Karenina

Hello, Friends!

Tolstoy dressed in Peasant clothing,
by Ilya Repin (1901)

Once again, St. Petersburg is buzzing with excitement over yet another novel.  It seems to me to be almost over night that these Russians have come to love their own literature.  I certainly wish people had ever been this excited about one of my own stories.  The whole city hums with the noise of people discussing and debating the latest of the instant classics to grace the city, this time, from a fairly well-known author called Lev Tolstoy.  He has before released several books, such as Childhood, though the best known of his prior works is probably War and Peace.  It comes highly recommended, though I have not yet had the chance to read it.  There is simply too much to read these days.  It becomes impossible to keep up.

However, I simply could not pass up Tostoy's latest, Anna Karenina.  As a novel, it is a masterpiece.  As commentary on the upper classes of Russian society, it is deep and full of insight and criticism.  The plot runs roughly that Anna, married to a city official, falls in love with a soldier and begins an affair, during which she becomes pregnant.  After laying low in the country with her lover, Anna eventually returns and is then rejected by high society.  Eventually, the pain and pressure drive her to drastic action.  Through this tale, Tolstoy is able to explore many ideas about justice, love, and high society.  It is indeed a tale unlike any other.

I was recently invited to an estate party where the novel was being discussed.  Many of the good people at the event were debating whether or not Anna deserved the fate that befell her.  One of the guests noted that Anna's choice to engage in an affair was hardly unique at the time, and that many of the nobles who later treat her as a pariah were likely engaged in similar activities (Brown, 2011).  The same friend used Anna's brother, Oblonkskii's own affair as example, noting that his affair is seen as humorous.  This would suggest that Anna takes a worse punishment in being rejected than those of her of her other peers, and even her lover, who are all free to continue to be part of high society.

Anna Karenina

However, another man at the party, one Konstantin, said that he had heard Tolstoy himself say, "...The bad things people do have as their consequence all the bitter things, which come not from people, but from God, and that is what Anna Karenina herself experienced" (Brown, 2011).  If Konstantin is truthful, than it seems Tolstoy has written only what punishment he thinks God would have meted out to Anna, and who can be more just than God?  Certainly, this would find her deserving of her lot.  This thought did not seem to please many of the women in the room.  In either case, Anna Karenina may be used as a prime example of the sorrows that follow the unfaithful.

A younger man, whose name I did not catch, then changed the subject and began discussing Levin, one of the side characters who spends his time on his estate learning from and instructing his serfs.  He summarized an interesting theory that, through Levin, Tostoy was able to show differing thoughts on social hierarchy.  One example can be found in the time Levin took to educate his serfs, elevating them above their normal station.  However, Levin later states that by doing so he made his serfs more efficient, reaping more of a reward for him (De Sherbinn, 2011).  Serfs now are not often highly educated, and doing so flaunts the face of traditional roles between noble and serf.  Levin seeks to elevate those below him, but he still maintains his position as a noble.  I think we shall soon see more of the nobility adopt similar activities.

As the night wore down, I left and returned to my own home.  Along my way, I thought to myself about all I had read recently, and what it could mean for the Russian people.  There is a restlessness to the people.  They write of Nihilism, and of nobility falling from grace.  They write of educating serfs, and of violence and demons.  The literature coming from these Russians is rich beyond my expectations, but still.  I grow uneasy wondering where these thoughts may lead.



Catherine Brown. “Scapegoating, Double-Plotting, and the Justice of Anna Karenina.” The Modern Language Review, vol. 106, no. 1, 2011, pp. 179–194., www.jstor.org/stable/10.5699/modelangrevi.106.1.0179.


DE SHERBININ, JULIE W. "The Dismantling of Hierarchy and the Defense of Social Class in Anna Karenina." Russian Review, vol. 70, no. 4, Oct. 2011, pp. 646-662. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9434.2011.00633.x.