This section really did for my blood pressure. It started with real comedy (Dolly asserting herself about Stepan's debts) that turns so quickly into tragedy.
The way Tolstoy describes how Anna sees everything negatively is brilliant - it sounds like the narrator's voice, but it's clearly Anna's perspective. Anna's assumption that everyone is talking about her - judging her - comes over clearly.
And the way we gradually enter Anna's mind and can follow her thought process is heartbreaking. There are so many ways Anna could have been saved - by Stepan, by Karenin, by Vronsky, by a random stranger at the station - but she is alone.
I'd always assumed that Anna died at a main railway station - somewhere a bit grand - rather than a provincial pitstop. But it does seem.right that Anna ends her life away from society that has neglected her.
I hadn't realised that Anna wouldn't make it to the last book, so I'm eager to see what that has in store.
This really stayed with me too. I remember having exactly that feeling when I read it a few years ago, that there were so many points at which Anna might have been saved. I increasingly think Tolstoy builds that into the novel deliberately, so that the tragedy feels less like fate and more like a series of small failures that accumulate.
This also makes me think about why film adaptations struggle so much with Anna’s ending. Tolstoy doesn’t write her death as a single decisive act, but as an accumulation of near-interventions and missed recognitions. Film has to fix the moment visually, while the novel keeps the possibility of interruption alive almost until the end. That quiet sense that she might still be saved is precisely what cinema finds hardest to sustain.
Yes, you're right about the films - Anna's death becomes something with a particular form of significance rather than something that might so easily have been avoided. In a way, that's why it feels so tragic.
Some early thoughts: ten pages into The Age of Innocence and the social rigidity already feels oppressive enough to understand why Scorsese called it “the most violent film I have ever made.” Strangely, it keeps making me think of American Psycho: different eras, opposite tones, but a similar obsession with prescribed behaviour and the quiet brutality of social expectation.
Not in terms of explicit violence, of course, but in the way both books anatomise social life through obsessive description.
I don’t think it’s accidental that these stories unfold in New York. Across different periods, the city functions less as a setting than as a system that produces and enforces social behaviour.
I initially felt a bit mad making the connection, but the thought kept returning. So I went back to a few interviews with Ellis. He’s spoken admiringly about Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, calling it “gorgeous” while noting its deliberately glazed, remote surface, and he’s also said, quite strikingly, “I think Edith Wharton might be the greatest novelist of the 20th century at this point in my life.” That made the link feel less fanciful to me—not about content, but about both writers mapping closed worlds where surfaces do the real work.
Unexpectedly, I’m enjoying reading Wharton much more than I anticipated, which makes me even more curious to follow your posts and the discussion as it develops.
The comparison between Anna and her brother Stiva kept coming back to me. He clearly took lightly his dual life, Petersburg and Moscow, marriage and dalliances. We see the suffering of his wife Dolly. We never see into the lives of the women with whom he has affairs, but what happens to them, in this rigid society? Anna gives us a glimpse into the life of “the other woman,” although Vronsky himself is not yet married. Anna is also tempted to ensnare Levin, so her character may not be so different from her brother’s. Like him, Anna wants it all, but found out that getting it all has been her undoing.
Brilliant observations, as always, Henry. I appreciate the callbacks to earlier scenes; I hadn't made those connections. I'm also grateful for the explanation of the next section. The end of this section certainly feels like the end, so to know the rest was intended as an epilogue makes more sense. I'm curious about the political discord between Tolstoy and the publisher. Do you have more information about it?
Poor Anna. During her descent into madness, my 2026 lens had me diagnosing her with borderline personality disorder. Such paranoia! But, like many of women's struggles throughout history, instead of saying something is wrong with the woman, we should fix the systems and structures that put her in such impossible situations. And the poor children. How will this reverberate throughout their lives and into the next generations? Tragedy all around.
"Instead of saying something is wrong with the woman, we should fix the systems and structures that put her in such impossible situations."
I thought many times during these last chapters that Anna was being too sensitive or too indulgent or too intense. And I'd have to stop and correct myself. Women's lives and their daily circumstances have always been more difficult than men's; their range of choices has always been smaller. Sadly, it's still the case.
I had to check my male privilege too many times reading these heartbreaking chapters.
For anyone with a bit of extra time this weekend and looking for something good to watch: I’d really recommend this discussion, especially for those following the February read-along of The Age of Innocence. Martin Scorsese talks about the novel with such attentiveness, and it sheds light on so many aspects of the book that are easy to miss on a first read.
I don’t have anything insightful to say about Anna karenina right now, other than thank you for this read along! It has been a highlight of my last 13 months and I’m going into the last installment with some sadness that it will be over. (But I am excited to start Brothers!)
I'm two episodes into Intriguing Secrets and I'm having a great time with it. It's so creative, and I'm learning a lot about the novel from Tolstoy scholars.
I loved what you said about the train scene and the candle. It really brought to mind a bit from War and Peace that I'd like to copy out here, but I'm wary of spoilers. I'll post just enough to keep it spoiler-free. The ending of the Andrew Davies adaptation includes this line. I watched it again last night and I felt like I had something in my eye, haha. I think it captures the essence of Tolstoy at this point in his life.
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"We imagine that when we are thrown out of our familiar rut all is lost, but that is only when something new and good can begin. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us."
Tolstoy, Leo; Louise and Aylmer Maude; Amy Mandelker. War and Peace (Oxford World's Classics Hardback Collection) (p. 1204). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
This is my second read of Anna K. So I knew what the final chapters in Book 7 were leading to, perhaps making it's ending even more poignant. I have been listening to an audio version along with reading which has enhanced the whole experience, along with your insights and commentaries. Hearing the final chapter read aloud left me quite overwhelmed.
I found the final argument between Vronsky and Anna heartbreaking; the strength of their beliefs that they had both sacrificed so much for the other. One moment that has stayed with me was when Anna goes to the nursery and plays briefly with her daughter and the baby is so delighted. Her daughter has been almost invisible while her son, who is beyond her reach still dominates her thoughts.
I completely agree! And that description of her daughter having 'eyes like currants' – to Anna, she seems like a dead-eyed doll, not a real person at all. There's something really frightening about that moment and her inability to love her daughter.
That observation struck me because I read Anna Karenina a few years ago and had almost forgotten that Anna even has a daughter. I remember the son clearly, but not her at all. That feels intentional on Tolstoy’s part.
I think you’re right. The son dominates because he belongs to the life Anna has lost, not the one she is living. Her daughter is still a baby, almost deliberately indistinct. Tolstoy seems to weight the unreachable more heavily than the present. What she cannot have claims more of her inner life than what is physically there.
This is so very sad 😢 I enjoyed the clips you put together, thanks, Henry! My favourite Anna is Keira Knightly, the expression on her face before she jumps! But the most powerful clip for me was the first one with the train, the clanging, the music 🥰 Thanks, Henry - thought-provoking as always!
i feel russians have such an artistic heart, no matter how they are in politics, past or present wars and so on. There is nothing more moving than a russian symphony, ballet, even a painting or an old movie made during the soviet times. I understand several languages including a bit of russian (i am romanian and we were forced in primary school to learn it) and so, i always prefer, if i can, to watch a movie based on a book made in its native language. All the western versions of Anna Karennina are beautiful but they lack the russian soul that is felt when you hear the tonality of the language and you watch russian actors playing. For this reason, i prefer AK version made in 1967 which is more faithful to the book. There are i believe 4 russian versions of the AK book made into movies, one of them i think in 2017. If you can watch them with english subtitles so you ca listen to the melody of the language, the feeling is almost surreal.
Many thanks for the recommendation! For those interested in watching the 1967 Russian, directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi, here is a link to a (slightly grainy) version: https://m.ok.ru/video/1575559563974
I loved what you said about Anna / the feeling when you’re about to jump into cold water. I too love cold water swimming, and when I read that line in the book I understood instinctively what Tolstoy was describing - I felt it but couldn’t have articulated it, either to myself or out loud to others, so thank you for doing that so well. The “narrowing” you described, that’s exactly it.
(Can’t wait to start describing things as “dire humbug”.)
Oh! And I’m loving Age of Innocence SO MUCH, this is my first introduction to Wharton and it’s so enjoyable.
Thank you Lindsay! I felt like I rather bungled through that bit, so I’m glad it rang true for you! And I’m so glad you’re enjoying Age of Innocence – isn’t it fabulous?
My memory of reading Anna Karenina in high school is that she dies at the very end, so I was as stunned by the end of Book 7 as a new reader. (I also don't remember Levin at all. Apparently, I read the book as a melodrama--another reason to be grateful for slow read.)
I noted in this section how Tolstoy has both Stepan and Anna unmoored. They're unmoored in different ways and to very different degrees, of course, but neither can find something to hold onto. I think of how Stepan led us into the novel with his self-satisfaction. It's brilliant of Tolstoy to loosen him from his moorings--to let even carefree Stepan suffer from doubts and worries--before turning to Anna's unraveling.
Great point Alan – as siblings they have many similarities, I think, not least their natural ability to make people like them – but they've both been wobbling on increasingly unstable foundations . . .
Thank you Henry for your words and guidance. The train scene compilation was an effective way to see the various interpretations. I look forward to finishing this read and combining it with Age of Innocence next month.
This section really did for my blood pressure. It started with real comedy (Dolly asserting herself about Stepan's debts) that turns so quickly into tragedy.
The way Tolstoy describes how Anna sees everything negatively is brilliant - it sounds like the narrator's voice, but it's clearly Anna's perspective. Anna's assumption that everyone is talking about her - judging her - comes over clearly.
And the way we gradually enter Anna's mind and can follow her thought process is heartbreaking. There are so many ways Anna could have been saved - by Stepan, by Karenin, by Vronsky, by a random stranger at the station - but she is alone.
I'd always assumed that Anna died at a main railway station - somewhere a bit grand - rather than a provincial pitstop. But it does seem.right that Anna ends her life away from society that has neglected her.
I hadn't realised that Anna wouldn't make it to the last book, so I'm eager to see what that has in store.
This really stayed with me too. I remember having exactly that feeling when I read it a few years ago, that there were so many points at which Anna might have been saved. I increasingly think Tolstoy builds that into the novel deliberately, so that the tragedy feels less like fate and more like a series of small failures that accumulate.
This also makes me think about why film adaptations struggle so much with Anna’s ending. Tolstoy doesn’t write her death as a single decisive act, but as an accumulation of near-interventions and missed recognitions. Film has to fix the moment visually, while the novel keeps the possibility of interruption alive almost until the end. That quiet sense that she might still be saved is precisely what cinema finds hardest to sustain.
Yes, you're right about the films - Anna's death becomes something with a particular form of significance rather than something that might so easily have been avoided. In a way, that's why it feels so tragic.
Some early thoughts: ten pages into The Age of Innocence and the social rigidity already feels oppressive enough to understand why Scorsese called it “the most violent film I have ever made.” Strangely, it keeps making me think of American Psycho: different eras, opposite tones, but a similar obsession with prescribed behaviour and the quiet brutality of social expectation.
Not in terms of explicit violence, of course, but in the way both books anatomise social life through obsessive description.
I don’t think it’s accidental that these stories unfold in New York. Across different periods, the city functions less as a setting than as a system that produces and enforces social behaviour.
Fascinating idea Kristine – and I didn't know that Scorsese quote – brilliant!
I initially felt a bit mad making the connection, but the thought kept returning. So I went back to a few interviews with Ellis. He’s spoken admiringly about Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, calling it “gorgeous” while noting its deliberately glazed, remote surface, and he’s also said, quite strikingly, “I think Edith Wharton might be the greatest novelist of the 20th century at this point in my life.” That made the link feel less fanciful to me—not about content, but about both writers mapping closed worlds where surfaces do the real work.
Unexpectedly, I’m enjoying reading Wharton much more than I anticipated, which makes me even more curious to follow your posts and the discussion as it develops.
Amazing – thank you so much Kristine! And I'm so glad you're enjoying Wharton more than you expected – she's brilliant, isn't she?
This is so interesting and insightful, thanks for sharing
The comparison between Anna and her brother Stiva kept coming back to me. He clearly took lightly his dual life, Petersburg and Moscow, marriage and dalliances. We see the suffering of his wife Dolly. We never see into the lives of the women with whom he has affairs, but what happens to them, in this rigid society? Anna gives us a glimpse into the life of “the other woman,” although Vronsky himself is not yet married. Anna is also tempted to ensnare Levin, so her character may not be so different from her brother’s. Like him, Anna wants it all, but found out that getting it all has been her undoing.
Brilliant observations, as always, Henry. I appreciate the callbacks to earlier scenes; I hadn't made those connections. I'm also grateful for the explanation of the next section. The end of this section certainly feels like the end, so to know the rest was intended as an epilogue makes more sense. I'm curious about the political discord between Tolstoy and the publisher. Do you have more information about it?
Poor Anna. During her descent into madness, my 2026 lens had me diagnosing her with borderline personality disorder. Such paranoia! But, like many of women's struggles throughout history, instead of saying something is wrong with the woman, we should fix the systems and structures that put her in such impossible situations. And the poor children. How will this reverberate throughout their lives and into the next generations? Tragedy all around.
For sure! Thanks for the kind words Kristen – we'll discuss their political differences next month.
"Instead of saying something is wrong with the woman, we should fix the systems and structures that put her in such impossible situations."
I thought many times during these last chapters that Anna was being too sensitive or too indulgent or too intense. And I'd have to stop and correct myself. Women's lives and their daily circumstances have always been more difficult than men's; their range of choices has always been smaller. Sadly, it's still the case.
I had to check my male privilege too many times reading these heartbreaking chapters.
For anyone with a bit of extra time this weekend and looking for something good to watch: I’d really recommend this discussion, especially for those following the February read-along of The Age of Innocence. Martin Scorsese talks about the novel with such attentiveness, and it sheds light on so many aspects of the book that are easy to miss on a first read.
https://youtu.be/oigqJ91YM24?si=NsXs0H053hnHGqRO
Thanks so much for sharing – this looks excellent. I can't wait to watch!
Thank you, I’ll definitely watch!
This whole post is a treasure trove - so much food for thought and inspiration! Thank you, Henry!
Thanks so much Pierre!
I don’t have anything insightful to say about Anna karenina right now, other than thank you for this read along! It has been a highlight of my last 13 months and I’m going into the last installment with some sadness that it will be over. (But I am excited to start Brothers!)
That's wonderful Teagan – I'm so glad you've enjoyed it!
I'm two episodes into Intriguing Secrets and I'm having a great time with it. It's so creative, and I'm learning a lot about the novel from Tolstoy scholars.
I loved what you said about the train scene and the candle. It really brought to mind a bit from War and Peace that I'd like to copy out here, but I'm wary of spoilers. I'll post just enough to keep it spoiler-free. The ending of the Andrew Davies adaptation includes this line. I watched it again last night and I felt like I had something in my eye, haha. I think it captures the essence of Tolstoy at this point in his life.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
"We imagine that when we are thrown out of our familiar rut all is lost, but that is only when something new and good can begin. While there is life there is happiness. There is much, much before us."
Tolstoy, Leo; Louise and Aylmer Maude; Amy Mandelker. War and Peace (Oxford World's Classics Hardback Collection) (p. 1204). OUP Oxford. Kindle Edition.
Beautiful line, Cams – thank you!
This is my second read of Anna K. So I knew what the final chapters in Book 7 were leading to, perhaps making it's ending even more poignant. I have been listening to an audio version along with reading which has enhanced the whole experience, along with your insights and commentaries. Hearing the final chapter read aloud left me quite overwhelmed.
I bet! Those long internalised paragraphs inside Anna's mind must be particularly powerful when narrated . . .
I found the final argument between Vronsky and Anna heartbreaking; the strength of their beliefs that they had both sacrificed so much for the other. One moment that has stayed with me was when Anna goes to the nursery and plays briefly with her daughter and the baby is so delighted. Her daughter has been almost invisible while her son, who is beyond her reach still dominates her thoughts.
I completely agree! And that description of her daughter having 'eyes like currants' – to Anna, she seems like a dead-eyed doll, not a real person at all. There's something really frightening about that moment and her inability to love her daughter.
That observation struck me because I read Anna Karenina a few years ago and had almost forgotten that Anna even has a daughter. I remember the son clearly, but not her at all. That feels intentional on Tolstoy’s part.
I think you’re right. The son dominates because he belongs to the life Anna has lost, not the one she is living. Her daughter is still a baby, almost deliberately indistinct. Tolstoy seems to weight the unreachable more heavily than the present. What she cannot have claims more of her inner life than what is physically there.
I might just have to get that Robert Burton book just to have the cover! It's GORGEOUS!
This is so very sad 😢 I enjoyed the clips you put together, thanks, Henry! My favourite Anna is Keira Knightly, the expression on her face before she jumps! But the most powerful clip for me was the first one with the train, the clanging, the music 🥰 Thanks, Henry - thought-provoking as always!
Thanks Elsa! I'm afraid I can't take credit for the youtube clips – but so glad you enjoyed watching them.
i feel russians have such an artistic heart, no matter how they are in politics, past or present wars and so on. There is nothing more moving than a russian symphony, ballet, even a painting or an old movie made during the soviet times. I understand several languages including a bit of russian (i am romanian and we were forced in primary school to learn it) and so, i always prefer, if i can, to watch a movie based on a book made in its native language. All the western versions of Anna Karennina are beautiful but they lack the russian soul that is felt when you hear the tonality of the language and you watch russian actors playing. For this reason, i prefer AK version made in 1967 which is more faithful to the book. There are i believe 4 russian versions of the AK book made into movies, one of them i think in 2017. If you can watch them with english subtitles so you ca listen to the melody of the language, the feeling is almost surreal.
Many thanks for the recommendation! For those interested in watching the 1967 Russian, directed by Aleksandr Zarkhi, here is a link to a (slightly grainy) version: https://m.ok.ru/video/1575559563974
I loved what you said about Anna / the feeling when you’re about to jump into cold water. I too love cold water swimming, and when I read that line in the book I understood instinctively what Tolstoy was describing - I felt it but couldn’t have articulated it, either to myself or out loud to others, so thank you for doing that so well. The “narrowing” you described, that’s exactly it.
(Can’t wait to start describing things as “dire humbug”.)
Oh! And I’m loving Age of Innocence SO MUCH, this is my first introduction to Wharton and it’s so enjoyable.
Thank you Lindsay! I felt like I rather bungled through that bit, so I’m glad it rang true for you! And I’m so glad you’re enjoying Age of Innocence – isn’t it fabulous?
My memory of reading Anna Karenina in high school is that she dies at the very end, so I was as stunned by the end of Book 7 as a new reader. (I also don't remember Levin at all. Apparently, I read the book as a melodrama--another reason to be grateful for slow read.)
I noted in this section how Tolstoy has both Stepan and Anna unmoored. They're unmoored in different ways and to very different degrees, of course, but neither can find something to hold onto. I think of how Stepan led us into the novel with his self-satisfaction. It's brilliant of Tolstoy to loosen him from his moorings--to let even carefree Stepan suffer from doubts and worries--before turning to Anna's unraveling.
Great point Alan – as siblings they have many similarities, I think, not least their natural ability to make people like them – but they've both been wobbling on increasingly unstable foundations . . .
Thank you Henry for your words and guidance. The train scene compilation was an effective way to see the various interpretations. I look forward to finishing this read and combining it with Age of Innocence next month.
Yes! I think they'll make for an interesting comparison.