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Anna Karenina

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Novels

   CAPTION: Title Anna Karenina

   Classic UK Penguin edition cover
       Author     Leo Tolstoy
   Original title Анна Каренина
     Translator   Constance Garnett initial
      Country     Russia
      Language    Russian
      Genre(s)    Romance
     Publisher    Ruskii Vestnik
      Released    1877
     Media type   Print ( Serial)
        ISBN      NA

   Anna Karenina (Анна Каренина) is a novel by the Russian writer Leo
   Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the
   periodical Ruskii Vestnik ( Russian: Русский Вестник, "Russian
   Messenger"). Tolstoy clashed with its editor Mikhail Katkov over issues
   that arose in the final installment. Therefore, the novel's first
   complete appearance was in book form.

   Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered
   this book his first true novel. The character of Anna was likely
   inspired, in part, by Maria Hartung (1832–1919), the elder daughter of
   the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Soon after meeting her at dinner,
   Tolstoy started reading Pushkin's prose and once had a fleeting
   daydream of "a bare exquisite aristocratic elbow", which proved to be
   the first intimation of Anna's character.

   Although most Russian critics panned the novel on its publication as a
   "trifling romance of high life", Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be
   "flawless as a work of art". His opinion is seconded by Vladimir
   Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style"
   and the motif of the moving train, which is subtly introduced in the
   first chapters (the children playing with a toy train) and inexorably
   developed in subsequent chapters (Anna's nightmare), thus heralding the
   novel's majestic finale.

   Anna Karenina is #1 in the Top Ten List of 125 authors' Top Ten books.

Plot summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The novel is divided into eight parts. The novel begins with one of its
   most quoted lines, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family
   is unhappy in its own way."

   Part 1 introduces the character Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky,
   known as "Stiva", a civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife
   Darya Alexandrovna, known as "Dolly". Stiva's affair shows an amorous
   personality which he cannot seem to suppress. Stiva summons his married
   sister, Anna Karenina, from St. Petersburg to persuade Dolly not to
   leave him.

   Upon arriving at Moscow, a railway worker accidentally falls in front
   of a train and is killed, which Anna declares to be an "evil omen".
   Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin
   arrives in Moscow to offer his hand in marriage to Dolly's younger
   sister Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky, known as "Kitty". The
   passionate, restless but shy aristocratic landowner lives on an estate
   which he manages. Kitty turns him down, expecting a marriage offer from
   army officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky. Despite his fondness for
   Kitty, Vronsky has no intention of marrying her. He soon falls in love
   with Anna after he meets her at the Moscow train station and later
   dances the mazurka with her at a ball.

   Anna, shaken by her response and animation to Vronsky, returns at once
   to St. Petersburg. Vronsky follows her on the same train. Levin returns
   to his estate farm, abandoning any hope of marriage, and Anna returns
   to her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government
   official, and their son Sergei ("Seriozha") in Petersburg.

   In part 2, Karenin scolds Anna for talking too much with Vronsky, but
   after a while she returns Vronsky's affections, and becomes pregnant
   with his child. Anna shows anguish when Vronsky falls from a racehorse,
   making her feelings obvious in society and prompting her to confess to
   her husband. This attraction appears repeatedly in the book through the
   form of a "What if" question. When Kitty learns that Vronsky prefers
   Anna over her, she turns ill. Two doctors examine her, and together
   they decide she should travel abroad to recover. She goes to a resort
   at a German spring to recover from the shock. There she briefly becomes
   extremely pious, but decides that she can't retain that level of piety
   without deceiving herself.

   Part 3 examines Levin's life on his rural farming estate, a setting
   closely tied to Levin's spiritual thoughts and struggles. Throughout
   this part, Levin wrestles with the idea of falseness, wondering how he
   should go about ridding himself of it, and criticizing what he feels is
   falseness in others. Dolly also meets Levin, and attempts to revive his
   feelings for Kitty. Dolly seems to have failed, but a chance sighting
   of Kitty makes Levin realize he still loves her. Back in Petersburg,
   Karenin exasperates Anna by refusing to separate with her, and
   threatens not to let her see their son Seriozha ever again if she
   leaves or misbehaves, exactly what Vronsky asks her to do.

   By part 4 however, Karenin finds the situation intolerable and begins
   seeking divorce. Anna's brother Stiva argues against it and persuades
   Karenin to speak with Dolly first. Again, Dolly seems to be
   unsuccessful, but Karenin changes his plans after hearing that Anna is
   dying in childbirth. At her bedside, Karenin forgives Vronsky, who in
   remorse attempts suicide. However, Anna recovers, having given birth to
   a daughter she names Anna ("Annie"). Stiva finds himself pleading on
   her behalf for Karenin to divorce. Vronsky at first plans to flee to
   Tashkent, but changes his mind after seeing Anna, and they leave for
   Europe without obtaining a divorce after all. Much more straightforward
   is Stiva's matchmaking with Levin: a meeting he arranges between Levin
   and Kitty results in their reconciliation and betrothal.

   In part 5, Levin and Kitty marry. A few months later, Levin learns that
   his brother Nikolai is dying. The couple go to him, and Kitty nurses
   him until he dies, while also discovering she is pregnant. In Europe,
   Vronsky and Anna struggle to find friends who will accept them and
   pursue activities that will amuse them, but they eventually return to
   Russia. Karenin is comforted – and influenced – by the strong-willed
   Countess Lidia Ivanovna, an enthusiast of religious and mystic ideas
   fashionable with the upper classes, who counsels him to keep Seriozha
   away from Anna. However, Anna manages to visit Seriozha unannounced on
   his birthday, but is discovered by the furious Karenin, who had told
   their son that his mother was dead. Shortly afterward, she and Vronsky
   leave for the country.

   In part 6, Dolly visits Anna. At Vronsky's request, she asks Anna to
   resume seeking a divorce from Karenin. Yet again, Dolly seems
   unsuccessful; but when Vronsky leaves for several days of provincial
   elections, a combination of boredom and suspicion convinces Anna she
   must marry Vronsky. So she writes to Karenin, and leaves with Vronsky
   for Moscow.

   In part 7, the Levins are in Moscow for Kitty's benefit as she gives
   birth to a son. Stiva, while seeking Karenin's commendation for a new
   job, again asks him to grant Anna a divorce; but Karenin's decisions
   are now governed by a "clairvoyant" – recommended by Lidia Ivanovna –
   who apparently counsels him to decline. Anna and Vronsky become
   increasingly bitter towards each other. They plan to return to the
   country, but in a jealous rage Anna leaves early, and in a parallel to
   part 1, commits suicide by throwing herself in the path of a train.
   (Tolstoy reportedly was inspired to write Anna Karenina by reading a
   newspaper report of such a death.)

   Part 8 continues the story after Anna's death. Stiva gets the job he
   wanted, and Karenin takes custody of Annie. Some Russian volunteers,
   including Vronsky, who does not plan to come back, leave to help in the
   Serbian revolt that has just broken out against the Turks (see also
   History of Serbia, 1876). And in the joys and fears of fatherhood,
   Levin at last develops faith in the Christian God.

Characters in "Anna Karenina"

     * Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky ("Stiva") – a civil servant
     * Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya ("Dolly") – Stepan's wife
     * Anna Arkadyevna Karenina – The eponymous "heroine", sister to
       Stepan and lover of Vronsky
     * Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin – Anna's husband
     * Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin – Kitty's suitor and the novel's
       other protagonist
     * Nikolai Levin – Konstantin's brother
     * Ekaterina Alexandrovna Scherbatskaya ("Kitty") – Darya's younger
       sister
     * Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky – Lover of Anna
     * Countess Lidia Ivanovna – Interested in all things mystical

Style

   Tolstoy's style in Anna Karenina is considered by many critics to be
   transitional, forming a bridge between the realist and modernist novel.
   The novel is narrated from a third-person-omniscient perspective,
   shifting between the perspectives of several major characters, though
   most frequently focusing on its dual protagonists (Anna and Levin). As
   such, each of the novel's eight sections contains internal variations
   in tone: it assumes a relaxed voice when following Stepan Oblonsky's
   thoughts and actions and a much more tense voice when describing
   Levin's social encounters. Much of the novel's seventh section depicts
   Anna's thoughts fluidly, following each one of her ruminations and
   associations with its immediate successor. This section, and, to a
   lesser degree, the rest of the novel, is one of the earliest examples
   of stream-of-consciousness literature. The stream-of-consciousness form
   would be utilized by such later authors as James Joyce, Virginia Woolf,
   and William Faulkner.

   Also of significance is Tolstoy's interweaving of real and fictional
   events throughout his narrative. Characters in Anna Karenina debate
   significant sociopolitical issues affecting Russia in the latter half
   of the nineteenth century, such as the proper role of the serfs in
   society, education reform, and women's rights. Tolstoy's depiction of
   the characters in these debates, and of their arguments, allows him to
   anonymously communicate his own political beliefs to his audience.
   Characters often attend social functions that Tolstoy attended, and he
   includes in these passages his own observations of the ideologies,
   behaviors, and ideas running through contemporary Russia through the
   thoughts of Konstantin Levin. The broad array of situations and ideas
   depicted in Anna Karenina allows Tolstoy to present a treatise on his
   era's Russia, and, by virtue of its very breadth and depth, all of
   human society. This stylistic technique, as well as the novel's use of
   perspective, greatly contributes to the thematic structure of Anna
   Karenina.

Major themes

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   The novel, set among the highest circles of Russian society, is
   generally thought by the casual reader to be nothing more than the
   story of a tragic romance. However, Tolstoy was both a moralist and
   severe critic of the excesses of his aristocratic peers, and Anna
   Karenina is often interpreted overall as a parable on the difficulty of
   being honest to oneself when the rest of society accepts falseness.

   Anna is the jewel of St. Petersburg society until she leaves her
   husband for the handsome and charming military officer, Count Vronsky.
   By falling in love, they go beyond society's external conditions of
   trivial adulterous dalliances. But when Vronsky's love cools, Anna
   cannot bring herself to return to the husband she detests, even though
   he will not permit her to see their son until she does. Unable to
   return to a life she hates, she kills herself.

   A common way to interpret Anna's tragedy, then, is that she could
   neither be completely honest nor completely false, showing a
   Hamlet-like inner conflict that eventually drives her to suicide.

   The novel also contains the parallel and contrasting love story of
   Konstantin Levin. Levin is a wealthy landowner from the provinces who
   could move in aristocratic circles, but who prefers to work on his
   estate in the country. Levin tries unsuccessfully to fit into high
   society when wooing the young Kitty Shcherbatsky in Moscow; he wins her
   only when he allows himself to be himself.

   The joyous, honest and solid relationship of Levin and Kitty is
   continually contrasted in the novel with that of Anna and Vronsky,
   which is tainted by its uncertain status (marriage) resulting in
   constant upheaval, backbiting, and suspicion. So by the time Anna
   throws herself under a train at the end of the story, Tolstoy
   supposedly did not want readers to sympathize with her supposed
   mistreatment, but rather to recognize that it was her inability to
   truly commit to her own happiness or self-truth which led to her
   ignominious end.

   Other Themes:

   Anna Karenina is filled with themes and imagery that illustrate
   Tolstoy's disdain of his aristocratic peers, and of a litany of human
   weaknesses.

   Tolstoy skewers religious hypocrisy and insincerity in several
   characters, especially Karenin, Anna's husband, and the moralizing
   Countess Lydia Ivanovna. He also draws contrasts between the peace and
   wholesomeness of the country and the decadence of urban society. But
   one of the most prominent themes Tolstoy expounds upon in the novel is
   the relationship between love and honesty, both the different varieties
   of them as well as the different degrees to which they coexist, and the
   happiness that does or doesn't result.

   In many ways, Anna Karenina was the most personal novel Tolstoy wrote
   up to that point. The character Levin is recognized as a stand-in for
   Tolstoy himself, whose first name in Russian is "Lev." He incorporated
   other details of his life into the character, such as Levin's
   insistence that Kitty read his journals before they marry, something
   Tolstoy made his own wife do. Thus scholars usually assume that Levin's
   thoughts reflect Tolstoy's own.

   Embedded in the last section of the novel is an account of the
   skeptical Levin's conversion, amounting to a profound defense of
   orthodox Christianity, which is necessarily anti-intellectual because
   it explicitly rejects the ability of any rational analysis to
   adequately answer life's most important questions. Throughout the
   story, Levin has been searching for answers to these questions, and the
   marriage and birth of his infant son has accelerated this quest. A
   chance exchange with a peasant supplies an answer, centered on the
   human goodness and truth which he himself already possesses, and which
   is obvious to any observer yet impossible to define, measure, or even
   defend to his intellectual friends. It is this insight, Tolstoy writes,
   roughly paraphrased as "living for one's soul rather than living for
   one's self" that overturns his former disbelief and allows him to
   proceed to live in full faith of the Christian religion.

Anna Karenina and Tolstoy's Confession

   Alla Tarasova as Anna Karenina.
   Alla Tarasova as Anna Karenina.

   Many of the novel's themes can be found in Tolstoy's Confession, his
   first-person rumination about the nature of life and faith, written
   just two years after the publication of Anna Karenina.

   He describes his real-life dissatisfaction with the hypocrisy of his
   class:

     Every time I tried to display my innermost desires – a wish to be
     morally good – I met with contempt and scorn, and as soon as I gave
     in to base desires I was praised and encouraged.

   Tolstoy also details the acceptability of adulterous "liaisons" in
   aristocratic Russian society:

     A dear old aunt of mine, the purest of creatures, with whom I lived,
     was always saying that she wished for nothing as much as that I
     would have a relationship with a married woman. 'Rien ne forme un
     jeune homme comme une liaison avec une femme comme il faut.'
     ("Nothing forms a young man properly like an affair with a married
     woman.")

   Another theme in Anna Karenina is that the aristocratic habit of
   speaking in French instead of Russian is another form of society's
   falseness. There is even one passage that could possibly be interpreted
   as a sign of Anna's eventual redemption in Tolstoy's eyes:

     For in the end what are we, who are convinced that suicide is
     obligatory and yet cannot resolve to commit it, other than the
     weakest, the most inconsistent and, speaking frankly, the most
     stupid of people, making such a song and dance with our banalities?

   The Confession contains many other autobiographical insights into the
   themes of Anna Karenina. A public domain version of it is here.
   Spoilers end here.

Film, TV, radio, or theatrical adaptations

   Adaptations include:
     * 1914: A Russian adaptation directed by Vladimir Gardin.
     * 1915: An American version starring Danish actress Betty Nansen.
     * 1927: An American version titled Love, starring Greta Garbo and
       directed by Edmund Goulding. This version featured significant
       changes from the novel and had two different endings, with a happy
       one for American audiences.
     * 1935: The most famous and critically acclaimed version, starring
       Greta Garbo and Fredric March and directed by Clarence Brown.
     * 1944: A radio adaptation on The Screen Guild Theatre starring
       Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck. Ingrid Bergman also did a Theatre
       Guild on the Air adaptation in 1948.
     * 1948: Starring Vivien Leigh and directed by Julien Duvivier.
     * 1953: A Russian version directed by Tatyana Lukashevich.
     * 1961: A BBC Television adaptation directed by Rudolph Cartier,
       starring Sean Connery and Claire Bloom.
     * 1967: A Russian version directed by Alexander Zarkhi.
     * 1971: Ballet by Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin.
     * 1977: A 10 part British TV miniseries directed by Basil Coleman.
     * 1985: TV Movie starring Jacqueline Bisset and Christopher Reeve,
       directed by Simon Langton.
     * 1992: An ill-fated Broadway musical adaptation.
     * 1997: The first US version to be filmed on location in Russia,
       directed by Bernard Rose and starring Sophie Marceau and Sean Bean.
     * 1997 A 4 part BBC radio production starring Toby Stephens
     * 2000: A 4 part British TV adaptation directed by David Blair.
     * 2005: A Russian mini-series by Sergei Solovyov .
     * 2005: A Russian ballet in 2 acts choreoraphed by Boris Eifman.
     * 2007: An American opera by David Carlson premiering April 2007 at
       Florida Grand Opera starring Kelly Kaduce as Anna.

Trivia

     * Karenin's name is derived from the Ancient Greek word for "head",
       thus illustrating his pervasive rationality.
     * The novel became a best-seller in the United States in 2004 after a
       recommendation by TV personality Oprah Winfrey. ( ISBN
       0-14-303500-2)
     * Anna Karenina also mentioned in R.L. Stine's Goosebumps series The
       Cuckoo Clock of Doom
     * In an Indonesian 2006 Horror film Hantu Jeruk Purut, there was a
       character named Anna Karenina
     * Milan Kundera makes multiple references to Anna Karenina in his
       novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being
     * "Anna Karenina" was used as a title for a Philippine TV show aired
       around 1996 until 2002, but its story is quite far off from Leo
       Tolstoy's original novel.
     * Anna Karenina is mentioned by Klaus from the book "A Series of
       Unfortunate Events, The Slippery Slope''". He uses the main theme
       from Anna Karenina (Tragedy)as a password to open a locked door.
     * Anna Karenina is mentioned in the film adaptation of "The English
       Patient," as the plot also involves an adulterous wife.
     * In the short-story "Sleep" by Haruki Murakami, the main character,
       an insomniac housewife, spends much time reading through and
       considering "Anna Karenina".

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