Your opinion about Anna Karenina does not seem correct to me On the contrary, I take pride in the architectonics. The vaults are done in such a way that one cannot even notice the place where they are linked. I took more care in that than in anything else. The unification of the structure is rendered not by action and not by the relationships of characters, but by an inner connection Believe me, this is not the lack of willingness to accept criticism, especially not from you whose opinion was always excessively generous, but I am afraid that reading through the novel, you did not notice its inner content.
Tolstoy wrote the above to S. A. Rachinsky on January 27, 1878 in response to Rachinsky's letter arguing that the novel, which he considered to be Tolstoy's best work yet, had a "basic deficiency in [its] construction." In his view, there were two themes developed side by side in the novel, but not connected in any way. (Rachinsky was by this time retired from his post as professor of botany at Moscow University and taught peasant children in a country school.)
One of the most quoted lines from Tolstoy is, of course, the first line of Anna Karenina: "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Only then do we get into the action, with paragraph two: "Everything was upset in the Oblonskys' house." As you complete Part I of the novel, it is worth thinking about the question of happy families, unhappy families, and the construction of the novel. Although the novel is called Anna Karenina, it opens with infidelity, with an upset, in the household not of the Karenins but of ... the Oblonskys. Anna is connected with Stiva Oblonsky, indeed she is his sister, but we as readers don't know this yet. The telegram in Part I Chapter II introduces Anna as the one who may reconcile the unhappy spouses, but Anna herself does not appear until Chapter XVIII.
In the previous chapter, Anna is mentioned in the conversation between Stiva and Count Vronsky. Vronsky is at the train station to meet his mother, and Stiva is there to meet "a lovely woman," i.e. his sister. Note that he wants Vronsky to think of infidelity, to consider his meeting a woman to be inappropriate, when he mentions her! (Yuck)
Pay close attention to the descriptions of the main characters. This paragraph in Chapter XVIII about Anna is worth lingering over. Notice, too, Kitty and her physical attributes. We'll return to Part I for reference as you continue with the novel. (Think about trains while you're at it -- what does train travel mean, how does the train connect these two worlds of Moscow and Petersburg?)
By the way, as you read you'll need to make decisions about what you call these characters. Stiva sounds just like Steve with an "a" on the end -- not an anglophone nickname like Kitty and Dolly, but it sounds like one!
Part I ends with Karenin's big ears and Vronsky's strong teeth. Remember reading The Odyssey and being struck by the "fiery-headed Menelaus" and the "rosy fingers of dawn"? Tolstoy uses some of those almost epic markers, recurring epithets, for his characters, and you will want to pay attention to them.
Questions? comment to this text or email me specific questions at [email protected].
One of the most quoted lines from Tolstoy is, of course, the first line of Anna Karenina: "All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Only then do we get into the action, with paragraph two: "Everything was upset in the Oblonskys' house." As you complete Part I of the novel, it is worth thinking about the question of happy families, unhappy families, and the construction of the novel. Although the novel is called Anna Karenina, it opens with infidelity, with an upset, in the household not of the Karenins but of ... the Oblonskys. Anna is connected with Stiva Oblonsky, indeed she is his sister, but we as readers don't know this yet. The telegram in Part I Chapter II introduces Anna as the one who may reconcile the unhappy spouses, but Anna herself does not appear until Chapter XVIII.
In the previous chapter, Anna is mentioned in the conversation between Stiva and Count Vronsky. Vronsky is at the train station to meet his mother, and Stiva is there to meet "a lovely woman," i.e. his sister. Note that he wants Vronsky to think of infidelity, to consider his meeting a woman to be inappropriate, when he mentions her! (Yuck)
Pay close attention to the descriptions of the main characters. This paragraph in Chapter XVIII about Anna is worth lingering over. Notice, too, Kitty and her physical attributes. We'll return to Part I for reference as you continue with the novel. (Think about trains while you're at it -- what does train travel mean, how does the train connect these two worlds of Moscow and Petersburg?)
By the way, as you read you'll need to make decisions about what you call these characters. Stiva sounds just like Steve with an "a" on the end -- not an anglophone nickname like Kitty and Dolly, but it sounds like one!
Part I ends with Karenin's big ears and Vronsky's strong teeth. Remember reading The Odyssey and being struck by the "fiery-headed Menelaus" and the "rosy fingers of dawn"? Tolstoy uses some of those almost epic markers, recurring epithets, for his characters, and you will want to pay attention to them.
Questions? comment to this text or email me specific questions at [email protected].