Anna’s interactions with her husband - and her unkind(?) thoughts about him and his lack of understanding of the arts and even his sticky out ears! Although Karenin clearly does have a great, dull, sense of self as when he “warns” Anna about her friendship with Vronsky and can’t quite believe he has to deal face to face with real life in this way. I really enjoyed the descriptions of upper class society and its divisions and its “smallness” I suppose. It is quite a highly charged conclusion to this section as you say Henry, yet not ‘explicit’ at all. Finally, talking about the writing in general, and hazarding a perhaps obvious theory, I realise how this story is emerging from the mouths and actions of the protagonists very naturally. Conversations aren’t full of clever “zingers” but are truly relative to the character speaking, banal or not. I don’t know if I’ve made myself clear there but, sometimes I feel we are in an era of what one might call “prescriptive fiction” , that is, when an author tells us why the character is saying something, I find Tolstoy’s trust that the unsaid motivation will be evident, thoroughly refreshing. May I quickly add that I’m also enjoying and learning a lot from the comments of other readers in this read-along. Thank you very much.
Thank you Royston, as ever! Fabulous comments. And I completely agree - it's a consummate case of 'show don't tell', isn't it?
Thank you, Henry, for your comments, they truly have an expansive effect on my reading experience. And, thank you readers, for your comments and observations, as well.
There are so many aspects of my first ever reading of Tolstoy that I could discuss for this second Anna Karenina installment! One that stands out for me is Tolstoy’s masterful use and attunement to the complex dynamics between children and adults/parents. He seems to use this to elaborate subtly felt, often unconscious, communications and relationship dynamics between the children and adults that give us exquisitely specific experiences of the main characters’ psychological complexion, as it were.
From our first installment reading, I’m remembering how Tolstoy highlighted that Vronsky, in his soul, did not respect nor love his mother and how he upheld an extremely obedient and deferential attitude towards her that only served to continue to diminish his respect and love. This is such an important aspect, for me, of thinking of Vronsky’s intentions with any and all women! And, it has made it difficult for me to trust him since.
In the second installment, I’m thinking of the scene where Tolstoy describes how Dolly’s children had been most excited by Anna’s arrival at Dolly and Oblonsky’s home and later, with her preoccupations of Vronsky and her preparations to depart Moscow, they felt she was no longer interested in them. Tolstoy depicts this as “Anna on this day was not at all like how she had been on the (day) when they had so fallen in love with her”. This is such a familiar perspective for a child, responding to an enigmatic strangeness in an adult, and believing that the child is, herself, responsible in some way for the adult’s unconscious communication. And, thinking more of the language Tolstoy uses here, it seems as if it might hold some clues/foreshadowing as to how Anna’s internal world impacts the love that she evokes and generates from those around her.
And Anna finds her son almost disappointing when she gets home...
Great observations - thank you!
Vronsky is now the murderer of Anna “And so the murderer falls on this body with a malevolence which is almost like passion, drags it away, and cuts it up.” The horror of this line tells us so much.
Yes that image so gruesome!
I'm writing this on a train - delays, disruptions and cancellations - so have a jaundiced view of railway journeys.
This section is fascinating - and we're not seeing some of the characters at their best. I'm surprised that I'm feeling more sympathetic to Vronsky than I expected (but not very much).
Henry has picked up on what Anna and Vronsky got up to, but I wondered whether - when Anna first arrived home - Karenin saying they should go to bed was his idea of foreplay. It wasn't romantic.
What LT really captures is the confusion of relationships. Anna seems to want to be faithful but also wants to give in. Both Anna and Vronsky seem caught up in the thrill of the chase - and, at this point, I'm wondering whether they would actually like each other.
So many characters I don't warm to in this section - Levin's brother's crowd, Princess Betsy and some of her associates. Maybe Anna and Vronsky appear more attractive because they are not quite of that social group, even though they mix with them.
I'm also rereading W&P, and I have to say LT isn't fond of doctors, is he?
Last thought: if Thameslink was in charge of Russian railways, Anna Karenina would still be alive today!
Ha! I love the idea of of Thameslink running the Moscow-St Petersburg line . . .
Anna Karenina and the rail replacement bus, perhaps?
I was also struck by Karenin basically scheduling sex with Anna, a sign of a completely self absorbed man. When he begins to suspect Anna and Vronsky it’s as if he is flabbergasted that Anna could possibly have any thoughts or feelings of her own.
I’m sure you are right, but I still believe he would be difficult to live with. As we move further along in the book we learn that he goes away for months at a time, doing his own thing.
I very much agree with you about the thrill of the chase Bren.
I’m not at all sympathetic to Vronsky in this reading. Actually, I feel like he is behaving like a rogue!! His pursuit of Anna doesn’t feel like love it just feels cruel and seems like a desperate pursuit to fulfill a momentary desire. As in part 1 chapter 16, when Vronsky is thinking about Kitty : “he did not know that his pattern of behavior with regard to Kitty had a specific name that it was the leading on of young girls without the intention of marrying them, and that this leading on was an example of the bad conduct commonly encountered amongst brilliant young men like himself .”
I agree that I am not loving him up to this point. I think that's why I am longing for more Kitty and Levin.
I feel like Vronsky has been thoughtless rather than cruel in the past and with Kitty. But he has genuinely fallen for Anna to his surprise.
Thanks Henry, another great summary. As a quick sidetone, the John Sutherland books are available again, re-published by Icon Books in 2018. There's no omnibus edition sadly.
Your point about the voyeurism of Betsy (and us) is echoed in War and Peace, when the marriage between Pierre and Hélène is being arranged, with Pierre powerless to resist. And I think there's a similar powerlessness that Anna and Vronsky feel here, that their fates are out of their control. There's a sense of inevitability about their relationship, in contrast to Levin, for whom nothing is inevitable.
Lovely comparison to W&P - thank you Andrew! And that's great news about Icon Books – I didn't know that! Here's the link for anyone interested. https://www.iconbooks.com/?s=sutherland
Who Betrays Elizabeth Bennet? can also be borrowed (along with lots of other amazing stuff) from the Internet Archive library: https://archive.org/details/whobetrayselizab00suth/mode/2up?view=theater
I really am wondering what Anna sees in Vronsky. Apart from him being a complete opposite from her husband I suppose? The nightmare of both of them making love to her felt somewhat disturbing. Perhaps this is to help us to understand how disturbed Anna is feeling?
I think so, and I think to convey her fright at being found out and the conflicting feelings about demolishing her life for this guy. She's now crossed the Rubicon with this affair.
Thanks for all the thoughts! That scene in Chapter 11 is soooo haunting. "All is over. I have nothing but you. Remember that"; and the murderer image; and the choice of words: Horror, despair, shame... Talk about buyer's remorse...
I was hoping this part would be discussed, Linda. I would love to hear what others think the line "no one in the world now except him" means for Anna's relationship with her son?
I believe if Anna got caught having an affair, her husband would have grounds to divorce her and would automatically get custody of any children. So I interpreted that line as Anna knowing that, now that she has actually physically cheated on her husband, what happens to her and whether she gets to keep her family and her lifestyle is at his mercy and she could very well lose everything, including her son.
The Sutherland passages were lovely- thank you for sharing ! He writes trains are ominous so I get a sense of foreboding. Indeed all the crucial turning points in the novel so far happens in trains- Anna meets first meet Vronsky while getting off a train and in this section Vronsky “said the very thing that (Anna’s) soul desires but her reason feared” we also see Anna “journeying” from mending her brother’s marriage - she says “Oh, no, no! I’m not like Stiva,…..I’m telling you this because I don’t allow myself to doubt myself even for a moment” and then we see her doing the exact opposite in the train. All of which finally ends with her giving in to her passions and treating her husband’s entreaties as if he is speaking nonsense. In some ways yes she is exactly like Stiva. Tolstoy shows us how people change …
That’s a great observation about trains being the scene of important turning points. Trains and train stations are not comfortable places, they are no one’s home, people pass through on their way to somewhere else. They are transitional. So it makes sense that some of the more fateful moments occur in these places. Where Vronsky meets Anna for the first time. Where the man is hit by the train - so full of foreshadowing. Where Anna reunites with her family and finds herself disappointed by them.
Fateful moments in train stations brings to mind Hemingway’s great short story “Hills Like White Elephants.”
And Leo Tolstoy ends up dying at a train station!
!!! I did not know
Another great discussion, Henry!
I find myself experiencing all sorts of emotions towards the characters, pity, love, hate, back to pity, sympathy, empathy, etc.
When I first read the passage of Anna seeing her husband and feeling “dissatisfied” with herself, I felt for her and was instantly reminded of Edgar Allan Poe: “I did violence to my own heart, and married, for another’s happiness, where I know that no possibility of my own existed”
It looks like most marriages in their society are matters of convenience, as opposed to love, which obviously was the case for Anna. When it’s all said and done, will I be happy that at least Anna felt love, even if it becomes the cause of her ruin?
Also, what a messed up society, in which a “friend” sits back and watches the downfall of someone. There is something very rotten in their midst. It doesn’t sound like affairs are rare, is it all a game? They encourage and then shun the parties involved?!
I apologize for my ramblings
No need to apologize. Your thoughts are right on. And why was it ok for men to have affairs and continue on in society but not women? And as for Kitty—she was brought up stupid. What a system to find a husband—if he comes to visit once a week on the official visiting day for a few months he is supposed to ask her to marry him???? And she is supposed to say yes???? No wonder everyone and affairs.
Henry, I saw the snow storm differently. Inside, Anna wanted to as free as the wind and snowflakes whirling around, nothing holding them back. This society hemmed in a lady who should have been running with the wolves.
Ah how interesting! A liberating tempest as opposed to torment of the soul – I like that reading – and perhaps Tolstoy was hoping to suggest elements of both?
For this section, I jotted quick notes for each chapter with a pithy heading. As I listened to this video, I opened my notes and tried to see if I had captured the gist of things. It was interesting to confirm parts and find other parts where I had to go back and re-read or look for something I missed, like the "scythe upon a stone" bit. Or the parts I thought were important but were not mentioned to see if I gave them too much or just different weight. All in all, it was a satisfying way to recap.
I'm so glad my thoughts were helpful – but remember your observations are just as valid as mine! Do let us know if you pick up on anything I don't!
Agreed - it's fun to compare one's notes with Henry's observations.
Henry, thank you for this month’s very interesting summary. I plan to go back to review key passages now that I’ve watched and read your post. The timing of this slow read provides time to do this, which is quite helpful. I am particularly fascinated by what you shared about Tolstoy’s views of English novels in general, and I will keep this in mind as we progress further into the novel. I was a 2024 slow reader of War and Peace, and—since it is so fresh in my mind—I can’t help but think about some of the aspects of this novel in comparison to W and P. Tolstoy’s descriptions of the natural world in both books are superb! I happened to be reading the description of the blizzard at the train station just as we were experiencing a huge snowstorm outside my window! If nothing else, Tolstoy is accurate! In terms of characters, Vronsky reminds me—so far—of Anatole in W and P. Kitty reminds me of a young Natasha. I’m still getting used to the idea that AK is very much a novel, whereas W and P was something else…..
I’m slightly behind with my reading this month so I haven’t watched or read your discussion yet Henry, but my eye was caught by the John Sutherland books.
Just in case anyone would like copies, World of Books have pre-loved copies of the books, and the omnibus too, (with free delivery), but there are now only 4 copies left.
Thanks Jaimie! I do recommend them.
I’m really looking forward to reading them…back to Anna now though