Read-along – Anna Karenina (3 of 14)
Part Two, Chapters 12-29 – and Sergei Eisenstein at the races
Dear Anna Karenina readers,
We’ve finished the extremely dramatic March instalment. What are your thoughts? Here are my impressions:
Please do share your observations and favourite quotations in the comments below!
The most dramatic scene in this month’s instalment was the horse race at Krasnoye Selo. This scene is impressively vivid and intense. As Rosamund Bartlett says in her introduction, ‘Tolstoy’s technique is . . . almost cinematic.’
We see the horse race from many different angles, for example, and in different time-frames, prompting the great film director Sergey Eisenstein to view this scene as an example of audio-visual counterpoint par excellence, and as prime material for his theory of montage. Tolstoy’s own technique of montage, which has him compare, contrast, and mesh at least two different storylines in a seamless way, is unparalleled.
Sergei Eisenstein, the pioneering Russian filmmaker, was born in 1898, when Tolstoy was 69; he was 12 years old when Tolstoy died in 1910. He is considered a pioneer of the cinematic technique of montage, as demonstrated in his classic silent films Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and October (1928).
In a posthumously published essay called ‘Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina – the Races’, Eisenstein discusses the horse race scene and the techniques that Tolstoy uses. He considers how the scene might be conveyed on screen:
We have the interplay between people; the interplay of sounds, of music and voices; the interplay of mass and colour; the interplay of situations; the interplay of images and thoughts. [. . .]
And the means of bringing together all these incompatible factors in the single, synthesising score of a sound film is: montage!
Such are the functions of montage, Montage with a capital letter, montage in our time!
His essay is included in Volume 2 of Eisenstein’s Collected Works, Towards a Theory of Montage, edited by Michael Glenny and Richard Taylor.
He goes on:
Colour; rhythm; the actors’ performance; the expression of the theme by a total, photographed performance, the soundtrack or the graphic image of a shot, a single sequence or a montage phrase made up of short, sharply cut shots – that is the range of instruments in my orchestra: one that has grown beyond all bounds, but which grew out of a tiny orchestra working from a score made up of wordless thought; words and intonation; mime and gesture, and finally – the flow of total performance.
I like the idea of the instruments in Eisenstein’s ‘orchestra’. And there is certainly something orchestral – as well as cinematic – about Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, with its lush descriptions, finely tuned characterisation and harmonious and discordant scenes.
Let’s keep an ear out for the various instruments in Tolstoy’s orchestra as we read on . . .
I hope you enjoy the next instalment. On Friday 25th April we will discuss Part Two, Chapters 30-35 and Part Three, Chapters 1-12. These chapters formed the fourth instalment of Anna Karenina, first published in the Russian Messenger in April 1875.
For reference, here are links to our previous Anna Karenina posts:
The Schedule (18 December 2024)
Leo Tolstoy (3 January 2025)
0. Introductions (10 January)
1. Part One, Chapters 1-23 – and Nabokov on Time (31 January)
2. Part One, Chapters 24-34, Part Two, Chapters 1-11 – and John Sutherland on Anna’s English novel (28 February)
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Anyone who was slow-reading 'War and Peace' last year will know that I kept rabbiting on about it being cinematic and/or visual, so it’s not surprised that that's what we've picked up on this month.
The race is a thrilling piece of writing - edge of the seat stuff. We get traces of both arrogance and vulnerability from Vronsky. And then to see it from Anna's point of view is perfect - we focus on the tension rather than the race. It did get me wondering if Tolstoy was one of the first to play around with chronology in that way (writers would probably use reported speech to introduce new information from the past rather than just presenting it, wouldn't they?).
And Anna dropping the bomb about her pregnancy in the middle of all that. You'd expect that to be the main focus - lesser writers would do that - but LT shows how Vronsky still focuses on the race. Yes, it's not his best response.
The Anna/Karenin dynamic made me think of Masha/Kulygin in 'Three Sisters' - Chekhov shows the husband gradually coming to see what is going on and being quite understanding, eventually trying to find a way to keep the marriage going. Personally, I'm not convinced that Masha wouldn't fall for the next Vershinin that comes along, but Kulygin does try.
And, of course, all the contrasts: Dolly and Oblonsky (unfaithful husband, wronged wife); Anna and Karenin (wronged husband, unfaithful wife); Kitty and Levin (the couple who should be together, but aren't. Yet?)
I may race through the next few chapters...
So many things to discuss in this installment, both big and small. My highlights below, some raised by Henry in the video.
I enjoyed the drawn out interactions between Levin and Oblonaky, with Levin waiting until a forest at night to ask about Kitty and can’t even bring himself to use her name “why don’t you tell me whether your sister-in-law is married”. I thought the Point of View entering into Laksa was novel, with the horse observing the two men and talking about them in reproachful terms.
The juxtaposition of Society’s view on the affair between Vronsky and Anna: “most of the young men envied him just on account of what was most trying in the affair” compared to “they already prepared lumps of mud to pelt her with in due time”. Probably not changed in modern times.
The device of Anna’s son acting as a ‘compass’ and highlighting the path of their affair brought it home: “[he] showed them their degree of divergence from what they knew”.
The point where Anna tells Vronsky she is pregnant has her inner voice interspersed with the dialogue gave this part life - her reticence to ruin his happy mood, uncertainty on whether he would understand the magnitude. This then surfaces in her trembling hand, which causes Vronsky to press her for what is troubling her. Incredibly deft writing that makes the scene real.
The death of Frou-Frou is poignant - “the worst kind of misfortune- irretrievable and caused by his own fault”. Effective foreshadowing that is woven into the plot.
I could go on and on - amazing writing!