Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.docx - Anna Karenina by Leo...

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Ref : Leo Tolstoy (). Anna Karenina.
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Summary
 Publication began in 1875.
 Its moral is the opposition of duty to passion.
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1: Stepan cheats on Dolly; Anna arrives later to console her sister (Dolly) and help mend the marriage.
 After cheating, all he repented of was that he had not succeeded better in hiding it from his wife.- Stepen.
 This has not been an infidelity of the heart...- Stepen.
 The first onslaught of jealousy, once lived through, could never come back again, and even the discovery of
infidelities could never now affect her as it had the first time. Such a discovery now would only mean breaking up
family habits, and she let herself be deceived, despising him and still more herself, for the weakness.- Dolly.
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2: Levin proposed to Kitty, who is being pursued by Vronsky. Kitty says no.
 He did not know that his mode of behavior in relation to Kitty had a definite character, that it is courting young
girls with no intention of marriage, and that such courting is one of the evil actions common among brilliant young
men such as he was.- Vronsky.
 For Levin, she (Kitty) was as easy to find in that crowd as a rose among nettles.- Levin.
 There’s nothing awful in it for a girl. Every girl’s proud of an offer.- Kitty.
 I see a man who has serious intentions, that’s Levin: and I see a peacock, like this feather-head, who’s only
amusing himself (Vronsky).- Prince Shtcherbatskaya.
 She knew how easy it is, with the freedom of manners of today, to turn a girl’s head, and how lightly men
generally regard such a crime.- Princess Shtcherbatskaya.
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Vronksy falls in love with Anna, pursuing her to St. Petersburg.
 “What am I coming for?” he repeated, looking straight into her eyes. “You know that I have come to be where you
are,” he said; “I can’t help it.”- Vronsky.
 He felt that all his forces, hitherto dissipated, wasted, were centered on one thing, and bent with fearful energy on
one blissful goal. And he was happy at it. He knew only that he had told her the truth, that he had come where
she was, that all the happiness of his life, the only meaning in life for him, now lay in seeing and hearing her. -
Vronsky.
 Vronsky’s composure and self-confidence here struck, like a scythe against a stone.
 “Don’t you know that you’re all my life to me? But I know no peace, and I can’t give it to you; all myself—and
love...yes. I can’t think of you and myself apart. You and I are one to me. And I see no chance before us of peace
for me or for you. I see a chance of despair, of wretchedness...or I see a chance of bliss, what bliss!... Can it be
there’s no chance of it?”- Vronsky.
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 “Friends we shall never be, you know that yourself. Whether we shall be the happiest or the wretchedest of
people—that’s in your hands.”- Vronsky.
 Kitty sees it happen at the Dance in front of her.