Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (feel good books TXT) π
Description
Anna Karenina is certainly somewhat unhappy in her life, but presents a strong and vivacious character when called in to smooth over a major crack thatβs appeared in her brotherβs marriage. Unfortunately, the very visit designed to help her brother introduces her to Count Alexei Vronsky and sets in motion a chain of events that will ripple through families and the unforgiving society of wealthy Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Initially serialized over five years in The Russian Messenger, Anna Karenina was first published as a two-volume novel in 1878. It was Leo Tolstoyβs second novel, coming after War and Peace and further cementing his role as the primary Russian author of his age. Tolstoy drew on his aristocratic upbringing to set the scene for the novel, and itβs widely believed that he wrote his own experiences and struggles with religion (documented in A Confession) into the central character of Konstantin Levin.
This edition compiles into a single volume the 1901 English translation by Constance Garnett.
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- Author: Leo Tolstoy
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βI wanted to go to Wilsonβs to take some dresses to her. So itβs really to be tomorrow?β she said in a cheerful voice; but suddenly her face changed.
Vronskyβs valet came in to ask him to sign a receipt for a telegram from Petersburg. There was nothing out of the way in Vronskyβs getting a telegram, but he said, as though anxious to conceal something from her, that the receipt was in his study, and he turned hurriedly to her.
βBy tomorrow, without fail, I will finish it all.β
βFrom whom is the telegram?β she asked, not hearing him.
βFrom Stiva,β he answered reluctantly.
βWhy didnβt you show it to me? What secret can there be between Stiva and me?β
Vronsky called the valet back, and told him to bring the telegram.
βI didnβt want to show it to you, because Stiva has such a passion for telegraphing: why telegraph when nothing is settled?β
βAbout the divorce?β
βYes; but he says he has not been able to come at anything yet. He has promised a decisive answer in a day or two. But here it is; read it.β
With trembling hands Anna took the telegram, and read what Vronsky had told her. At the end was added: βLittle hope; but I will do everything possible and impossible.β
βI said yesterday that itβs absolutely nothing to me when I get, or whether I never get, a divorce,β she said, flushing crimson. βThere was not the slightest necessity to hide it from me.β βSo he may hide and does hide his correspondence with women from me,β she thought.
βYashvin meant to come this morning with Voytov,β said Vronsky; βI believe heβs won from Pyevtsov all and more than he can pay, about sixty thousand.β
βNo,β she said, irritated by his so obviously showing by this change of subject that he was irritated, βwhy did you suppose that this news would affect me so, that you must even try to hide it? I said I donβt want to consider it, and I should have liked you to care as little about it as I do.β
βI care about it because I like definiteness,β he said.
βDefiniteness is not in the form but the love,β she said, more and more irritated, not by his words, but by the tone of cool composure in which he spoke. βWhat do you want it for?β
βMy God! love again,β he thought, frowning.
βOh, you know what for; for your sake and your childrenβs in the future.β
βThere wonβt be children in the future.β
βThatβs a great pity,β he said.
βYou want it for the childrenβs sake, but you donβt think of me?β she said, quite forgetting or not having heard that he had said, βFor your sake and the childrenβs.β
The question of the possibility of having children had long been a subject of dispute and irritation to her. His desire to have children she interpreted as a proof he did not prize her beauty.
βOh, I said: for your sake. Above all for your sake,β he repeated, frowning as though in pain, βbecause I am certain that the greater part of your irritability comes from the indefiniteness of the position.β
βYes, now he has laid aside all pretense, and all his cold hatred for me is apparent,β she thought, not hearing his words, but watching with terror the cold, cruel judge who looked mocking her out of his eyes.
βThe cause is not that,β she said, βand, indeed, I donβt see how the cause of my irritability, as you call it, can be that I am completely in your power. What indefiniteness is there in the position? on the contrary.β ββ β¦β
βI am very sorry that you donβt care to understand,β he interrupted, obstinately anxious to give utterance to his thought. βThe indefiniteness consists in your imagining that I am free.β
βOn that score you can set your mind quite at rest,β she said, and turning away from him, she began drinking her coffee.
She lifted her cup, with her little finger held apart, and put it to her lips. After drinking a few sips she glanced at him, and by his expression, she saw clearly that he was repelled by her hand, and her gesture, and the sound made by her lips.
βI donβt care in the least what your mother thinks, and what match she wants to make for you,β she said, putting the cup down with a shaking hand.
βBut we are not talking about that.β
βYes, thatβs just what we are talking about. And let me tell you that a heartless woman, whether sheβs old or not old, your mother or anyone else, is of no consequence to me, and I would not consent to know her.β
βAnna, I beg you not to speak disrespectfully of my mother.β
βA woman whose heart does not tell her where her sonβs happiness and honor lie has no heart.β
βI repeat my request that you will not speak disrespectfully of my mother, whom I respect,β he said, raising his voice and looking sternly at her.
She did not answer. Looking intently at him, at his face, his hands, she recalled all the details of their reconciliation the previous day, and his passionate caresses. βThere, just such caresses he has lavished, and will lavish, and longs to lavish on other women!β she thought.
βYou donβt love your mother. Thatβs all talk, and talk, and talk!β she said, looking at him with hatred in her eyes.
βEven if so, you must.β ββ β¦β
βMust decide, and I have decided,β she said, and she would have gone away, but at that moment Yashvin walked into the room. Anna greeted him and remained.
Why, when there was a tempest in her soul, and she felt she was standing at a turning point in her life, which might have fearful consequencesβ βwhy, at that minute, she had to keep up appearances before an outsider, who sooner or later must know it allβ βshe did not know. But at once quelling the storm within her, she sat down and began talking to their guest.
βWell, how are you getting on? Has your debt been paid you?β she asked Yashvin.
βOh, pretty
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