"Anna Karenina" by Leo Tolstoy

Gliederung

• Leo Tolstoy: The author and his times
• The plot
• The Oblonsky Family
• The Karenin Family
• The Levin family
• The Shcherbatsky family
• The Vronsky family
• Anna Arkadyevna Karenina
• 1. Anna is fatally flawed
• 2. Anna betrays the functions of her sex
• 3. Anna is a victim of her society
• 4. Anna represents the city
• 5. Anna represents Tolstoy's dark side
• Konstantin Dmitrich Levon (Kostya)
• 1. Love and passion
• 2. Love and work
• 3. Intellectual and physical work
• 4. City and country
• 5. Life and death
• 6. Atheism and faith
• Count Alexey Kirilich Vronsky
• Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky (Stiva)
• Princess Catherine Alexandrovna Shcherbatsky (Kitty)
• Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya (Dolly)
• Alexey Alexandrovich Karenin
• Setting
• Themes
• 1. Marriage
• 2. Woman's role
• 3. Religion
• 4. Vengeance
• 5. Russia
• A. City vs. Country
• B. The Emancipation of the Serfs
• C. Industrialization
• D. The Slavic Question
• 6. Harmony
• 7. Anna and Levin
• Style
• Garnett
• Maude
• Maude
• Garnett
• Point of view
• Form and structure
• Book I, Part I
• Chapters I-VI
• Chapters VII-XI
• Chapters XII-XV
• Chapters XVI-XXII
• Chapters XXIV-XXVII
• Chapters XXVIII-XXXIII
• Chapter XXXIV
• Book I, Part II
• Chapters I-III
• Chapters IV-XI
• Chapters XII-XVII
• Chapters XVII-XXV
• Chapters XXVI-XXIX
• Chapters XXX-XXXV
• Book I, Part III
• Chapters I-III
• Chapters IV-VI
• Chapters VII-XI
• Chapters XII-XXIII
• Chapters XXIV-XXXII
• Book I, Part IV
• Chapters I-XVI
• Chapters XVII-XXIII
• Book II, Part V
• Chapters I-VI
• Chapters VII-XIII
• Chapters XIV-XX
• Chapters XXI-XXX
• Book II, Part VI
• Chapters I-VII
• Chapters VIII-XV
• Chapters XVI-XXV
• Chapters XXVI-XXXII
• Book II; Part VII
• Chapters I-XII
• Chapters XIII-XVI
• Chapters XVIII-XXII
• Chapters XXIII-XXXI
• Book II, Part VIII
• Chapters I-V
• Chapters VI-XIX
• Tolstoy at work
• On themes
• On women
• On structure and style

Leo Tolstoy: The author and his times

Leo Tolstoy was a man of many parts - soldier, sensualist, country nobleman, writer, teacher and social critic, and, not least, benevolent patriarch. Photographs taken of him in his later years show a fearsome- looking man with long hair and a flowing beard, dressed in peasant's clothes, surrounded by his wife and children. In writing his panoramic novels of Russian life, Tolstoy drew heavily on his varied experiences. Indeed, he gave to some of his central characters, as in Anna Karenina, his own thoughts and feelings, which were sometimes, as you'll see, contradictory.

Leo (or Lev) Nikolayevich, Count Tolstoy was born near Moscow on August 28 (September 9, New Style), 1828, into an old aristocratic family that for generations had been in the Czar's inner circle. Orphaned at nine, he was raised and educated by an aunt. In 1844 he entered the University of Kazan where he was greatly influenced by the writings of the 18th-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who espoused the virtues of nature and a simple life. He left the university in 1847 without obtaining a degree.

Tolstoy then spent time carousing and hunting. Because he was awkward and not as handsome as some of the other young nobles in his social circle, he was nicknamed "Lyvochka the bear." We know from his diaries that Tolstoy was divided against himself: Although he devoted himself fully to having a wild time, he felt guilty about it. But he couldn't determine the source of his guilty feelings. Although he believed in God, he had no patience for organized religion and the rules it imposed on life (he was later excommunicated for his views by the Russian Orthodox Church).

Fed up with city life, Tolstoy went back to Yasnaya Polyana (Clear Glade), his family's ancestral estate near Moscow. His plan was to become a farmer and devote himself to improving the lot of peasants. He developed a system whereby he would sell peasants small pieces of land year by year, so that they, too, would be property owners and have a personal stake in the productivity of Yasnaya Polyana. Although the peasants liked him personally, they couldn't understand why a nobleman would try to help them, and so they distrusted his efforts. Terribly disappointed, Tolstoy went to Moscow, where he spent two more years (1848- 1850) living the high life. His diaries show a restless, searching young man who gambled and played with women by night, and then chastised himself by day. He began to write during this time and in 1852 published Childhood, a reminiscence that received good reviews. He later wrote Boyhood

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