Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T07:06:24.847Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Anna Karenina

from Part 1 - The three novels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
Barbara Lönnqvist
Edited by
Donna Tussing Orwin
Donna Tussing Orwin
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

In her diary entry for March 3, 1877, when the novel Anna Karenina was almost finished, Tolstoy’s wife Sofya recorded her husband’s words: “In order for a work to be good, one must love its main basic idea, as in Anna Karenina I love the idea of family [mysl' semeinuiu].” How does this idea agree with what is generally thought to be the main theme of the novel - passionate love that transgresses all boundaries? Does Tolstoy not love Anna, this beautiful woman, so charmingly depicted when we (and Vronsky) first meet her?

woman, so charmingly depicted when we (and Vronsky) first meet her? Her shining gray eyes, that looked dark from under the thick lashes, rested with friendly attention on his face, as though she were recognizing him … In that brief look Vronsky had time to notice the suppressed eagerness which played over her face, and flitted between the brilliant eyes and the faint smile that curved her red lips. It was as though her nature were brimming over with something that against her will showed itself now in the flash of her eyes, and now in her smile.

(I, 18; 73; PSS 18: 66)
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Tolstoy , pp. 80 - 95
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×