Anna Karenina (Russian: Анна Каренина, IPA: [ˈanːə kɐˈrʲenʲɪnə]) is a novel by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy, first published in book form in 1878. Tolstoy called it his first true novel. It was initially released in serial installments from 1875 to 1877, all but the last part appearing in the periodical The Russian Messenger. By the time he was finishing up the last installments, Tolstoy was in an anguished state of mind and, having come to hate it, finished it unwillingly.
The novel deals with themes of betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and the differences between rural and urban life. The story centres on an extramarital affair between Anna and cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalises the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness, but after they return to Russia, their lives further unravel.
Trains are a motif throughout the novel, with several major plot points taking place either on passenger trains or at stations in Saint Petersburg or elsewhere in Russia. The story takes place against the backdrop of the liberal reforms initiated by Emperor Alexander II of Russia and the rapid societal transformations that followed. The novel has been adapted into various media including theatre, opera, film, television, ballet, figure skating, and radio drama.
Main characters
Anna Arkadyevna Karenina (Анна Аркадьевна Каренина): Stepan Oblonsky’s sister, Karenin’s wife and Vronsky’s lover.
Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky (Алексей Кириллович Вронский): Anna’s lover, cavalry officer.
Prince Stepan “Stiva” Arkadyevich Oblonsky (Степан “Стива” Аркадьевич Облонский): civil servant and Anna’s brother, man about town, 34 years of age. (Stepan and Stiva are Russianized forms of Stephen and Steve, respectively.)
Princess Darya “Dolly” Alexandrovna Oblonskaya (Дарья “Долли” Александровна Облонская): Stepan’s wife, 33 years of age.
Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin (Алексей Александрович Каренин): senior statesman and Anna’s husband, twenty years her senior.
Konstantin “Kostya” Dmitrievich Levin/Lyovin (Константин “Костя” Дмитриевич Лёвин): Kitty’s suitor, Stiva’s old friend, landowner, 32 years of age. He is often considered to be Tolstoy’s alter ego.
Nikolai Dmitrievich Levin/Lyovin (Николай Дмитриевич Лёвин): Konstantin’s elder brother, impoverished alcoholic.
Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev (Сергей Иванович Кознышев): Konstantin’s half-brother, celebrated writer, 40 years of age.
Princess Ekaterina “Kitty” Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (Екатерина “Кити” Александровна Щербацкая): Dolly’s younger sister and later Levin’s wife, 18 years of age.
Prince Alexander Shcherbatsky (Александр Щербацкий): Dolly and Kitty’s father.
Princess Shcherbatsky (no name or patronymic given): Dolly and Kitty’s mother.
Princess Elizaveta “Betsy” Tverskaya (Елизавета “Бетси” Тверская): Anna’s wealthy, morally loose society friend and Vronsky’s cousin.
Countess Lidia (or Lydia) Ivanovna (Лидия Ивановна): leader of a high society circle that includes Karenin, and shuns Princess Betsy and her circle. She maintains an interest in Russian Orthodoxy, mysticism and spirituality.
Countess Vronskaya: Vronsky’s mother.
Sergei “Seryozha” Alexeyich Karenin (Сергей “Серёжа” Каренин): Anna and Karenin’s son, 8 years of age.
Anna “Annie” (Анна “Ани”): Anna and Vronsky’s daughter.
Agafya Mikhailovna (Агафья Михайловнa): Levin’s former nurse, now his trusted housekeeper.
Plot introduction
Anna Karenina consists of more than the story of Anna Karenina, a married socialite, and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky, though their relationship is a very strong component of the plot. The story starts when she arrives in the midst of her brother’s family being broken up by his unbridled womanising—something that prefigures her own later situation.
A bachelor, Vronsky is eager to marry Anna if she will agree to leave her husband Karenin, a senior government official. Although Vronsky and Anna go to Italy, where they can be together, leaving behind Anna’s child from her first marriage, they have trouble making friends. When they return to Russia, Anna suffers shunning and isolation due to the relationship. While Vronsky pursues his social life, Anna grows increasingly possessive and paranoid about his supposed infidelity.
A parallel story within the novel is Konstantin Levin, a wealthy country landowner who wants to marry Kitty, sister to Dolly and sister-in-law to Anna’s brother Stepan Oblonsky. Levin has to propose twice before Kitty accepts. The novel details Levin’s difficulties managing his estate, his eventual marriage, and his struggle to accept the Christian faith, until the birth of his first child.
The novel explores a diverse range of topics throughout its approximately one thousand pages. Some of these topics include an evaluation of the land and agricultural system that existed in Russia at the time as well as politics, not only in the Russian government, but also at the level of the individual characters and families, religion, morality, gender, and social class.
Summary
The novel is divided into eight parts and 239 chapters. Its epigraph is “Vengeance is mine; I will repay”, from Romans 12:19, which in turn quotes from Deuteronomy 32:35. The novel begins with one of its most oft-quoted lines:
Все счастливые семьи похожи друг на друга, каждая несчастливая семья несчастлива по-своему.
Vse schastlivyye sem’i pokhozhi drug na druga, kazhdaya neschastlivaya sem’ya neschastliva po-svoyemu.
Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Part 1
Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky (“Stiva”), a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant, has been unfaithful to his wife, Princess Darya Alexandrovna (“Dolly”). Dolly has discovered his affair with the family’s governess, and the household and family are in turmoil. Stiva informs the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg in a bid to calm the situation.
Meanwhile, Stiva’s childhood friend, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin (“Kostya”), arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly’s youngest sister, Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (“Kitty”). Kostya is a passionate, restless, but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army cavalry officer.
Whilst at the railway station to meet his sister Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky who is there to meet his mother, the Countess Vronskaya. Anna and Vronskaya have travelled and talked together in the same carriage. As the family members are reunited and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a moving train carriage and is killed. Anna interprets this as an “evil omen”.
At the Oblonsky home, Anna talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva’s affair and convinces her that Stiva still loves her despite the infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna’s speeches and decides to forgive Stiva.
Kitty, who comes to visit Dolly and Anna, is just eighteen. In her first season as a debutante, she is expected to make an excellent match with a man of her own social standing. Vronsky has been paying her considerable attention, and she expects to dance with him at a ball that evening. Kitty is very struck by Anna’s beauty and personality and becomes infatuated with her just as much as with Vronsky. When Kostya proposes to Kitty at her home, she clumsily turns him down, as she is in love with Vronsky and believes that he will propose to her; she was encouraged to do so by her mother, the Princess Shcherbatskaya, who believes Vronsky would be a better match (in contrast to Kitty’s father, who favours Kostya).
At the ball Kitty expects to hear something definitive from Vronsky, but he dances with Anna instead, choosing her as a partner over a shocked and heartbroken Kitty. Kitty realises that Vronsky has fallen in love with Anna and has no intention of marrying her, despite his overt flirtations. Vronsky has regarded his interactions with Kitty merely as a source of amusement and assumes that Kitty has acted for the same reasons. Anna, shaken by her emotional and physical response to Vronsky, returns at once to St. Petersburg. Vronsky travels on the same train. During the overnight journey, the two meet and Vronsky confesses his love. Anna refuses him, although she is affected by his attentions.
Kostya, crushed by Kitty’s refusal, returns to his estate, abandoning any hope of marriage. Anna returns to her husband, Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and her son, Seryozha, in St. Petersburg.
Part 2
The Shcherbatskys consult doctors over Kitty’s health, which has been failing since Vronsky’s rejection. A specialist advises that Kitty should go abroad to a health spa to recover. Dolly speaks to Kitty and understands she is suffering because of Vronsky and Kostya, whom she cares for and had hurt in vain. Kitty, humiliated by Vronsky and tormented by her rejection of Kostya, upsets her sister by referring to Stiva’s infidelity, saying she could never love a man who betrayed her. Meanwhile, Stiva visits Kostya on his country estate while selling a nearby plot of land.
In St. Petersburg, Anna begins to spend more time in the inner circle of Princess Elizaveta (“Betsy”), a fashionable socialite and Vronsky’s cousin. Vronsky continues to pursue Anna. Although she initially tries to reject him, she eventually succumbs to his attentions and begins an affair. Meanwhile, Karenin reminds his wife of the impropriety of paying too much attention to Vronsky in public, which is becoming the subject of gossip. He is concerned about the couple’s public image, although he mistakenly believes that Anna is above suspicion.
Vronsky, a keen horseman, takes part in a steeplechase event, during which he rides his mare Frou-Frou too hard—his irresponsibility causing him to fall and break the horse’s back. Anna is unable to hide her distress during the accident. Before this, Anna had told Vronsky that she is pregnant with his child. Karenin is also present at the races and remarks to Anna that her behavior is improper. Anna, in a state of extreme distress and emotion, confesses her affair to her husband. Karenin asks her to break it off to avoid further gossip, believing that their marriage will be preserved.
Kitty and her mother travel to a German spa to enable Kitty
