Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Jim and I hosted a dinner party just before the new year. Two of our guests, a former professor of Slavic language and culture, and a native Russian who emigrated to the U.S. with his parents many years ago, were talking about Anna Karenina. The professor was currently re-reading the novel in Russian to keep up his language skills. They both expressed their love for the novel. I remember admiring the novel very much as well, and told them so, but I read it so long ago that I could recall very little of it. Except for the parts that everyone knows whether they’ve read it or not: Anna’s affair and her suicide, and that famous first line, “All happy families are alike…” I’m ashamed to say, I remembered more about where I read it (my dorm room at college, in the bathtub at a boyfriend’s apartment) than the story itself. When I read War and Peace a few years ago, for the first time, and loved it, I resolved at the time that I would re-read Tolstoy’s other great novel sometime, and hearing my friends talk about it decided that now was the time.

I didn’t own a copy, having long separated myself from that thick paperback I had read years ago. The local branch library didn’t have a copy on the shelf. So I bought a handsome, large-sized, paperback Penguin edition at the local bookstore. I wanted the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation because I had enjoyed their version of The Brothers Karamasov. Their translation turned out to be the only edition the bookstore carried so I brought it home.

Tolstoy published sections of the work serially in magazines from 1875 to 1877 and published its entirety, as a book, in 1878, about ten years after War and Peace. The setting is primarily Moscow and St. Petersburg and the surrounding countryside. The time setting is contemporaneous to the writing, that is, the mid-1870s. It’s a long book, but very readable. In fact, I was surprised at how simple much of the language is: straight-forward sentences, basic vocabulary. I did appreciate the helpful end notes explaining some of the references to nineteenth century Russian politics and culture. The depth of the novel, and its greatness, comes in Tolstoy’s insights into the psychology of the characters, particularly Anna in the later chapters, and in his observations on social conventions, and on Russian agriculture and economics, politics, and philosophy. It’s a great read.

Anna Karenina is comprised of two main story threads that are mostly entirely kept separate from each other, unfolding over the course of a little more than two years. The one story is of Anna and her husband, Alexei Karenin, and her adulterous affair with the dashing Alexei Krillovich, called Vronsky. At one point Anna remarks on the coincidence that both of her lovers are named Alexei. The other story is about the landowner farmer, Konstantin Levin, and his marriage to a young woman named Ekaterina Shcherbatsky, called Kitty. Wedged between the two main stories and bridging them is a third family: Stepan Arkadyich, called Oblonsky, and his wife Darya, called Dolly. Oblonsky is Anna’s brother, and Dolly is Kitty’s sister, so they fit nicely between the two main stories.

Besides these major characters, there are another dozen or so secondary characters. Levin has a brother: Nikolai, who is kind of a black sheep, and a half-brother, Sergei, an intellectual. They also have a sister who doesn’t appear but who provides some business for Levin to do. Dolly and Kitty have a third sister, Natalia, and their parents also appear, called the Old Prince and the Old Princess (most of the major characters are nobility of one degree or another.) Vronsky has soldier friends in his regiment, principally a cavalry captain named Yashvin. Anna and Karenin have an eight year-old son, Seryozha. Karenin has a connection to a conservative society woman in St. Petersburg named Lydia Ivanovna. Vronsky has a connection to a competing, more liberal St. Petersburg social world through his cousin named Betsy Tverskoy. There are others as well. The edition I read included a character list at the beginning along with notes about their relationships to each other as well as the several different names that each goes by depending on the social situation. I kept a bookmark in the character list but found after a while that it was all very clear in the text and I didn’t need to refer to it.

Anna’s story is the more dramatic and romantic. Hers is the story that most readers are taken with. She appears early in the novel on an errand to speak with her sister-in-law Dolly in order to smooth things over after Dolly has discovered that her husband, Oblonsky, Anna’s brother, has had an affair, foreshadowing Anna’s own affair soon to begin. During the visit, as Anna arrives at the train station having come down to Moscow from St. Petersburg, Anna meets Vronksy. In a second bit of foreshadowing, the arrival at the train station is disrupted by the death of a watchman who falls, or throws himself (the bystanders aren’t sure) under the wheels of a train.

Trains are a constant presence throughout the novel. Along with the many occasions of characters riding trains, Anna’s son is given a toy train as a birthday present, Levin thinks that trains are a technological advancement that has arrived before Russia is culturally ready for it, Oblonsky seeks a job with an agency that regulates railways, and many other similar references.

Vronsky and Anna are immediately attracted to each other and begin their affair. Soon, society is aware of their relationship, and then Anna becomes pregnant by Vronsky. She tells her husband he repulses her. Her marriage is over, but here arises the question that takes over the rest of this strand of the novel: what to do? Divorce is possible but is not easily obtained. Karenin, being the injured party would retain custody of the son, whom Anna cannot bear to give up. Even divorced, Anna would be unable to marry in the church while Karenin is alive and the disgrace of living with Vronsky unmarried and perhaps having children with him would ruin her. Both Anna and Karenin go back and forth about the best way to resolve the dilemma, never firmly deciding or agreeing.

Anna moves out of her home. For a time, she and Vronsky live in Italy. Then they live together at Vronsky’s country estate, and then in Moscow. She never does get divorced. Meanwhile, her banishment from society condemns her to isolation at home where she is bored, and jealous of Vronsky’s ability as a man to live and socialize freely. Their relationship becomes toxic. Vronsky continues to love her even as she becomes bitter and manic and he shows great patience given that he has no legal responsibility toward her and at any time could walk away.

The problem that Tolstoy sets for himself as a novelist is that Anna, given the social rules of her class and the legal status of women generally, is unable to take any action to improve her situation, which makes for an awkward protagonist. She can ask Karenin for a divorce, but cannot make him grant it. She cannot force society to accept her, nor can she afford to separate herself from society. Once the conflict of her story is defined, early in the novel; she’s stuck. She is helpless and stifled and cut off from the world, including for the most part from the other characters in the novel who no longer want to associate with her, which also undercuts the drama. I was thinking, by way of contrast, of the way that Edith Wharton handles Lily Bart in The House of Mirth. There again, Lily is accused of adultery (although untrue, in her case) and is trapped by the rules of society. But Lily actively employs numerous strategies to dig her way out. Tolstoy gives Anna no real path forward. As the novel goes back and forth between the two main stories, I kept finding myself preferring Levin’s story, and ultimately regretting whenever the novel switched back to Anna. While my pity for her increased, my enjoyment of her lessened as her situation became more intractable and she became more hysterical. Eventually, her suicide becomes the only way to escape her suffering, or to conclude her story.

Levin’s story is less dramatic but more agreeable. We meet him as a bashful suitor for Kitty trying to get up the nerve to propose. Before he does, Vronsky charms Kitty, so when Levin does propose, Kitty refuses him. Then Vronsky turns to Anna and Kitty realizes her mistake. The reader then waits for the two lovers who should be together to find a way back to each other. Eventually they do. Besides the love and marriage story, Levin’s strand of the novel also includes stories of him managing his farm, hunting with friends, participating in local politics, and attending at the death of his brother, Nikolai, which leads to the close of the novel where Levin in the face of life and death (the death of his brother and the birth of his son) contemplates the meaning of life.

The novel is divided into eight parts, the first seven are each about 100 pages, the eighth about half that long. The parts are further divided into numerous very short chapters. The action takes place over a little more than two years, with two pregnancies and two births: first Anna and the daughter, Annie, she has with Vronsky, then Kitty and the son, Mitya, she has with Levin. Tolstoy often spreads a single episode over several chapter divisions so the chapters are really single scenes. I noticed early on that when Tolstoy comes to the end of one episode and is about to move to a different one, he employs a device of having his characters think about or mention the other characters Tolstoy wants to turn to, so that the reader, too, is reminded and I would say to myself, “Oh yeah, I wonder what is happening to [so and so]” and then the next chapter would jump to that story. This chain technique doesn’t happen every time but very often and often enough to clearly be deliberate.

Because I write these Book Diary entries partly as a memory aid for myself, I made chapter summaries of the novel as I went along. I also grouped the chapters into episodes, which Tolstoy does not do, and invented summary titles for them. I’ve made references to the timeline, which is confused in the novel so it’s impossible to render completely accurately. And I’ve indicated the locations.

Part One

Dolly discovers her husband’s infidelity.
Year One. Winter. The Arkadyich home in Moscow. Morning.
I. Oblonsky and Dolly at home. Dolly discovers Oblonsky’s affair.
II. Oblonsky dresses and learns by telegram that his sister, Anna, will arrive the next day.
III. Oblonsky visits with his children.
IV. Oblonsky meets with Dolly. She refuses to forgive him.

Oblonsky and Levin spend the day together
Later that day. Various locations in Moscow.
V. Oblonsky works at his office. Levin visits him.
VI. Levin shares his love for Kitty (Oblonsky’s sister-in-law) but feels unworthy. (In his love he’s elevated Kitty into a goddess figure.)
VII. A flashback to earlier that morning when Levin visited his brother, Sergei, a philosophy professor.
VIII. Levin and Sergei discuss the desperate situation of their other brother, Nikolai.
IX. The flashback ends. Levin visits a skating rink knowing Kitty will be there. Oblonsky arrives as Kitty and Kitty’s mother are leaving. Oblonsky takes Levin to dinner. (Dinner is the mid-day meal in this culture.)
X. Levin and Oblonsky dine together. Oblonsky guesses that Levin intends to propose to Kitty.
XI. Oblonsky warns Levin that he has a rival: Vronsky. They speak of Oblonsky’s infidelity. When dinner finishes, Levin goes home to change before visiting Kitty.

Kitty wooed by Vronsky and Levin
That evening. The Shcherbatsky home.
XII. The Princess Shcherbatsky, Kitty’s mother, muses on the difficulty of making a good match for her daughter. The mother prefers Vronsky, while the father prefers Levin.
XIII. Kitty dresses for dinner. Coming down, Levin arrives. He proposes. She turns him away (so as to remain available to Vronsky).
XIV. Mama arrives and perceives what has happened. Vronsky arrives and Levin leaves.
XV. Mama and Papa argue about Kitty’s suitors.
XVI. Vronsky goes home feeling satisfied. We learn that he has no intention of marrying Kitty.

Anna arrives from St. Petersburg
The next day. The train station
XVII. Vronsky drives to the railway station to meet his mother. Oblonsky is there to meet his sister, Anna. Vronsky learns from Oblonsky that Levin intended to propose and he realizes that Kitty refused him.
XVIII. The train arrives. Anna and Vronksy’s mother shared a carriage. Anna and Vronsky meet. Before they leave the station there’s a commotion because a watchman has been run over by a train.

Anna makes peace between Dolly and Oblonsky
Later that day. The Arkadyich home.
XIX. Dolly is home alone with her children when Anna comes in. They discuss Oblonsky’s infidelity. Anna does a masterful job of supporting Dolly and steering her toward reconciliation.
XX. Oblonsky comes home for dinner. Kitty arrives after dinner. Kitty and Anna discuss an upcoming ball.
XXI. Dolly comes down from her room, then Oblonsky. They have reconciled. Anna goes upstairs to retrieve a photo album. She misses her eight year-old son, Seryozha, who she has left at home. Vronsky arrives, but he has left again before Anna comes back down.

Vronsky drops Kitty in favor of Anna
A day or two later. A Society Ball.
XXII. Kitty arrives early. She feels wonderful. Anna and Vronsky are there. Kitty senses something is wrong.
XXIII. Kitty observes Vronsky and Anna. She realizes there is something between them. Anna leaves the ball before supper saying she is traveling the next day.

Levin returns to his farm in the country
Earlier, the evening of Levin’s failed proposal. Nikolai’s Apartment in Moscow and Levin’s farm called “Pokrovskoe”
XXIV. Flashback to Levin leaving the Shcherbatsky’s home after his rejected proposal. He walked to his brother’s, Nikolai’s, apartment.
XXV. Levin dines with his brother in his rooms. Nikolai speaks of communism. He drinks. Levin meets Nikolai’s “wife” (though not actually married) Marya Nikolaevna.
XXVI. The next morning, Levin leaves Moscow for his farm. He enjoys the familiarity of home.
XXVII. He reads a book and listens to his old nurse, now his housekeeper, Agafya.

Anna returns to St. Petersburg
The day after the ball. Moscow, the train, and St. Petersburg
XXVIII. Anna spends the morning with Dolly as she prepares to leave back to St. Petersburg. She feels guilty that she drew Vronsky’s attention from Kitty.
XXIX. Anna takes the evening train to St. Petersburg. She attempts to read on the train but can’t concentrate.
XXX. At Bologoye, Anna steps off the train for air and runs into Vronsky who is also returning to St. Petersburg, intentionally, she assumes, and he confirms, to be with her. She arrives in St. Petersburg in the morning and is met by her husband, Karenin. This is his first appearance in the novel (p. 103), the last of the major characters to appear.
XXXI. Vronsky, not sleeping on the train. On the platform he comes up to Anna and Karenin. They know each other slightly from St. Petersburg society.
XXXII. Anna arrives home. She spends the day with her son, Seryozha, and with an older society woman who is a friend of her husband’s: Countess Lydia Ivanovna.
XXXIII. Karenin comes home for dinner, then goes out to work again. Anna stays home.
XXXIV. Vronsky goes home to his apartments, shared with a friend, Petrisky. He goes out in the evening hoping to run into Anna.

Part Two.
Kitty’s despair after losing her suitors
Winter. The Shcherbatsky home in Moscow.
I. Kitty is ill. A doctor visits and approves the family’s plan to go abroad.
II. Dolly arrives and discusses with her parents the real reason for Kitty’s distress: that Vronsky has spurned her and Kitty has spoiled her prospects with Levin.
III. Dolly and Kitty discuss the situation. Kitty moves in to Dolly’s house. Later, the Shcherbatsky’s go abroad.

Anna and Vronsky confirm their relationship
Spring. St. Petersburg
IV. St. Petersburg society is divided into two camps. There is the conservative side, ruled by the pious Christian Lydia Ivanovna, and the more liberal side ruled by Betsy Tverskoy, who is Vronsky’s cousin. Vronsky visits Betsy in her box at the opera.
V. Vronsky tells a humorous story to Betsy about two men pursuing an older man’s wife.
VI. Betsy hosts a party at her home after the opera. The guests gossip about Karenin. Vronsky arrives.
VII. Anna arrives. She and Vronsky huddle together. He professes his love for her. Karenin arrives. He sits apart from Vronsky and his wife. Karenin leaves before Anna.
VIII. Karenin paces at home. He saw how other people at the party noticed Vronsky with his wife and decides to speak to her about her behavior
IX. Anna finally arrives, very late. Karenin confronts her. She deflects and pretends ignorance.
X. “From that evening a new life began for Alexei Alexandrovich and his wife” (p. 148). Anna goes into society, visits Betsy, sees Vronsky everywhere. Karenin suffers and a gulf widens between he and Anna
*** Here, two rows of dots are printed in the text, indicating that Anna and Vronsky consummate their relationship***
XI. The immediate aftermath of Anna and Vronsky having sex. She’s upset. She calls Vronksy the perpetrator and a “murderer”. The text says that this happens almost a year after they met, but it makes more sense, psychologically and for the sense of the novel that this would happen within a few months at the most of their meeting.

Oblonsky visits Levin in the country
Spring. Levin’s Farm “Pokrovskoe”
XII. Levin tries to move on from the humiliation of Kitty’s refusal.
XIII. Levin gives instructions to his farmworkers.
XIV. Oblonsky arrives. He’s here to sell a forest that belongs to his wife’s family. Oblonsky confesses that he has begun another affair.
XV. Levin and Oblonsky go shooting for woodchucks. Oblonsky tells Levin that Kitty has not married and is heartsick.
XVI. Levin tells Oblonsky he’s being cheated in the sale of the forest. Oblonsky meets with the fellow who is buying it.
XVII. Oblonsky refuses to let Levin spoil his good mood. They speak of Vronsky and whether he knows that Levin had proposed to Kitty.

Vronsky rides in a horse race.
Summer. The country outside St. Petersburg.
XVIII. Vronsky has no one to speak with about his passion for Anna. But everyone knows. He makes plans to enter a steeplechase race with his regiment.
XIX. The day of the race, at the regiment cafeteria, Vronsky has breakfast. He realizes if he hurries, before the race he can see Anna at her country home where she is staying for the summer. [Tolstoy includes a brief mention in this chapter of two officers who it seems Tolstoy means to imply are homosexuals. Click here for my analysis of that scene.]
XX. Vronsky hurries home. There are letters waiting for him from his mother and his brother. They want to speak with him about his increasingly public affair.
XXI. Vronsky visits the stable where his horse is kept.
XXII. Vronsky rides to Anna’s house. Vronsky is pleased to find her home alone but is upset about the cold greeting from Anna’s son. He urges Anna to leave her husband.
XXIII. More discussion. Vronsky says goodbye and they agree to see each other late that night.
XXIV. Vronsky rushes to make another appointment, then rushes to the race. Anna is there with Betsy. Karenin arrives later. Vronsky’s brother appears wanting to make sure Vronsky received his letter.
XXV. The race. Very exciting. Vronsky does well but makes a mistake handling his horse at the end and they fall. The horse breaks its back and is shot.

Karenin attends the horse race. Anna admits her affair with Vronsky.
XXVI. Karenin, earlier that day at his house in the city. (The text indicates that this is July.) He muses on his estranged relations with Anna who is now living without him at their country house. He visits a doctor and attends to business.
XXVII. Karenin arrives at the country house. Seryozha is confused about the two men in his mother’s life. Betsy arrives to take Anna to the race.
XXVIII. Karenin arrives at the race. Anna shuns him. Karenin watches her as she watches the race, clearly intent on Vronsky.
XXIX. After the race and Vronsky’s fall Anna is upset. In the carriage home, Karenin admonishes Anna for her obvious interest in Vronsky. She admits she loves Vronsky and tells Karenin she hates him. Anna receives a note from Betsy that Vronsky is uninjured (after the fall from the horse) so Anna assumes that Vronsky will keep their appointment later that evening.

The Shcherbatsky family abroad.
Summer. A Spa in Germany
XXX. We meet an elderly woman named Mme. Stahl and the girl who accompanies her, Varenka. Kitty is charmed by Varenka’s kindness and calm, helpful ways. Nikolai (Levin’s brother) and his woman friend, Marya, are also there for the cure but their low class ways cause a scene.
XXXI. Kitty arranges to be introduced to Varenka and they become friends.
XXXII. Varenka is invited to sing at a little party and charms the guests. Kitty tells her new friend her story about Vronsky and Levin.
XXXIII. Varenka’s good nature is associated with her Christian beliefs and Kitty tries to emulate her. But when she tries to help a family she creates a jealous rift between the husband and wife.
XXXIV. The old Prince, Kitty’s father, arrives at the spa. He, having prior acquaintance with Mme. Sthal bursts Kitty’s illusions about her.
XXXV. The family has a tea outdoors. Kitty realizes that it is against her nature to live as Varenka does. Varenka says she will visit Kitty when Kitty gets married, which Kitty insists will never happy, but Kitty’s “illness” is cured.

Part Three

Sergei visits Levin in the country
Summer. Levin’s Farm
I. Sergei visits his brother. (The text says it is May but that seems too early.) For Levin, life at the farm is work. For Sergei life at the farm is a vacation.
II. Levin and Sergei go fishing.
III. Sergei thinks that Levin should rejoin the Zemstvo (a local governing council) as a way of serving the common good. Levin believes such enterprises are useless.
IV. Levin helps his workers with the mowing. He enjoys the physical labor.
V. The mowing continues into the afternoon and evening.
VI. Levin returns to his home and Sergei. There’s a letter for him from Oblonsky saying that Dolly is at their summer home nearby and asks Levin to offer her assistance in setting up the house.

Levin visits Dolly
Summer. The Arkadyich country home near Levin’s farm
VII. Oblonsky had done some setting up of the household earlier, when he had been down to sell the forest, but had neglected much that was important. But Dolly has been able to sort things out with the assistance of a servant.
VIII. Dolly takes her children to communion and then bathing in the river. She is proud of them.
IX. Levin arrives. He is embarrassed at being asked to come and do what Oblonsky should have done.
X. Dolly and Levin speak of Kitty. Dolly encourages him to propose again. Levin dislikes the position he is in of forever being the one who was at first refused in favor of someone else.

Levin assists his sister
Summer. The sister’s country estate
XI. Levin receives news from his sister’s country estate that there is a problem with the way the harvest is being divided among the workers and he goes to sort it out.
XII. Levin imagines himself marrying a peasant woman. Then he chances to see Kitty as she arrives in a carriage to visit her sister and Levin realizes, “I love her.”

Karenin and Anna, consider their future
Summer. St. Petersburg
XIII. On the way home after the horse race, Karenin considers how to respond to the situation with his wife and Vronsky. He rejects a duel. Why should he put himself at risk of injury? He rejects a divorce. Why should he make it easy for her when she’s the one who acted badly? He decides to leave things as they are, living together in a loveless marriage.
XIV. Karenin writes a note to Anna telling her his decision and asking her to return to their home in St. Petersburg.
XV. Before she receives Karenin’s note, Anna receives an invitation to Betsy’s home. She writes to Karenin that she is leaving for Moscow and taking Seryozha with her. She starts packing.
XVI. A courier arrives with Karenin’s note to her. This upsets her. She replies only that she received his note.
XVII. Anna attends a croquet party at Betsy Tverskoy’s. She sends a note to Vronsky asking him to meet her later at Vrede’s garden.
XVIII. Other guests arrive at Betsy’s: women trailed by their admirers. Anna leaves to meet Vronsky.

Vronsky learns that Anna has told Karenin
Summer. Various locations around St. Petersburg.
XIX. Vronsky at home settles his financial affairs.
XX. Vronsky considers his relations to Anna and Karenin. He recalls an earlier decision when he had refused an offer of an advancement to show his independence, but his action came to nothing. He was merely passed over while a classmate, Serpukhovsky was elevated.
XXI. Vronsky attends a party at the regiment club celebrating Serpukhovsky. Serpukhovsky invites Vronsky to partner with him and advises him to marry as a way to manage the distraction of women. Vronsky receives Anna’s note.
XXII. Vronsky meets Anna. She tells him that she has told Karenin everything. Anna hopes that Vronsky will make a grand gesture and take her away. Instead, Vronsky thinks of himself and whether Karenin will challenge him to a duel. Disappointed by Vronsky’s response, Anna decides to go home to Karenin.

Karenin informs Anna of his decision concerning their marriage
Summer. Karenin’s home in St. Petersburg
XXIII. Karenin has a success with his work. Anna arrives. Karenin tells her that she will remain his wife, but with none of the obligations of being a wife.

Levin contemplates theories of farm economy
Summer. Levin’s farm and a friend’s neighboring farm
XXIV. Levin realizes that his position as the landowner forever divides him from the laborers. Dolly invites him to visit Kitty, but Levin, embarrassed, instead accepts an invitation to go snipe hunting at a friend’s home in a far off district.
XXV. Levin drives himself there. He stops halfway to rest and is charmed by an old man and his family who run a successful farm.
XXVI. At his friend’s home, they hope to make a match between Levin and the wife’s sister. But Levin is reconfirmed in his love for Kitty. The snipe hunting is poor.
XXVII. Levin, his friend Sviyazhsky, and two other guests discuss the economics of farming. Levin is developing a theory that successful farming requires that the landowner understand the psychology of the laborers.
XXVIII. Levin goes to bed full of ideas about how to reorganize framework. He resolves to go home in the morning.
XXIX. Levin implements some of his ideas and regards his attempts as a success. He begins researching and writing a book about his ideas. Kitty and Dolly leave their country home and return to Moscow.
XXX. Levin makes plans to complete his research by going abroad to observe other farms. Before he can depart, his brother Nikolai arrives. He’s very sick (not specified but clearly tuberculosis).
XXXI. Levin and Nikolai argue about economic theory avoiding the issue of Nikolai’s illness. Nikolai leaves for Moscow. Levin goes abroad.

Part Four.
The impossible situation of Karenin and his wife and her lover
Autumn. Karenin’s home in St. Petersburg
I. Karenin and Anna suffer an uncomfortable home life. Vronsky tours a visiting Prince around St. Petersburg.
II. Vronsky receives a note from Anna asking him to visit at her home on an evening when Karenin will be out. Vronsky arrives buts runs into Karenin in the hall as Karenin is going out.
III. Anna and Vronsky meet. She is jealous of Vronsky’s ability as a man to go out and see people. She feels their child stirring in her womb.
IV. Karenin goes to the opera. He returns for a sleepless night. In the morning he informs Anna that because she broke their agreement that she not see Vronksy in the house, Karenin will now move permanently to Moscow and initiate a divorce, including taking custody of their son, Seryozha.
V. Karenin visits his lawyer.

Karenin moves toward divorce
Year Two. Winter. Moscow.
VI. Karenin’s earlier administrative success is turned against him by a rival. In Moscow, he runs into Dolly and Oblonsky who he would rather avoid given the situation with his wife, Oblonsky’s sister.
VII. Levin is also in Moscow after returning from his research trip. Oblonsky goes to his home and invites him to dinner. Oblonsky is entertaining yet a new affair, this time with a ballet dancer.
VIII. Oblonsky goes to Karenin’s Moscow home to invite him to dinner. Karenin tells him he’s come to Moscow to divorce Anna. Oblonsky convinces him to talk to Dolly first and Karenin agrees to come to dinner.

Levin’s Second proposal to Kitty.
Winter. A dinner at the Arkadyich home
IX. Sergei is there. Levin arrives late and meets Kitty. The two are obviously happy to see each other.
X. Conversation at the dinner table. Sergei, his philosopher friend Pestsov, and the Old Prince, discuss. Kitty and Levin sit beside each other silently sensing each other.
XI. Levin and Kitty talk between themselves of trivial things.
XII. After dinner, Karenin and Dolly talk about the situation with Anna. Dolly is disbelieving, then horrified. Karenin is unmoved.
XIII. Kitty and Levin sit at a table in the corner of the drawing room and shyly “talk” to each other by writing in chalk on the table the initial letters of the questions and answers they wish to make. Thus, he proposes, and she accepts.
XIV. Levin leaves the party excited. He goes with his brother to a political meeting. Sviyazhsky is there and Levin goes home with him for tea. Then he goes home but cannot sleep for excitement.
XV. Levin has a euphoric morning and finally the time comes when he can go to the Shcherbatsky home to confirm the engagement with Kitty’s parents. He is received joyfully.
XVI. Preparation are made for the wedding. Levin confesses to Kitty that he is an unbeliever, which doesn’t upset her. He has her read his diary so she will know that he has been with other women, which does upset her, but she forgives him.

Anna gives birth to Vronsky’s daughter
Winter. Karenin’s home in St. Petersburg
XVII. In Moscow, Karenin returns to his hotel room after dinner. He receives two telegrams. One is bad news about his business. The other is from Anna saying that she is dying and begging him to return to St. Petersburg to see her. He takes the train. Anna has given birth to a girl, Vronsky’s child. Anna is feverish and may be dying. She begs that Karenin and Vronsky, who is also there, make peace. Karenin forgives Anna and Vronsky, he even says that he will allow Anna and Vronsky to see each other.
XVIII. Vronsky goes home. He hasn’t slept in days. Karenin’s grace shames him. He shoots himself, but only wounds his chest.

Oblonsky attempts to broker a solution to his sister’s situation
Winter. The Karenin home in St. Petersburg
XIX. The baby, Annie, is ill. Anna is recovering. Betsy Tverskoy visits. For Karenin, Betsy represents the mockery of society against him, which he cannot escape or ignore.
XX. Karenin and Anna are ill at ease. His magnanimity about the situation oppresses her. She feels physical revulsion toward him. Karenin know something must change.
XXI. As Betsy is leaving, Oblonsky arrives. He has come to help bring a resolution. First he visits his sister, Anna. She is unable to make a decision, doesn’t know what she wants, and says it depends on Karenin.
XXII. Oblonsky visits Karenin in his study. Karenin is willing to do whatever Anna wants, but Oblonsky explains that Anna doesn’t know her own mind and Karenin must act for them. But, since Karenin is now enjoying the Christian feeling of charity, divorce would be too terrible, leaving Anna disgraced and unable to remarry while Karenin is still alive, and their son bereft of one parent or the other. Finally, remembering, “turn the other cheek” Karenin submits to the idea that he will take the blame for the divorce himself, pretending it is his fault in order to protect Anna. Oblonsky leaves the meeting feeling pleased with himself.
XXIII. Vronsky recovers from his wound. He makes plans to leave for Tashkent where Serpukhovsky has secured him a position. After the scene at the birth of the daughter, Vronsky knows the honorable thing is for him to leave Anna, which he regrets but is willing to do. He sends Betsy to Anna with a message asking to see her one last time. Betsy returns with the message that now Karenin is willing to grant a divorce. Vronksy goes to Anna and they decide to go to Italy together. Vronsky resigns his commission and doesn’t go to Tashkent.

Part Five.
Kitty and Levin’s wedding
Winter. Moscow
I. Levin must take communion before he can be married in the church, requiring that he first confess. He tells the priest the truth about his religious doubts. The priest dismisses the doubts as natural.
II. Levin has a bachelor dinner the day of the wedding (it’s an evening wedding) with his brother Sergei, a friend from university named Katavasov who is now a professor, and Katavasov’s bear-hunting friend Chirikov. They tease Levin. He gets cold feet, doubting that Kitty could really love him so he goes to her and she reassures him.
III. A crowd has gathered for the wedding: friends and strangers. Levin is late for the service because his valet packed his dress shirt in anticipation of the couple’s imminent leave-taking to the country.
IV. The betrothal portion of the wedding service (the couple’s vows in the anteroom of the church).
V. The thoughts and whispers of the men and women in the church. Dolly thinks of Anna.
VI. The “crowning” ritual of the wedding in the sanctuary. After the wedding, Kitty and Levin leave for the country.

Anna and Vronsky in Italy
Spring. A small Italian town
VII. Anna and Vronsky have made a tour of Italy and are now stopping for an extended time in a small town while they await news of the divorce. They rent a Palazzo. Vronsky runs into an old acquaintance, Golenishchev. Vronsky has taken up painting.
VIII. Anna avoids thinking of Karenin and her son. She’s happy with Vronsky but fears losing him. Vronsky is painting a portrait of Anna.
IX. Vronsky and Golenishchev discuss a local painter named Mikhailov. Anna overhears and the three of them decide to visit the artist’s studio.
X. Mikhailov is irritated by his wife. The three guests arrive.
XI. Mikhailov shows his current painting in progress: Christ before Pilate. He is flattered by the attention but disdainful of the guest’s amateur ideas about art.
XII. Vronsky and Anna prefer an older painting they see at the studio: two boys fishing. They decide to purchase it.
XIII. Mikhailov is contracted to paint a portrait of Anna, which he does and does well. Vronksy abandons his own portrait of Anna. Having given up painting, Vronsky is bored by Italy and they decide to return to Russia and live at Vronsky’s family estate for the summer.

Kitty and Levin visit Levin’s dying brother
Spring. Pokrovskoe and then a hotel in a provincial city
XIV. Kitty rearranges Levin’s household. They are happy but have some difficulty adjusting to married life.
XV. After three months of marriage, their relationship is smoother. Levin returns to work on his book of farming theory. He develops an interesting theory about railroads having come too early to Russia before agriculture has properly developed.
XVI. They receive a letter from Marya Nikolaevna, Nikolai’s partner saying that her is dying. Levin and Kitty argue about whether she should come with him. He gives in and allows her to come.
XVII. The hotel is horrible. Nikolai is in terrible condition.
XVIII. Levin is at a loss of what to do. Kitty jumps in, selflessly, and provides real comfort to Nikolai.
XIX. Levin muses that women understand death in ways that men do not. Kitty makes arrangements for Nikolai to receive the sacrament of healing.
XX. “Death” (This is the only chapter that has a title as well as a number). Nikolai is anointed and improves but only temporarily. He becomes irritable. Kitty becomes ill herself, which the doctor attributes to exhaustion. Kitty sends for the priest again to administer the last rites. Nikolai dies. Kitty’s illness is confirmed to be caused by pregnancy.

Karenin alone. Anna visits her son
Summer. St. Petersburg.
XXI. Karenin suffers all alone. He was orphaned as a child. His brother died. He has no friends, only business connections.
XXII. But Countess Lydia Ivanovna comes to him with offers to support him and take charge of his household. She was moved by Karenin’s Christian act of forgiveness. He accepts her offer.
XXIII. Lydia receives a note from Anna, who is in Petersburg, asking permission to visit her son, Seryozha. Lydia writes a note to Karenin asking to meet with him.
XXIV. Karenin receives an official honor from the Tsar but it’s also clear that his time has passed and his career is over. Lydia Ivanovna is at the festivities. She invites him to her home to have their talk.
XXV. Lydia and Karenin meet at Lydia’s home. Karenin struggles to find the Christian way to respond to Anna’s request. Lydia responds for him, that it would be impossible because Anna’s visit would confuse the child.
XXVI. Seryozha returns from a walk in the park. He’s heard about his father’s prize and is proud. He receives a present from Lydia to mark his birthday, which is the next day.
XXVII. Seryozha’s has his lessons with his tutors and with his father. At night he makes a birthday wish that he would see his mother.
XXVIII. Vronsky and Anna keep separate suites at the hotel. He naively expects that St. Petersburg society will accept her, but they do not, not even his own mother or his brother’s wife.
XXIX. When Anna receives the note from Lydia denying her permission to see her son, she decides to go anyway. She shows up at the house with a veil over her face. An old servant recognizes her and allows her into Seryozha’s room just as the boy is waking.
XXX. Anna and Seryozha spend an hour together before Karenin will come in. Anna rushes out but meets Karenin in the hall. They don’t speak.
XXXI. Anna and Vronsky’s relations are strained. She didn’t tell him about her plan to see Seryozha. He’s frustrated by his society contacts rejecting her. Vronsky’s friend Yashvin visits and Anna invites him to dine with them.
XXXII. At dinner, Anna receives an invitation from Betsy but realizes it’s actual a snub as the visit is scheduled for a time when no one else will be there. Anna tells the man who delivers the message that she can’t accept because she’s going to the opera and the man offers to secure a box for her. Vronsky tries to persuade her not to go, but she insists. She will go attended by her disreputable aunt, Princess Varvara.
XXXIII. Vronsky follows Anna to the theater, arriving late. During the interval after Act One, he catches sight of a scene between Anna and a husband and wife in the adjoining box. Anna is humiliated. At home, Anna and Vronksy quarrel. The next day they make up and leave for the country.

Part Six

Sergei almost proposes to Varenka
Summer. Levin’s Farm
I. Dolly is visiting with her mother and children and Kitty’s friend from the German spa, Varenka. Sergei is also visiting Levin. Kitty hopes that Sergei will propose to Varenka.
II. The women make jam on the terrace and chat about marriage proposals. Levin takes Kitty away to join the group gathering mushrooms.
III. Kitty and Levin walk and talk about Sergei and their own marriage.
IV. Varenka hopes for a proposal. Sergei is ambivalent but decides he will propose.
V. Sergei is ready to propose but when he meets Varenka he misses the moment and abandons the idea.

A hunting trip
That evening and the next two days. The marshes surrounding Levin’s farm
VI. Oblonsky arrives with a man, Vasenka Veslovsky, who has come to hunt. The man irritates Levin.
VII. At dinner they plan the hunting trip for the next morning. They talk of visiting Vronsky and Anna at their summer home. Vasenka makes Levin jealous by flirting with Kitty but Kitty assures Levin it is nothing.
VIII. Oblonsky, Levin, Vasenka and two dogs leave for the hunting trip.
IX. They stop at a small marsh on the way. Levin stays with the carriage. Vasenka is a poor hunter and a bother.
X. They arrive at their destination. They split up, Oblonsky alone, Vasenka with Levin. Vasenka hinders Levin’s shooting and he has a bad day. Oblonsky does well.
XI. They spend the night in a barn. They hear peasant girls singing and Oblonsky and Vasenka go off to flirt with them. Oblonsky tells Levin that chasing woman is expected of men.
XII. Levin wakes before dawn and goes hunting alone with his dog.
XIII. Levin returns to the barn having had a great morning. The men hunt once more that afternoon and then return home.

Vasenka is thrown out of the house
That evening and the next day. Levin’s farm
XIV. The Princess (Kitty’s mother) makes plans for Kitty’s confinement (the last weeks of her pregnancy) in Moscow where she will have the best doctors. Vasenka flirts again with Kitty. He makes her uncomfortable and makes Levin angry.
XV. Levin asks Dolly for advice about what to do with Vasenka. Dolly confirms that she and Oblonsky have noticed his rude behavior. Levin goes to Vasenka and tells him to leave. Oblonsky thinks Levin is being ridiculous. The next day, after Vasenka leaves, the group jokes about it.

Dolly visits Anna
Summer. Vronsky’s country estate “Vozdvizhenskoe”
XVI. Dolly takes Levin’s shabby carriage. During the ride she thinks about her duties as a mother and how freeing it would be for a woman not to have children.
XVII. Close to the destination, they chance upon Anna and Vronsky along with his jockey, Anna’s Aunt Varvara, Vasenka, and Levin’s friend Sviyazhsky.
XVIII. Dolly rides the rest of the way to the estate in the carriage with Anna. Anna points out a hospital that Vronsky is having built. Dolly is impressed by the luxuriousness of the room she is given.
XIX. Dolly asks Anna about her daughter, Annie, and they visit the nursery where Dolly realizes that Anna is not often present. They put off the big talk they need to have.
XX. Dolly meets the other guests on the terrace. Vronsky is proud of the position he has taken up as landowner. The group walks to the hospital to view the construction.
XXI. On the walk back, Vronsky separates Dolly from the others and asks for her help in convincing Anna to push Karenin for a divorce, which Vronsky thinks he will grant if she asks. Vronsky wants to legitimize any future children that he and Anna might have.
XXII. At dinner that night, Anna proves a masterful hostess, but the situation is awkward. The guests are not society people but professional men who work with Vronsky: his estate steward, his architect, a doctor; and society hangers-on: Aunt Varvara, Vasenka, and Tushkevich, (the man that Betsy Tverskoy had an affair with who arranged the opera box for Anna back in St. Petersburg). After dinner, the group plays lawn tennis and Dolly realizes she’s out of her element.
XXIII. Before Dolly can get to bed, Anna comes to her room and they finally have their talk. Anna will not ask Karenin for a divorce. She explains that Vronsky need not worry about future children because there won’t be any. Apparently Anna had a procedure done at Annie’s birth that guarantees it (represented again by two rows of dots, as on p. 148 when the device indicated Anna and Vronsky had sex). Anna wants to be beautiful and healthy for Vronsky not broken down with motherhood. And Anna doesn’t want to bring children into the world who would suffer because of the situation of their parents.
XXIV. Anna despairs of her situation. Neither divorce nor staying married are solutions. She says she loves two beings: Vronsky and Seryozha. (She doesn’t love her daughter). If she stays with Vronsky she must give up her son Seryozha. If she goes back to Karenin to be with Seryozha she must give up Vronsky. Dolly leaves in the morning.

The Provincial Elections
Autumn. The province.
XXV. Vronsky leaves Anna at home as he goes to attend the elections.
XXVI. Levin moves with Kitty to Moscow for her confinement. Then, after a month, Sergei invites Levin to attend the elections with him. Levin has business concerning his sister’s estate in the same area , so he agrees. Sergei explains the importance of the elections: a new party supported by Sergei, Oblonsky, Vronsky, and Sviyazhsky is opposing an old party.
XXVII. Day six of the elections, the day of the provincial election. Levin is confused and bored.
XXVIII. Various shenanigans of politicking. Levin prefers to hang out with the servants.
XXIX. Levin tries to avoid Vronsky. Levin runs into the landowner that he met a year earlier (Part Three, Chapter XVII) and they continue their discussion of the economics of farming.
XXX. The elections continue. Levin is rude to Vronsky. The candidate for the new party, Nevedosky, wins the election.
XXXI. Vronsky hosts a celebratory dinner. Vronsky enjoys his new status as a local landowner. He receives a note from Anna wondering why he hasn’t come home (the elections went longer than expected) and saying that Annie is sick. Vronsky takes the train home that night.
XXXII. Vronsky arrives home. Anna is ashamed at her dependency. Annie is well. When Vronsky next leaves for Moscow Anna insists she will go with him. She writes to Karenin asking for a divorce and, assuming it will be granted, at the end of November they move to Moscow “like a married couple.”

Part Seven

Levin in Moscow society
Year Three. Winter. Moscow.
I. Levin and Kitty have been living in Moscow three months waiting for Kitty’s baby to be born. Kitty ran into Vronsky and acquitted herself well.
II. Levin leaves the house for the day. Kitty tells him to pay a social call on the Bohls. Levin is uncomfortable with this sort of social duty. Kitty wants Levin and the husband of her sister Natalie, Lvov, to talk to Dolly’s husband, Oblonsky, about their precarious finances.
III. Levin visits his university friend, Katavasov, and meets there with another man who has written an article on the subject of farm economics that Levin is interested in. They disagree. They go together to a meeting about “the university question” which bores Levin.
IV. Levin visits his brother-in-law Lvov. Levin takes Lvov’s wife, Natalie, to a concert.
V. The concert program features a fantasia based on Shakespeare’s “King Lear.” Levin doesn’t care for the music.
VI. Levin leaves Natalie at a public meeting so that Levin can make his visit to the Bohls. He fulfills his social duty, then comes back to the meeting to pick up Natalie and drives her to his home where she will have dinner with her sisters: Kitty and Dolly.
VII. Then, Levin goes to his club. Most of the male characters in the novel are at the club: Sviyazhsky, Shcherbatsky, Nevedovsky, the Old Prince (Kitty’s father), Sergei. Oblonsky arrives. The men drink and tell jokes. Levin enjoys himself. Vronsky arrives with Yashvin. The men compliment Vronsky who had success horse riding that day. Levin and Vronsky are reconciled.
VIII. After dinner, Yashvin gambles at cards. Levin plays billiards with Oblonsky. Oblonsky invites Levin to visit Anna. They go but Vronsky stays at the club to prevent Yashvin from losing too much at cards.
IX. Oblonsky and Levin ride to Anna’s house. Oblonsky praises his sister and is eager for Levin to meet her. The divorce has still not come through . When they arrive at the house, Levin first encounters the portrait of Anna made in Italy by the artist Mikhailov. He is instantly beguiled by Anna’s beauty. Then he meets her in person. [This is the first time in the novel that the main characters of the two stories have met.]
X. Anna receives Levin and Oblonsky. She is happy to meet Levin. Levin relaxes and is charmed. “Besides intelligence, grace, beauty, there was truthfulness in her” (p. 700). (Truthfulness in that she doesn’t try to deny her situation.) “Levin admired her all the while – her beauty, her intelligence, her education, and with that her simplicity and deep feeling” (p. 701).
XI. Levin returns home. Kitty is upset that he’s late; her sisters have already left. He tells her where he’s been which agitates Kitty. She sees that Anna has “bewitched” him and insists they leave Moscow, even without the baby having come.
XII. Anna at home after her guests have left. She’s jealous of Vronsky’s freedom to go out while she must stay home. Vronsky arrives. They fight. An “evil spirit” has settled between them, she thinks.

Kitty gives birth
The next day. Moscow.
XIII. Kitty wakes Levin feeling her time is close. In a panic, Levin rushes to fetch the doctor.
XIV. The doctor is still in bed, so Levin rushes to the pharmacist and then back to the doctor. The doctor moves slowly, unfazed and trying unsuccessfully to calm Levin. He says he will come in a few hours. Levin rushes home in a fog. Kitty’s parents and Dolly and the midwife are there.
XV. Levin is sitting with the doctor when they hear a scream from Kitty’s room. He’s sure Kitty is dying. He rushes to the bedroom. Kitty gives birth to a boy.
XVI. Levin sits with Sergei and Oblonsky, then goes to see his wife. She and the baby are well. Though he is surprised that he doesn’t feel more instantly paternal toward the baby, when the baby sneezes, Levin feels pride and joy.

Oblonsky attempts to secure an additional paid position for himself and a divorce for his sister.
Spring. St. Petersburg
XVII. Oblonsky’s need for extra income leads him to seek a position with “The United Agency for Mutual Credit Balance of the Southern Railway Lines and Banking.” He go to St. Petersburg to apply for the position where he also arranges to meet with Karenin to push him to grant the divorce that Anna has asked for months earlier.
XVIII. Karenin responds angrily to Oblonsky saying that he needs time to think and will give an answer the day after tomorrow.
XIX. Before Oblonsky leaves Karenin, Seryozha comes in. Meeting his uncle upsets Seryozha, especially when Oblonsky asks Seryozha if he remembers his mother. Seryozha tells his uncle about a game he plays at school where he and the other boys pretend to be passengers and the conductor on a train.
XX. Oblonsky enjoys the liberal culture of St. Petersburg. He meets with Betsy Tverskoy and a woman named Princess Miagky who asks about Anna. When she learns that he has been invited to Lydia Ivanovna’s, she assumes that Lydia and Karenin have decided to consult a French mystic named Landau to get their answer about the divorce.
XXI. Oblonsky arrives at Lydia Ivanovna’s. Karenin and Landau are there. Lydia criticizes Oblonsky lack of religion. Oblonsky wishes to avoid offending her as he is hoping to get a recommendation for the job he wants.
XXII. Landua goes into a trance and from the trance tells Oblonsky to get out. The next day Oblonsky receives a definitive refusal from Karenin that he will not grant Anna a divorce.

Anna’s final breakdown and suicide
Meanwhile, back in Moscow
XXIII. Anna is increasingly bitter and jealous of Vronsky. She stews over previous quarrels and invents imaginary ones. While he’s out at a “bachelor’s dinner” she decides that they should leave Moscow and go back to the country.
XXIV. Vronsky arrives homes and see the trunks set out in the hall. Vronsky is willing to move, but Anna picks a fight about when they should leave. She’s angry that he needs to see his mother first, knowing that Vronsky’s mother wants him to leave Anna and marry a Princess Sorokin.
XXV. The next morning as they prepare to move, they receive a telegram from Oblonsky saying that his meeting with Karenin in St. Petersburg has been indecisive. Anna and Vronsky fight again. Yashvin arrives. He tells Anna that he doesn’t feel guilty when he wins at cards and bankrupts another man because he knows that the other man would do the same to him. Vronsky leaves for the day.
XXVI. Anna wonders whether her affair with Vronsky is truly over or whether they will reconcile again. She goes to bed leaving a message for Vronsky that she has a headache and Vronsky should not come to her (but hoping he will anyway). She takes opium and contemplates death. In the morning she sees Vronsky meeting Princess Sorokin in a carriage in the courtyard which she misinterprets as a liaison, when it is merely an innocent errand. Anna tells him they are through. Vronsky leaves for his mother’s.
XXVII. Anna immediately regrets her words and sends a note to Vronsky hoping the messenger will catch him at the stables. When no reply comes she decides to visit her sister-in-law, Dolly. The messenger returns saying he was unable to catch Vronsky. Anna tells him to deliver the note at Vronsky’s mother’s house. Then she decides she will also send a telegram, saying, “I absolutely must talk to you. Come at once.”
XXVIII. Anna takes a carriage to the Arkadyich home. This chapter begins a stream-of-consciousness style following Anna’s jumbled thoughts along with the street signs she reads and her imaginings about the people she sees on the street. She arrives at Dolly’s. Kitty is there, too, reluctant to see Anna, but Dolly persuades her. They speak briefly about Anna’s decision to leave for the country.
XXIX. Anna goes back to her home. At home there’s a telegram reply from Vronsky: “I cannot come before ten.” She decides to go to him on the evening train.
XXX. She rides the carriage to the train station. Remembering Yashvin’s lack of guilt about ruining other people she believes that all people secretly hate each other and everyone is bound to suffer. She arrives at the train station. Everyone disgusts her.
XXXI. She boards the train. A husband and wife share her compartment. At the first station, the one for Vronsky’s mother, she gets out and finds the messenger she sent earlier. He has a note for her from Vronsky: “I’m very sorry the note did not find me. I’ll be back at ten” (p. 767). Anna wanders the platform. She remembers the watchman who was killed by the train when she first met Vronsky (p. 64). She steps off the platform to the tracks. She says, “I’ll punish him and be rid of everybody and of myself” (p. 768). She falls beneath a moving train. Her last thought is, “Lord, forgive me for everything.”

Part Eight

The aftermath
Summer. A train ride from Moscow
I. Sergei has published his book which is ignored. His attention shifts to “the Slavic question” which is the Russians volunteering to support their brother slavs in the Balkans in their war against the Turks. He and Katavasov leave Moscow to stay at Levin’s country home.
II. They run into volunteer soldiers and well-wishers at the train station. They meet Oblonsky who has received the position he sought. Sergei learns that Vronsky will be on the train. Oblonsky goes to say hello to Vronsky, only momentarily distressed thinking of his sister’s death.
III. At the next station, Katavasov talks to some of the volunteers.
IV. At the provincial capital, Sergei talks to Vronsky’s mother, who is accompanying him part of the way as he goes to lead a company of soldiers in the war. She tells Sergei that Vronsky has been depressed and the war is a welcome distraction. It was Yashvin that encouraged him to sign up. Karenin has taken the daughter Annie.
V. Sergei speaks to Vronsky. The setting of the train station and seeing people who knew Anna distresses Vronsky.

Levin contemplates the meaning of life
Summer. Levin’s farm.
VI. Sergei and Katavasov arrive at Levin’s farm. Kitty and her father are there. Kitty tends to her baby: Mitya.
VII. Kitty contemplates Levin’s unbelief and wonders how lack of religion can align with a person she knows to be so good at heart.
VIII. Levin has been contemplating questions of life and death following his brother’s death and his son’s birth. If not religion, where are there answers?
IX. Levin reads philosophy. The answers make sense while he reads but fall apart when he closes the books and goes about his life.
X. He notices that thinking about the questions troubles him, but when he stops thinking, his life goes on untroubled. He enjoys his work, his family, his responsibilities. He rejects Sergei’s notion of the necessity of serving the common good but he sees value in preserving the life close to him. He recognizes that in his personal affairs he follows a clear moral code that seems to come to him naturally, but when he attempts to apply reason to his decisions, he despairs.
XI. The day that Sergei and Katavasov arrive at the farm, Levin has been vexed by these thoughts. While working in the threshing barn, one of the workers tells Levin about two bosses he knows. One makes money because he pushes at it until he gets what he wants. The other goes into debt, but keeps good relations. The first lives for his own needs. The other “lives for the soul. He remembers God” (p. 794). This is the key Levin has been seeking. The phrase brings him joy.
XII. Levin walks home thinking over these new thoughts. He lies down in the grass.
XIII. He remembers a scene where Dolly’s children were naughty. He thinks of the role of the church, like a parent with children, to order our lives toward the good, not through reason but revelation.
XIV. Levin is met by a coachman who informs him that his brother has arrived. Dolly’s children rush to meet Levin. Katavasov is there. Kitty has taken Mitya to the forest because the house was too hot. Levin notices that despite his recent revelations his nature hasn’t changed. He still treats his brother coolly, etc. He takes the group to his apiary to show them his new project.
XV. At the apiary, Sergei, Katavasov, and Levin talk about “the will of the people”, which Sergei thinks exists, but Levin thinks is meaningless.
XVI. The philosophic conversation continues including Dolly and the Old Prince. Rain is coming on and the group starts for home.
XVII. The rain comes on strong and quickly. Reaching home, Levin discovers that Kitty and Mitya and the nanny are still out. Frightened for their safety he runs to them. The storm is fierce. He sees a tree come down. “My God! My God, not on them!” he said (p. 811). [Previously, at the birth of his son, Levin had noticed that despite being an unbeliever at times of great need he spontaneously prays, which for him is evidence of pervading faith not reachable by reason.] He finds Kitty and Mitya and the nanny safe, with the rain already letting up.
XVIII. The dinner, the company, the conversation, are all pleasant. Kitty goes to the nursery and Levin follows. Levin realizes after the storm the depth of his love for his son.
XIX. Leaving the nursery, alone, Levin goes to the terrace and looks at the stars. Kitty joins him, then sends him off to make sure that arrangements are made for Sergei’s room. Levin’s final thought is his realization that his life and relations with other people will be the same but will now have meaning because of the good that he has the power to put into it.

The End.