ENDNOTES
Throughout the notes, references to the Bible
are to the King James Version.
Part One
Chapter I
1 (p. 5)
“Vengeance is mine, I will repay”: The epigraph to the novel
can be traced to the Bible, both the Old Testament (Deuteronomy
32:35, “To me belongeth vengeance and recompence”) and the New
Testament (Romans 12:19, “For it is written, Vengeance is mine; I
will repay, saith the Lord”) and Hebrews 10:30, “For we know him
that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense,
saith the Lord”).
2 (p. 5)
Stepan Arkadyevitch: Russians use both their Christian first name,
and the patronymic: “son of” (-yevitch) or “daughter of” (-yevna),
combined with the father’s first name. The polite form of address
for Russians of the aristocracy would be the first name and the
patronymic. Among family members and close friends, the first name,
or a diminutive form, could be used alone.
3 (p. 5)
Il mio tesoro: Italian for “My little treasure,” this phrase is
possibly from the aria “Deh, vieni alla finestra, o mio tesoro”
(“Come to the window, my treasure”) from act 2, scene 3 of the
opera Don Giovanni, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791).
The opera tells of the final romantic adventures, violent death,
and descent into hell of the playboy Don Juan. This story of the
downfall of Don Juan at the hands of the marble statue of the
father of a woman he has ruined was especially popular in Russia in
a version by the poet Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1835); Pushkin’s
version was titled The Stone Guest.
4 (p. 5)
There were some sort of little decanters on the table, and they
were women, too: In Russian, the word for “little
decanters” (grafinchiki ) could also mean “little
countesses.”
Chapter III
1 (p. 10)
Rurik: According to the twelfth-century history known as the
Russian Primary Chronicle, Rurik was the leader of the
ninth-century Scandinavian or Varangian princes who were invited to
become the first rulers of Russia.
2 (p. 11)
which alluded to Bentham and Mill: Jeremy Bentham (1748
1832) was a political philosopher and founder of the school of
Utilitarianism. In his Introduction to the Principles of Morals
and Legislation (1789), he argues that the purpose of any
action should be to create the greatest positive influence for the
greater common good. Philosopher and political economist John
Stuart Mill (1806- 1873) was greatly influenced by Bentham but was
more humanitarian in his views. Mill was especially noted for his
advocacy of social reform and women’s rights.
3 (p. 11)
Count Beist was rumored to have left for Wiesbaden: Count
Friedrich Ferdinand von Beust (1809-1886; “Beust” is the correct
spelling) was prime minister and later chancellor of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Wiesbaden is a popular German spa.
Chapter IV
1 (p. 14)
She had called him “thou”: The Russian language, like German
and French, uses a different form of the singular second person for
intimate relationships. Up to this point in this passage, Dolly has
been addressing her husband formally.
Chapter V
1 (p. 19)
Levin: The surname Levin is connected with Tolstoy’s first name,
Leo (Lev in Russian).
2 (p.
20) a modern district council man: The Russian electoral
system of the regional or district councils (zemstvo) had
been established at the time of the wide-sweeping social reforms of
the 1860s and 1870s, including the emancipation of the serfs in
1861. See part three, chap. III, note 1.
3 (p.
21) European dress again: Many members of the Russian
intelligentsia at this time dressed in peasant-style or traditional
Russian-style clothing to demonstrate their affinity with the
Slavophile ideology. The Slavophiles adhered to the position that
any political or social reform in Russia ought to express
traditional, national, and religious customs. In contrast, the
so-called Westernizers were eager to adapt systems of thought and
social reform that were being put into place in Europe and the
United States.
Chapter VII
1 (p.
26) the origin of man as an animal: The articles of Charles
Darwin (1809-1882) promoting the ideas of the evolution of the
species and of the emergence of human beings from the great apes
had recently been published in Russian periodicals.
2 (p.
26) Keiss ... Wurt, and Knaust, and Pripasov: These are
invented names of philosophers, meaning gravel, sausage, miser, and
victuals.
Chapter IX
1 (p.
32) Tiny bear: Detectable in this nickname is an autobiographical
reference to Tolstoy’s wife, Sophia, whose maiden name was
Behrs.
2 (p.
33) the England or the Hermitage: These were two of the best
restaurants in Moscow at that time.
Chapter X
1 (p.
37) a youth in love: The verses are loosely quoted from the
poem “From Anacreon,” by Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1835). Anacreontic
verse generally is concerned with the themes of wine, women, and
song.
2 (p.
39) according to Thy loving-kindness: The phrase is from the
Bible, Psalms 51:1, which is frequently quoted in penitential
portions of the Eastern Orthodox liturgy and at confession.
Chapter XI
1 (p.
40) aide-de-camp: This is the French term for a military
officer assigned as a confidential assistant to a high-ranking
superior officer.
2 (p.
41) Of all the Gospel those words are the only ones
remembered: “Those words” refer to the ones Jesus uses in the
Bible, Luke 7:47, in defense of a prostitute who had anointed his
feet with oil: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she
loved much.” Some interpreters consider the phrase “loved much” to
apply to her life as a prostitute; others assert that the love
refers to her love for Jesus as expressed in her extravagant action
of anointing his feet with expensive, perfumed oil.
3 (p.
41) It’s very much like that gentleman in Dickens who used to
fling all difficult questions over his right shoulder: The
gentleman is John Podsnap in Our Mutual Friend (1865).
Tolstoy greatly admired Charles Dickens (1812-1870) and hung his
portrait over his desk. The Victorian English novel has great
significance throughout Anna Karenina. Anna reads an English
novel on her fateful train ride. Tolstoy gives many of the
characters English names or nicknames. In so doing, Tolstoy’s
reference brings the Victorian ideals of domesticity and marriage
placed under scrutiny in the pages of Anna Karenina; he
wrote that this novel was about the “idea of family.”
4 (p.
42) To my mind, love ... both the sorts of love, which you
remember Plato defines in his Banquet: Levin is making a
reference to “The Symposium,” one of the dialogues of Plato
(427?-347 B.C.), a preeminent Greek philosopher. The dialogue takes
place at a banquet, and the philosophical discussion focuses on the
idea of love, which is considered as being of two types:
consummated and unconsummated ; the second has come to be referred
to as “platonic” love. In Plato’s philosophical system, pure love
is more truly directed toward spiritual affinity than toward the
flesh-and-blood person of the lover. In this passage, Levin
disputes the romantic idea of tragedy associated with platonic
love—that is, that platonic or impossible love leads inevitably to
death, just as he minimizes the power of erotic or physical
love.
Chapter XII
1 (p.
44) She saw that girls of Kitty’s age ... went to some sort of
lectures: Beginning in the 1860s and 1870s in Russia, women
were admitted to institutions of higher education and, slowly, to
the professions. The role of women in society was under heated
dispute in what was known as “the woman question,” one of the many
“accursed questions” occupying the Russian intelligentsia in the
second half of the nineteenth century. The idea of education and
professional training for women was rejected by those who
considered women’s main role to be that of wife and mother. This
theme becomes quite significant in Anna Karenina, where
pressures to marry for reasons of security adversely affect some of
the women characters and where an unhappy marriage itself becomes
oppressive. The struggles of unmarried women (known as “superfluous
women” in English society) are frankly discussed at a dinner party
later in the novel and are illustrated in the character of Varenka.
The discussion in Russia occurred in large part as a response to
the publication of John Stuart Mill’s treatise The Subjection of
Women (1869), which caused quite a stir on the occasion of its
translation in the Russian periodical press.
Chapter XIV
1 (p.
50) bast shoes: Made out of a coarse fiber like hemp, these
shoes were worn by very poor peasants who could not afford cobbled
shoes.
2 (p.
51) spiritualism: So-called spiritualism—which here refers to
dabbling in the occult with Ouija boards, seances, and other
magical practices—was a popular fad among the Russian aristocracy
in Tolstoy’s time.
Chapter XV
1 (p.
53) Lord, have pity on us!: The sinner’s prayer, also known
as “The Jesus Prayer,” of an Eastern Orthodox Christian is usually
translated as “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a
sinner.” The Eastern Orthodox liturgy is notable for numerous
repetitions of this phrase. The equivalent in the Western Church is
the prayer “Kyrie Eleison” (Latin for “Lord, have mercy”).
Chapter XVI
1 (p.
55) Corps of Pages: Graduates of this select imperial
military academy were guaranteed a commission and had an excellent
prospect for a distinguished career.
2 (p.
56) bezique ... Château des Fleurs, there I shall find Oblonsky,
songs, the cancan: Vronsky is wondering if he should finish the
evening by playing a French card game (bezique) or by going to the
Mansion of Flowers, a popular Moscow nightclub where the cancan was
performed. In this French chorus-line dance, skirts are lifted to
expose the dancer’s legs and posterior. Tolstoy, like many of his
contemporaries, considered the cancan to be highly immodest. In one
of his diary notations, he criticizes the author Ivan Sergeyevich
Turgenev (1818-1883) for performing the cancan to amuse his
friends.
Chapter XVII
1 (p.
57) I know a youth in love: This is another reference to the
poem “From Anacreon,” by Aleksandr Pushkin; see part one, chap. X,
note 1.
2 (p.
57) Honi soit qui mal y pense: This French proverb is often used as
a heraldic motto of noble orders of chivalry and is particularly
known as the motto of the Order of the Garter. It has been
variously translated but is usually understood to signify: “Let ill
come to the person who thinks ill of others.”
3 (p.
57) in all Moscow people: Moscow is more ancient and
centrally located and was considered to be less sophisticated and
cosmopolitan than St. Petersburg, which had been built according to
the latest principles of European design and planning as part of
Czar Peter the Great’s plan to update and Westernize Russia (see
part three, chap. XXVII, note 4. By contrast, Moscow retained the
character of a historic, national, and religious center. As the
headquarters of the Eastern Orthodox Church after the fall of
Constantinople, Moscow was venerated in church tradition as the
“Third Rome”; a city of monasteries and cathedrals, its inhabitants
were condescended to as “old-fashioned” and moralistic by the more
urbane residents of St. Petersburg.
Chapter XXII
1 (p.
74) guipure: The reference is to the most expensive type of
lace, without a mesh netting.
2 (p.
75) I don’t throw stones: This is a reference to the passage
in the Bible, John 8:7, in which Jesus questions the law that an
individual caught in the act of adultery is subject to death by
stoning. When the Pharisees brought before him such a woman, he
said: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone
at her.”
Chapter XXIV
1 (p.
82) a teacher in a peasant school: Schools for peasants were
relatively new institutions in Russia and regarded with suspicion.
The teachers were often considered to be politically
incendiary.
2 (p.
82) a bad house: Levin is referring to a brothel, or house
of prostitution.
Chapter XXV
1 (p.
85) Pokrovskoe: The name of the Levin country estate is one
that was commonly used by the landed gentry; it is derived from the
Eastern Orthodox Church feast of the Protection of the Virgin Mary.
The description of the estate, the names of many of the servants,
and the general account of Levin’s life in the country are highly
autobiographical, resembling details of Tolstoy’s life at his
family estate at Yasnaya Polyana.
Chapter XXVI
1 (p.
86) the new railways: The railroad between Moscow and St.
Petersburg had been newly completed in 1861. During the time of the
writing of Anna Karenina, additional railroad lines were
being built throughout Russia, as they were in the western United
States. Tolstoy had a negative view of railroads.
2 (p.
86) a spirited beast from the Don: The Don is a river
originating near Tula and flowing southeast to the Volga. The Don
river basin region was deeded by the czar’s decree to the Don
Cossacks, noted horsemen and horse breeders, who obtained a certain
degree of political autonomy in exchange for military service.
Their horses were highly regarded.
3 (p.
87) at home, one is better: Levin is quoting an old Russian
proverb, similar to “There’s no place like home.”
Chapter XXVII
1 (p.
89) Tyndall’s Treatise on Heat: The work of the Irish
scientist John Tyndall (1820-1893) was translated into Russian in
1864.
Chapter XXIX
1 (p.
93) took from her bag a paper-knife and an English novel:
Books were often printed on folded pages that required cutting, and
small paper-knives created for this purpose were a common accessory
for readers. It is possible to make an educated guess that on the
train Anna is reading a novel by Anthony Trollope (1815-1882), with
its references to hunting, parliament, and the hero’s pursuit of
title and estate. The plot of Can You Forgive Her? (1865),
the first novel in Trollope’s Palliser series, is similar in some
respects to that of Anna Karenina. A young, highly spirited
girl, Lady Glencora, is married off to an older statesman,
Plantagenet Palliser, whose stiff manner and absorption in his
political career could have provided a model for the character of
Alexey Karenin. Lady Glencora is almost drawn into an adulterous
relationship with a dashing young cavalier. A later Trollope novel,
Lady Anna, appeared in 1871.
Chapter XXXI
1 (p.
100) our dear Samovar: This nickname for Lidia Ivanovna
implies a fussy, bubbly personality. A samovar (literally,
self-boiler) is a large brass kettle positioned over an internal
charcoal stove. A tea-pot containing an infusion of black tea is
set on top of the samovar while the water in the kettle is brought
to the boil. A small amount of the tea infusion is poured in a cup
and the boiling water is added to it. As the samovar is generally
kept at the ready, the water is continually boiling, bubbling, and
steaming.
Chapter XXXII
1 (p.
101) The Society of the Little Sisters: This organization of
noble-women assisted prostitutes in leaving their profession.
2 (p.
102) the unification of the churches: The partition of Poland had
resulted, via a formal conversion in 1865, in the reunification of
some Catholic Churches with the Eastern Orthodox (or Byzantine)
Church. Some of the Polish churches, known as “uniate,” retained
their communion with Rome while continuing to follow a Byzantine
Rite. The Panslavist Movement (see note immediately below)
supported the attempt to reunite the Catholic Churches in Slavic
countries with the Eastern Orthodox Church.
3 (p.
102) the Slavonic committee: The Slavonic committee would be
associated with the Panslavist Movement, a group dedicated to
promoting closer relationships between Russia and Slavic peoples
outside the Russian Empire (such as Slovaks and Serbs). One of the
means for forging such a relationship was the proposed
reunification of the churches; see the note directly above.
Chapter XXXIII
1 (p.
103) Peter the First clock: Catherine the Great (1729-1796)
had erected a famous statue of Peter the First (1672-1725), also
known as Peter the Great, on horseback that was widely reproduced
as a decorative motif and as a statue containing a clock or
paperweight. The statue was also the subject of the narrative poem
“The Bronze Horseman,” by the poet Aleksandr Pushkin
(1799-1835).
2 (p.
104) Duc de Lille, Poésie des Enfers: This invented author
and title are meant to resemble names important in the experimental
French poetry of the time. Duc de Lille suggests Leconte de Lisle
(1818-1894), the leading poet of the Parnassian school, a group of
anti-Romantic poets who strove for neoclassical precision of form.
“Poesie des Enfers” recalls Les Fleurs du Mal (1857), by the
French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), a work initially
condemned for its obscenity and obscurity and later hailed as a
great masterpiece by French Symbolism, a late-century trend that
emphasized occult themes, eroticism, and highly ornamental
language. In his treatise on aesthetics What Is Art? (1898),
Tolstoy soundly lambasted Symbolist poetry, subjecting poets like
Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898) to scathing critique. Karenin’s
choice of reading matter is surprising given his conservatism,
reserve, and affiliation with Church religion. However, his reading
introduces an erotic tone to his bedtime conversation with Anna in
this scene.
3 (p.
105) Shakespeare, Raphael, Beethoven: That Tolstoy chooses
these three figures to characterize Karenin’s views on art suggests
that he is depicting Karenin as lacking genuine soul or depth; he
seems to be implying that Karenin’s opinions have been formed by
the habits of his social class. All three men, who are generally
considered to rank among the greatest in their respective fields of
drama, painting, and music, were later singled out by Tolstoy for
particular criticism. In his treatise on aesthetics What Is
Art? (1898), Tolstoy offers William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and
especially his tragedy King Lear as an example of what is wrong
with most bourgeois and overly conventional art. Raphael Sanzio
(1483-1520), Italian painter and architect, is considered by many
to be the greatest painter of the Italian Renaissance; he painted
in a manner idealizing the human figure. Although Tolstoy kept a
copy of Raphael’s Madonna over his desk, in his private
letters he questioned the validity of its beauty, which he felt was
profane, rather than sacred. German Romantic composer Ludwig von
Beethoven (1770-1827) becomes the villain of Tolstoy’s later work
The Kreutzer Sonata, in which the narrator commits a murder
after being aroused to a jealous rage by his wife’s performance of
the Beethoven sonata.
Chapter XXXIV
1 (p.
106) whom she called Pierre as a contraction of his surname:
The surname Petritsky contains the Christian name Petr, or Peter,
of which Pierre is the French equivalent.
2 (p.
106) Bohemian: The term referred originally to the kingdom of
Bohemia, but because of the Bohemian gypsies, acquired the meaning
of an unconventional, artistic, or uncontrollable
personality.
3 (p.
106) He persists in refusing to give me a divorce: Obtaining
a divorce at this time in Russian society was extremely difficult.
According to civil and ecclesiastical law, the only grounds for
divorce were adultery, which had to be proven with convincing
evidence. The guilty spouse would not be free to remarry in the
eyes of the Church, and society would largely condemn a civil
union.
4 (p.
107) He had found a girl... genre of the slave Rebecca: In
other words, the girl of whom Petritsky speaks is Jewish. The
reference is to the Jewish heroine in Ivanhoe (1819), by Sir Walter
Scott (1771 1832) ; in the novel, Rebecca is abducted and held
captive; during her captivity, she nurses the knight Ivanhoe to
health. When she is later accused of witchcraft, Ivanhoe rides to
her rescue.
Part Two
Chapter I
1 (p.
111) Before her he decided to scatter his pearls: The reference is
to the Bible, Matthew 7:6: “Neither cast ye your pearls before
swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and
rend you.”
2 (p.
112) Is the Yausky bridge done yet ... ?: Yausky bridge was
still under construction in 1875.
3 (p.
112) Soden waters: Soden was a spa in Germany, where the
natural spring waters were considered to have therapeutic
powers.
Chapter III
1 , (p.
117) vieux saxe: The reference is to old German-style
porcelains.
Chapter IV
1 (p.
122) “I’m going to the French theater..... from Nilsson?”:
The French Theater performed primarily musical comedy (opéra
bouffe), in contrast to the serious opera attended by high
society. Christiane Nilsson (1843-1921) was a Swedish operatic
prima donna.
2 (p.
122) Blessed are the peacemakers; theirs is the kingdom of heaven:
The reference is to the Bible, Matthew 5:9.
Chapter V
1 (p.
123) government clerk: The reference is to the position of
titular councilor, comparable in rank to an army captain according
to the Table of Ranks established by Peter the Great. See part
three, chap. XXVII, note 4.
2 (p.
123) Talleyrand: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord
(1754 1838) was a gifted French diplomat who became foreign
minister and prime minister.
3 (p.
124) there could be no question of a duel.... Petritsky and
Kedrov must go ... to apologize: Though illegal, duels were not
uncommon. Discovery of the incident with the wife of the government
clerk would have meant scandal, dishonorable discharge, loss of
rank and privileges, and exile. It is ironic that Vronsky
negotiates a domestic peace in this passage (drawn from a real
story Tolstoy heard from his brother), just as Anna earlier makes
peace between Stiva and Dolly. As a result of his adulterous
relationship with Anna, Vronsky will later suffer all the
consequences he helps the government clerk to avoid, and Anna will
experience the social and psychological trauma of divorce that
Dolly, thanks to Anna’s efforts, is spared.
Chapter VI
1 (p.
125) she’s studied Kaulbach: Wilhelm von Kaulbach
(1805-1874) was a German painter of large canvases depicting
historical events through elaborate gestures and exaggerated facial
expressions.
2 (p.
126) Princess Myakaya: In Russian, the surname means “soft”;
however, the effect the Princess creates in conversation is rather
the opposite.
3 (p.
126) Louis Quinze: Louis the Fifteenth reigned as king of France
from 1715 to 1774. The style of his court was resplendent and
decadent.
4 (p.
128) There’s a fable of Grimm’s about a man without a
shadow: There is no fable by the Brothers Grimm concerning a
man without a shadow. However, Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
wrote a story titled “The Shadow” (1870 for the Russian
translation); the Faustian short story “Peter Schlemihl” (1814), by
Adelbert von Chamisso (1781-1838), was probably the basis for
Andersen’s version. In the story, the narrator’s shadow detaches
itself and assumes a life of its own, usurping its owner’s position
in society and his fiancée. A woman without a shadow is
mythologized in a poem titled “Anna” by Austrian poet Nikolaus
Lenau (1802-1850). His theme is revisited in the opera Die Frau
ohne Schatten (The Woman without a Shadow; 1919), by Austrian
dramatist and poet Hugo von Hoffmansthal (1874-1929). In both works
women without shadows make a diabolic contract to preserve eternal
beauty; they also fore-swear childbearing, as Anna does later in
the novel.
5 (p.
128) the French saying: The reference is to the Maximes
(1665) of Duc François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680), a
collection of witty sayings meant to illustrate the negative
qualities of human nature. Prior to beginning work on Anna
Karenina, Tolstoy had compiled a Primer for schoolchildren,
in which he included moral tales, aphorisms, and lessons based on
his wide reading in world literature.
Chapter VII
1 (p.
132) Your Rambouillet is in full conclave ... the graces and
the muses: The Marquise de Rambouillet (1588-1665) presided over
one of the most distinguished salons—gatherings of intellectuals,
artists, and politicians—of her day. In Greek mythology, there were
nine Muses who inspired the arts and lived on Mount Olympus with
the three Graces.
2 (p.
132) universal conscription: At this time the draft was being
reformed so that members of the nobility no longer had the
privilege of exemption they had previously enjoyed.
Chapter IX
1 (p.
138) He would never have used the word: This is a paraphrase of
another of the Maximes of La Rochefoucauld; see chap. VI, note 5,
above.
Chapter XII
1 (p.
142) It is not well for man to be alone: The reference is to
the Bible, Genesis 2:18: “It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
2 (p.
143) the ring of axes in the yard, where peasants were repairing
ploughs and harrows: The axes are ringing as wood is cut to
mend the farm implements. A plough makes furrows or narrow ditches
in the soil before planting. A harrow is a frame with several
spikes drawn across the soil to break it up and smooth it over
before ploughing. These farm implements were still made of wood at
this time in Russia, although in Europe iron ploughs had been in
use for some time.
Chapter XIII
1 (p.
148) The horse sank in up to the pasterns: The pastern is
the part of a horse’s leg between the hoof and the fetlock.
Chapter XIV
1 (p.
152) One does so little harm to any one, and gives oneself so
much pleasure: Stepan Arkadyevitch is quoting from Adolphe
(1816), by the French-Swiss political writer Benjamin Constant
(1767-1830).
2 (p.
152) Ossian’s women: James Macpherson (1736-1796) claimed to
have translated epic poems by a Gaelic bard named Ossian, but they
were later proven to be forgeries. His heroines were extremely
beautiful and soulfully passionate.
Chapter XVI
1 (p.
156) Count the sands of the sea, number the stars: This is a
quotation from the poem “God,” by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin
(1743-1816), Russia’s greatest poet before Pushkin.
2 (p.
157) Ryabinin looked about ... as though seeking the holy
picture: Eastern Orthodox households usually have a family
altar in each room known as the “beautiful corner,” where icons are
hung and a vigil lamp, prayer book, censer, and Bible are
displayed. Icons are wooden and painted in a prescribed manner with
gesso and tempera, and decorated with gold, silver, and
semiprecious stones; they are made in all sizes: for display on the
walls, for holding in the hand, for wearing around the neck. In the
“beautiful corner” icons are hung facing east, and on entering a
room the custom is to pause to venerate the icons and make the sign
of the cross.
Chapter XVII
1 (p.
160) “Yes, the electric light,”said Levin ... laying down the
soap: Factory-milled soap and electric lighting, like the
railroads, were still novelties in Russia at this time.
2 (p.
161) We are aristocrats, and not those who can ... be bought for
twopence halfpenny: Here Levin displays the strong class
prejudice of the old Russian landed gentry families against the
rising middle class, known as the “mixed ranks.” Some slur on
Vronsky’s family may also be implied. The placement of the letter V
before a last name was commonly used to distinguish the
illegitimate but formally recognized line of a family, in the same
way that “Fitz” was used in England. For example, in the novel
Crime and Punishment (1866), by Fyodor Dostoevsky
(1821-1881), the character Razumikhin—illegitimate by birth—is
formally adopted and his name changed to Vrazumikhin.
3 (p.
161) Katerina Alexandrovna: Levin is speaking of Kitty. The
use of Kitty’s full name and patronymic, rather than the nickname
by which she is generally known, expresses formality in Levin’s
relationship to her.
Chapter XVIII
1 (p.
163) Wertherish: Werther is the romantic hero of the popular
novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), by Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe (1749-1832). In one of the most notorious examples of the
theme of love and death, the hero commits suicide as a result of
his morbid passion for a married woman. The years immediately
following the publication of the novel saw a large increase in the
number of youthful suicides and the adoption of Werther’s style of
dress (the “Werther coat”). Countess Vronskaya expresses the view
attributed to high society throughout the novel: that casual sexual
affairs were countenanced, but not serious love affairs, which
could lead only to scandal, divorce, or worse.
Chapter XIX
1 (p.
163) Krasnoe Selo: This “beautiful village” was located
outside St. Petersburg, near the imperial residence at Tsarskoe
Selo (the czar’s village). The racetrack there was relatively
new.
Chapter XX
1 (p.
166) There was a king in Thule: This is a line from an aria
in the romantic opera Faust (1859), by Charles-François Gounod
(1818 1893), based on the poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-
1832). Doctor Faustus sells his soul to the devil and is
accompanied in his activities by the demonic Mephistopheles. He
seduces and abandons Gretchen (the nickname of Marguerite), who
sings this aria in the opera. The theme of a Faustian contract with
the devil has already been tapped in the earlier discussion of the
story of the man without a shadow; see part two, chap. VI, note
4.
2 (p.
167) Peterhof: The reference is to the palace that Peter the
Great built on the Gulf of Finland.
Chapter XXI
1 (p.
169) Frou-Frou: Tolstoy owned a horse of this name. A French
play titled Frou-Frou was performed in Russia in the 1870s;
the plot concerns an adulterous woman, Frou-Frou, who abandons her
husband and son. The literal meaning of the name is the rustling of
a dress, and therefore it conveys femininity and frivolity.
The description of Frou-Frou’s beauty and
nervousness has been compared to that of Anna, suggesting a
parallel between the two. That interpretation would suggest that
Vronsky is responsible for Anna’s destruction, just as his
clumsiness in riding the race destroys his exquisite racehorse.
Some critics have found this comparison to be too crude or
allegorical. The extensive use of English words in this section
suggests a British literary influence. In Anthony Trollope’s novel
Can You Forgive Her? (see part one, chap. XXIX, note 1), Burgo
Fitzgerald, who attempts to draw Lady Glencora into an adulterous
liaison, is notoriously brutal in riding.
Tolstoy would later write a novella about a
horse, Kholstomer (Yardstick) that is similar to
Black Beauty (1877), by Anna Sewell (1820-1878); in the
story Tolstoy attacks cruelty to horses. In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s
Crime and Punishment, the murderer, Raskolnikov, dreams of a
horse being beaten to death on the eve of the day when he intends
to commit his crime, the murder of a woman.
2 (p.
169) pluck: The word is given in English in the original.
3 (p.
170) blood that tells: This phrase is also in English in the
original.
Chapter XXIII
1 (p.
177) my son: At this time in Russia, it would have been
virtually impossible for Anna to obtain a divorce on the basis of
her own adultery and retain custody of her son. Her remarriage to
Vronsky would likewise not have been recognized by the Church or
high society. See part one, chap. XXXIV, note 3, and part three,
chap. XIII, note 2.
Chapter XXIX
1 (p.
198) how light it is: Because of the northern latitude, St.
Petersburg and its environs experience exceptionally long summer
days. At midsummer, there may be only a few hours of night, with
sunsets merging into dawns; these days, known as “white nights,”
are celebrated with fireworks and other festivities.
Chapter XXXIII
1 (p.
207) Widow’s Home: The reference is to charity homes for
indigent or invalid widows, founded in Moscow and St. Petersburg in
1803. The injunction to extend charity to widows and orphans is
found throughout the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.
2 (p.
207) Slavonic texts: The liturgical language of the Russian
Orthodox Church is Old Church Slavonic.
3 (p.
209) One was bidden to turn the other cheek when one was
smitten, and give one’s cloak if one’s coat were taken: This is
a paraphrase of a passage in the Bible, Matthew 5:39-40, the
so-called Sermon on the Mount: “But I say unto you, That ye resist
not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn
to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and
take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.”
Chapter XXXIV
1 (p.
212) Pietists: The Pietist movement in the Christian church
emphasized inner spirituality and works of mercy over religious
observance or doctrinal definition. Initiated by Philipp Jacob
Spener (1635-1705) under the inspiration of German mysticism, the
movement took hold among seventeenth-century Lutherans and quickly
spread throughout Europe and the New World. The external
demonstration of pious emotion distinguished this movement from
others in the eyes of observers.
2 (p.
213) the Academy: The reference is to the Academy of Arts.
3 (p.
213) in that excellent French that so few speak nowadays: At the
time of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia in 1812, the Russian
aristocracy spoke and wrote primarily in French, as did the rest of
the European nobility. In part to demonstrate patriotic sentiment
at the time of the Napoleonic war, and later, in an effort to
express Slavophile views (see part one, chap. V, note 3), Russian
became the preferred language. Many of the nobility hired tutors in
order to study their own language. With the rise of a national
literature and periodical press during the nineteenth century, most
aristocrats gained a command of Russian, and would have been
instructed in French, German, Old Church Slavonic, Latin, and
occasionally Italian and Greek. However, the fluent French so
common among the eighteenth-century aristocracy had become a rarity
by the end of the nineteenth century.
Chapter XXXV
1 (p.
216) They’ve conquered everybody: The Franco-Prussian war
had just been added to the list of brilliant military victories
under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), the “Iron
Chancellor,” who consolidated the German states under Prussian
rule.
Part Three
Chapter II
1 , (p.
227) St. Peter’s Day: June 29 is the feast day of Saint
Peter, according to the calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
This conversation reflects the conflict between traditional, folk
agricultural practices (connected with the liturgical calendar) and
Levin’s efforts to apply modern, more scientific principles to
farming.
Chapter III
1 (p.
228) We pay the money, and ... nothing: The mid-century
reforms under Czar Alexander II (1818-1881) included improvements
to regional government by the creation of a system of district
councils known as the zemstvo. With certain limitations,
these were self-governing units whose task was the improvement of
conditions in rural Russia and the establishment of medical and
educational institutions. Levin had already become disillusioned
with the zemstvo and dropped out.
2 (p.
230) self interest: Levin’s philosophical position is based
on the ideas of the utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill (see part one, chap. III, note 2), which suggest
that enlightened self-interest was the basis for all social and
political action.
3 (p.
230) the emancipation of the serfs: The emancipation of the
serfs in 1861 was the most notable of the reforms instituted by
Czar Alexander II; see note 1, above. Prior to the czar’s edict,
many of the nobility had already begun to give freedom to their
serfs, and to restructure the ownership of the land according to
more liberal ideas. At the time of the emancipation, the serfs
constituted more than one-third of the population and lived in
abject poverty as slaves. With the abolition of serfdom, peasants
were to receive land from the landowners in exchange for rent.
However, the system of land distribution and the method of rent
payment were inadequate to the task of placing Russian agriculture
on an equitable foundation. Levin spends the greater part of his
energy in working out his ideas for a solution in theory and
practice; this is to be the topic of his book.
4 (p.
231) Would it have suited your tastes better to be tried in the
old criminal tribunal?: The judicial system prior to the
Alexandrine reforms (see note 1, above) had been notoriously
corrupt.
5 (p.
231) Trinity Day: Trinity Day in the Eastern Orthodox Church is
celebrated on the same day as Pentecost in the Western Church.
According to tradition, birch branches and pussy willow branches
are used to decorate the icons in the church and at home, and are
“planted” upright to decorate gardens and fields.
6 (p.
231) a philosophical principle: Levin is referring to the
philosophical idea of enlightened self-interest. See note 2,
above.
Chapter IV
1 (p.
232) He took a scythe from a peasant and began mowing:
Tolstoy often joined his field laborers in mowing. He found
strenuous exercise to be beneficial for maintaining good health and
a stable mood.
2 (p.
233) To send you a bottle of Lafitte and roast turkey out there
would be a little awkward: Sergey Ivanovitch is commenting on
the difference in social stations between Levin and the peasants he
has joined in doing field work. Lafitte is a fine red wine of the
Bordeaux region in France and, like roast turkey, would be unknown
to the peasants. They would likely dine on black bread and kvas, a
beer that is brewed from grain and is similar to a dark ale.
3
(pp. 233-234) old Yermil ... Vaska ... Tit: Just as Tolstoy
bases the description of mowing the field as the master among the
peasants on his own experience (see note 1, above), he draws these
names from those of his field laborers.
Chapter VIII
1 (p.
246) the sacrament: The reference is to receiving communion, one of
the sacraments of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Receiving communion
is required of Eastern Church members at least once a year, and
children receive communion almost from birth; in the Western
Church, a child doesn’t receive First Communion until the “age of
reason” (generally between six and eight years old).
2 (p.
246) transmigration of souls: This term refers to reincarnation or
metempsychosis. Such a doctrine would be in complete opposition to
the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which maintains that
human beings live only one life and that they will be raised from
the dead to face final judgment and eternal life in heaven or in
hell.
3 (p.
249) I weaned her ... for three fasts: The peasant custom
was to nurse babies through the three fasts of the Orthodox Church.
These are the Lenten fast that precedes Mardi Gras, or carnival;
the fast prior to the celebration of the Nativity in December; and
the two-week fast prior to the feast day celebrating the Assumption
of Mary in August.
Chapter X
1 (p.
255) my children won’t be like that: Levin here subscribes
to views on socialization as expressed in the philosophy of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), a French Enlightenment
philosopher who maintained that human beings were born into natural
innocence and corrupted only through their experience of a depraved
social order. Rousseau was an important influence throughout
Tolstoy’s life.
Chapter XI
1 (p.
257) Married already? ... it’s two years last St. Philip’s
Day: This feast falls on November 14. Dates for marriages were
determined in keeping with the agricultural and Church calendar,
which meant that most weddings took place in the winter, when
workers could be spared from the fields. The discussion of the
boy’s youth reflects the fact that peasant marriages were generally
arranged and could take place when the bride and groom were quite
young in order to secure the added work that a young and healthy
girl could contribute to the household.
Chapter XIII
1 (p.
262) “Fair Helen” of Menelaus: The abduction by Paris of
Helen of Troy, wife of Menelaus, was the impetus for the Trojan
War. The story had been “recently revived in the memory of all,” as
Karenin observes, by the Russian premiere of the opera La
Belle Hélène (1864), by the French composer Jacques
Offenbach. In the original Russian version of Anna Karenina,
Karenin gives the actual title of the opera.
2 (p.
263) a legal divorce ... was impossible of attainment:
According to Russian civil law and the ecclesiastical canon law of
the Eastern Orthodox Church, divorces could be granted only on
grounds of adultery. In such a case, only the innocent party would
be considered free to remarry. In many cases, the husband would
agree to free the wife by staging a fictitious adulterous liaison
for himself with the aid of hired witnesses; however, this would
not leave him free to remarry and would place him in a humiliating
position. In order to divorce Anna on grounds of adultery, Karenin
would be forced either to fabricate evidence of his own “adultery”
or to produce evidence of Anna’s liaison. He considers that making
Anna’s adultery public would damage his reputation, as he would be
considered churlish for obtaining a divorce in that fashion. These
questions are discussed in greater detail in part four, chapter V,
in which Karenin visits his lawyer. See also part one, chap. XXXIV,
note 3, and part six, chap. XXI, note 1.
Chapter XIV
1 (p.
266) Egyptian hieroglyphics: The original Russian is more explicit,
referring to the Eugubine Tables, seven bronze tablets unearthed in
the fifteenth century near the city of Gubbio in Italy’s Umbrian
region. The tablets date from the third and first centuries B.C.
and are written in the Umbrian language using the Latin and
Etruscan alphabets.
2 (p.
267) deplorable condition of the native tribes: The
reference is to the Central Asian peoples whose lands were acquired
as part of the expansion of the Russian Empire, and who had been
forced into resettlements.
Chapter XVII
1 (p.
275) les sept merveilles du monde: The French phrase means “the
seven wonders of the [ancient] world,” which were: the Colossus of
Rhodes, the pyramids of Egypt, the hanging gardens of Babylon, the
lighthouse at Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the
statue of Zeus in the Temple of Zeus in Olympia, and the Mausoleum
at Halicarnassus.
Chapter XVIII
1 (p.
279) a personage of such consequence that ... both the ladies
rose on his entrance: He is, therefore, a member of the royal
family.
Chapter XIX
1 (p.
283) Decembrist: The Decembrist uprising of December 14,
1825, involved many young men of the Russian aristocracy. The
rebellion consisted of a single demonstration on the accession of
Czar Nicholas I (1796-1855), in which the Decembrists marched in
Moscow appealing for the establishment of a constitutional
monarchy. The rebellion was decisively crushed. Five of the leaders
were hanged, and the remainder, stripped of their ranks and
privileges, were exiled to Siberia; the crown confiscated their
estates, but their wives were permitted to join them in
exile.
2 (p.
283) one of the most expensive regiments: The commander was
expected to assume the cost of outfitting his regiment
himself.
Chapter XXI
1 (p.
287) Offenbach’s quadrille: The reference is to the French
composer Jacques Offenbach (1818-1880), earlier alluded to as the
composer of La Belle Hélène; see part three, chap.
XIII, note 1. A quadrille is a form of country dance; in this case,
Offenbach composed the music for the dance.
2 (p.
289) Bertenev’s party against the Russian communists:
Bertenev is a fictional name, as is the suggested existence of an
organized Russian communist movement. The Paris Commune of 1871, a
workers’ movement opposed to the humiliating terms of defeat
Prussia imposed on France at the end of the Franco-Prussian war
(see part two, chap. XXXV, note 1), had fired the imaginations of
many young Russian intellectuals, who were dedicated to more
liberal reforms than had taken place under Czar Alexander II; see
part three, chap. III, notes 1 and 3. French socialist philosophers
Charles Fourier (1772-1837) and Claude-Henri de Rouvroy, comte de
Saint-Simon (1760-1825), were extremely influential among the
Russian intelligentsia, and some labor communes and phalansteries,
or communal living arrangements (including group marriages), had
sprung up in Russia on the French socialist model.
Chapter XXV
1 (p.
301) holy pictures: The reference is to icons; see part two,
chap. XVI, note 2.
2 (p.
302) The samovar was beginning to sing: The sound of the
samovar “singing” is similar to that of the teakettle whistling;
see part one, chap. XXXI, note 1.
Chapter XXVI
1 (p.
304) concerned about the question of the improvement of the
clergy ... and took special trouble to keep up the church: Due
to the separation of church and state in Russia and the fact that
priests were allowed to marry (unlike their Western counterparts in
the Roman Catholic Church) and therefore often had large families
to support, parishioners in rural Russia generally found it a
challenge to sustain their local church and clergy. The Parish
Statute of 1869 proposed incorporating smaller parishes into larger
entities to increase the financial basis of the local churches.
However, this measure, like many of the reforms of the 1860s and
1870s, was experimental and not adequately implemented.
2 (p.
304) the woman question: As in Europe and America, the question of
education and civil rights for women was the subject of heated
debate in Russia; see part one, chap. XII, note 1. A subtle
parallel is implied between Levin’s ideas about the partnership of
landlord and peasant and those about equal partnership in marriage;
both ideas were radical for their time.
3 (p.
305) The conditions of agriculture are firmly established
... what form these conditions will take is the one question of
importance in Russia: Levin’s ideas on social reform and
agricultural labor in Russia won high praise for Tolstoy from
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870- 1924), leader of the Bolshevik
Revolution in Russia and author of the Marxist-Leninist political
philosophy that was the foundation for the communist order of the
former Soviet Union. In a famous statement, Lenin declared the
literary works of Tolstoy a “mirror of the Russian Revolution.” One
subsequent effect of this high valuation was to determine the state
control of literature written in the Soviet Union in accordance
with doctrines of “socialist realism,” based on the model of
Tolstoy’s realist style.
Chapter XXVII
1 (p.
307) La Belle Hélène: This reference is to an opera by the French
composer Jacques Offenbach; see part three, chap. XIII, note
1.
2 (p.
307) justice of the peace: Following the reforms of the 1860s, a
justice of the peace had to settle civil disputes in open court.
Such proceedings were often unruly as entire villages would attend
the trials and participate vocally. Furthermore, the reforms did
not eradicate the general corruption that had long prevailed in the
justice system.
3 (p.
307) their own communal court and their village
elder: Regional administration of the Russian peasantry following
the emancipation of the serfs in 1861 was based on the older model
of the collective or commune, not, as might be suspected, on the
European socialist idea of the commune. (The terms are different in
Russian; see note 6, below.) Smaller villages were grouped into a
communal jurisdiction, and the communes were administered as part
of a larger district. The village elder was elected to serve as the
“headman” of the village and to represent village interests at the
commune.
4 (p.
308) the reforms of Peter, of Catherine, of Alexander: The
reference is to Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and Alexander
II. Peter the Great (1672-1725) was noted for forcibly introducing
Western practices into Russia (see part one, chap. XVII, note 3);
his efforts included importing potatoes as a crop. Despite the
success of many of Peter’s reforms, his reign was marked by
despotic terroristic practices, including the bloody suppression of
a musketeer rebellion.
Czarina Catherine II, known as Catherine the
Great (1729-1796), was a German princess who succeeded to the
throne of Russia following a conspiracy to eliminate her husband,
Czar Peter III (1728- 1762). Fancying herself a grand reformer in
the style of Peter the Great, Catherine fancied herself a patron of
the arts and literature and corresponded with leading French
thinkers of her age. However, her reign, as one historian
characterized it, was the “silhouette but not the profile of
reform”; she ended by strengthening the rights of the nobility and
securing their hold over the peasants.
The reformist tendencies of Alexander II
(1818-1881) similarly ended in an increasingly repressive regime,
which provoked his assassination ; see part three, chap. III, notes
1 and 3.
5 (p.
309) Italian bookkeeping: An accounting method that includes
keeping double columns in the ledger books, separating debits and
credits.
6 (p.
311) the relic of barbarism, the primitive commune: This is a
reference to the older form of social and political organization in
the village commune. The Russian words for the earlier form of
commune were obshchina and mir, while the regional commune
of the reform period is called a volost. See note 3,
above.
7 (p.
311) the Schulze-Delitsch movement... the most liberal
Lasalle movement ... the Mulhausen experiment: These are
references to social-reform movements. Franz Hermann
Schulze-Delitsch (1808- 1883) founded banking cooperatives and
people’s savings unions in Germany. Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-1864),
a founding member of the German Social Democrat Party, was also
instrumental in establishing workers’ unions and cooperatives. Jean
Dollfus (1800-1887) designed and organized a model project for
workers’ housing, put into effect in the French city of Mulhouse
(Mulhausen in German) in 1853.
Chapter XXVIII
1 (p.
312) Friedrich was not, after all, the person chiefly
responsible for the partition of Poland: The first partition of
Poland in 1772 divided most of the nation between Frederick II, the
Great, king of Prussia (1712-1786), Catherine the Great of Russia
(see part three, chap. XXVII, note 4), and Maria Theresa
(1717-1780), archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and
Bohemia. There were two subsequent partitions in 1793 and 1795,
meant to suppress Polish efforts at gaining independence and
autonomy.
2 (p.
314) Spencer: Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a noted English
philosopher and developer of the idea of social Darwinism.
According to the theory of organic evolution of biologist Charles
Darwin (1809-1882), the proliferation of species was the result of
specific adaptive strategies made in response to environmental
pressures, resulting in the survival of the fittest. Social
philosophers were quick to apply this principle to the strata of
human society.
3 (p.
314) whose name is legion: The reference is to the account of an
exorcism in the Bible, Mark 5:9. When Jesus demands the name of the
demon in possession, the demon replies, “My name is Legion: for we
are many.”
Chapter XXIX
1 (p.
318) In books on political economy—in Mill: The
reference is to John Stuart Mill; see part one, chap. III, note
2.
2 (p.
318) But Kauffmann, but Jones, but Dubois, but Michelli?:
These are fictitious names.
Chapter XXX
1 (p.
320) Franklin: The reference is to Benjamin Franklin (1706-
1790), statesman, author, scientist and inventor, and signer of the
American Declaration of Independence. As a young man, Tolstoy had
been deeply impressed by Franklin’s collection of moral sayings,
Poor Richard’s Almanac, and by his Autobiography. Inspired by these
models, Tolstoy kept an account of his activities that he dubbed
his “Franklin diary.”
2 (p.
321): “Took the sacrament and all”: The sacrament referred
to is the last rites of the Orthodox Church, which include
confession, anointing with oil, and communion.
Chapter XXXI
1
(p. 322) the heroes of old: The mythological Russian warrior
heroes, or demigods, known as bogatyri, gained their
strength from touching the soil of their native land.
Chapter XXXII
1
(p. 325) words not Russian: Because the terms Levin wants to use do
not exist in Russian, he is forced to use foreign words to convey
the ideas he is interested in. The effect is at minimum specialized
and at worst pretentious, as Levin senses. His linguistic
predicament reflects the general concern of the Russian
intelligentsia about the importation of Western ideas and practices
into Russian culture, and how this would affect native mores. It
also echoes literary debates about the Russian language and its
artistic potential.
2
(p. 326) Utopia: The reference is to Utopia (1516), a
fictionalized account of an ideal society based on rational,
philosophical principles written by Sir Thomas More (1478-1535),
statesman, scholar, and author; More was martyred by King Henry
VIII (1491-1547) of England for his refusal to betray his Catholic
principles.
3
(p. 326) metayers: The term refers to peasants who worked rented
land.
Part Four
Chapter I
1
(p. 332) Russian pancakes ... three-horse sledges ...
gypsies ... and drinking feasts, with the Russian
accompaniment of broken crockery: Russian pancakes
(bliny) are traditionally eaten at Lent, served with caviar
and sour cream. The three-horse sleigh, or troika, became a
national symbol. Gypsies were frequently hired to provide musical
entertainment and dancing at parties. Smashed crockery refers to
the practice of breaking glasses after a toast of wine or
champagne.
Chapter II
1
(p. 333) I cannot come out: It was considered improper for a
woman in advanced stages of pregnancy to appear in society.
Chapter III
1
(p. 335) your Athenian evening: This expression implies an orgy,
probably homosexual.
Chapter VII
1
(p. 350) in his non-official dress: The implication is that
Stepan Arkadyevitch will be paying his department head a purely
social call.
Chapter IX
1
(p. 358) the Russification of Poland: The main issues under
discussion for the cultural assimilation of Poland (an ongoing
problem since the Partition; see part three, chap. XXVIII, note 1)
were educational and religious, as Poland was Catholic and
emphasized Latin scholastic traditions. See also, for the issues
concerning the reunification of the churches, part one, chap.
XXXII, notes 2 and 3.
2
(p. 358) some unexpected pinch of Attic salt: Sergey Ivanovitch is
a master at adding a pungent witticism to wind up an
argument.
3
(p. 359) Samson: A hero of the Old Testament of the Bible, Samson
was known for his superhuman strength, bestowed on him by God so
long as he did not cut his hair. Infatuated with Delilah, he
confided in her the secret of his strength, and was betrayed and
shorn.
4
(p. 359) an old fur-lined, full-skirted coat: The reference
is to an old-fashioned Russian coat worn by peasants, rather than
the European-style coat that the aristocracy would wear.
Chapter X
1
(p. 361) false and noxious doctrines: Karenin is probably
referring to the concepts of social Darwinism, or other ideas
suggesting a deterministic view of character and moral disposition.
(See part three, chap. XXVIII, note 2.) As a conservative strongly
affiliated with official Church dogma, Karenin would naturally
reject the study of the natural sciences in favor of religion-based
education.
2
(p. 361) anti-nihilist influence: Nihilism—the moral and
philosophical rejection of all doctrines—was widely espoused among
Russia’s young intelligentsia. Turgenev’s Bazarov is the nihilist
protagonist of Fathers and Sons. Tolstoy treated the topic
satirically in his play An Infected Family.
Chapter XII
1
(p. 367) “What will become of her, if you cast her off?”:
Possibly Dolly appeals here not only to the social ruin Anna would
experience, but to her spiritual condition as well.
2
(p. 368) Love those that hate you: This is a reference to the
Bible, Matthew 5:43-44: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou
shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you,
Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and
persecute you.”
Chapter XIII
1
(p. 371) He ... wrote the initial letters ... and herself
finished and wrote the answer, “Yes. ”: This scene closely
resembles Tolstoy’s own proposal to his wife, Sophia Andreyevna
Behrs. However, in that case, Sophia Andreyevna was completely
unable to decipher the words represented by initials, although she
correctly intuited her suitor’s intentions.
Chapter XVI
1
(p. 379) handed her his diary: Tolstoy also insisted that
his fiancée read his diary prior to their marriage.
Chapter XVII
1
(p. 383) the holy martyr—what was her name?: The reference
is to Saint Mary of Egypt, a reformed prostitute who became a
desert hermit.
Part Five
Chapter I
1
(p. 407) after Lent: The Great Lenten fast of the Eastern
Orthodox Church lasts forty days and traditionally involves
continual fasting and penance. At the time this novel is set, a
wedding feast would usually not take place during Lent. The choices
for Kitty and Levin were therefore either before or after
Lent.
2
(p. 408) “You can’t be married without it”: An Eastern
Orthodox wedding service included a communion service; thus, in
order to receive the sacrament at the marriage ceremony, Levin
would have to fulfill the requirements of the Church for all
communicants. This would involve making a complete confession to a
priest, attending the vigil masses on Saturday evening as well as
Sunday morning, and performing any other spiritual exercises
prescribed by the priest (such as penitential deeds, fasting, and
praying). The priest performing the marriage rite would present
Levin with an ecclesiastical certificate documenting that he was in
good standing as a communicant of the Russian Orthodox
Church.
3
(p. 409) He had stood through the litany ... for the morning
service and the confession: Levin correctly prepares for
confession and communion by attending the Litany (at which, in the
Orthodox Church, the congregation stands throughout the service) as
well as the evening, midnight, and morning services, and by
fasting.
4
(p. 409) bowing down to the ground: The reference is to full
prostration. During the liturgy, partial prostrations are frequent;
for example, at every mention of the Trinity, the congregation
makes the sign of the cross and bows slightly. The full prostration
involves making the sign of the cross and stooping to the
ground.
Chapter II
1
(p. 413) like Gogol’s bridegroom?: The reference is to the
comical play The Marriage (1833), by Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852),
best known for his novel of Russian provincial life, Dead Souls
(1842). In the play, the bridegroom jumps out of the window and
makes his escape at the last moment on his wedding day.
2
(p. 415) bless him with the holy picture: Levin is blessed with a
special icon; see part two, chap. XVI, note 2. In the Orthodox
Church blessings are often conferred by making the sign of the
cross in the air with an icon or a wooden cross.
3
(p. 415) who was to carry the holy pictures after the bride:
The bride and groom would enter the church together behind two
children carrying icons; see part two, chap. XVI, note 2. The role
of the child is similar in importance to that of the ring bearer or
flower girl in Western church weddings.
Chapter III
1
(p. 416) all the candles before the holy pictures: The
interior of an Orthodox Church is lavish in the display of gilded
icons; see part two, chap. XVI, note 2. The church is divided by a
large wall of icons known as the iconostasis, which separates the
sanctuary from the altar, behind which the priest alone may pass,
along with his acolytes. Tall beeswax tapers are lighted and placed
before the smaller icons throughout the sanctuary in special
containers filled with sand. In addition, votive oil lamps with
colored glass and gold decorations are hung before the larger
icons. As the backgrounds of the icons are painted with golden
tints, the effect of a candlelit church filled with gilded images
is visually stunning.
2
(p. 417) “You’ve got a shirt on”: This
incident is based on actual events that occurred on the day of
Tolstoy’s own wedding.
Chapter IV
1
(p. 419) unlighted: Special beeswax candles are used in the
wedding ceremony. As these are large and expensive, partially
burned candles that could still be made use of are made available
as a cost-saving measure. Levin chooses to splurge in ordering new
candles.
2
(p. 419) “Mind you’re the first to step on the carpet”:
Custom held that the first partner to step on the carpet in leaving
the altar would be the dominant spouse in the marriage.
3
(p. 419) in the forepart of the church: The first portion of the
Orthodox wedding service involves the blessing and plighting of
troth in the narthex, or entry portion of the church. The couple
then advances to the altar, where the marriage ceremony is
performed.
4
(p. 420) the Holy Synod: The Synod of Bishops was established by
Czar Peter the Great (see part three, chap. XXVII, note 4) as the
administrative branch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, placing it
under state authority. The Russian Orthodox Church later returned
to its older tradition of self-governance through a
patriarch.
Chapter V
1
(p. 423) put the crown on Kitty’s chignon for luck: The role
of the best man and maid or matron of honor at an Orthodox wedding
involves holding special gilded crowns over the heads of the bridal
couple. A popular tradition maintains that actually setting the
crowns down on their heads will bring extra good fortune and
happiness in their married life. The crowns are meant to symbolize
heavenly crowns to be attained in the next life.
2
(p. 424) “Are the choristers from Tchudovo?”“No, from
the Synod”: These references are to the Tchudov Cathedral Monastery
Choir and the Synodal Choir of the Assumption Cathedral, two of the
three cathedrals located inside the Kremlin, the ancient walled
citadel of Moscow that also contains the governmental palaces and
the czar’s residence. These two choirs were the best available at
the time, as would befit a wedding ceremony of the nobility.
Chapter VI
1
(p. 425) Isaac and Rebecca, Joseph, Moses and
Zipporah: These are Old Testament patriarchs and their wives.
Narratives in the book of Genesis relate the stories of Isaac and
Joseph. Isaac was the son of Jacob, who sent a servant to find a
woman worthy of being his son’s wife. Rebecca kindly brought water
to the servant and his beasts at the well and was therefore chosen
to marry Isaac. Joseph was sold into Egyptian slavery by his
brothers, but rose to importance and eventually was in the position
of bringing his brothers to live with him during the famine years.
Eventually these descendants of Isaac and Joseph grew in numbers,
although they were enslaved in Egypt. Moses became their leader and
effected their liberation, as narrated in the biblical book of
Exodus. Zipporah was the wife of Moses.
Chapter VII
1
(p. 428) Tintoretto: The Italian painter Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto
(1518-1594) was noted for his dramatic lighting and the narrative
elements in his works.
2
(p. 429) The Two Elements: Golenishtchev’s Two Elements, or
principles, are a series of cultural and ideological oppositions:
Russia versus the West, Orthodoxy versus Catholicism, spirituality
versus worldliness, soulful simplicity versus rationalist
sophistication. Slavophiles exalted the institutions and
characteristics mentioned first in these antithetical groupings,
arguing for the innate purity and Christian character of Russian
culture in contrast to what was seen as a debased and perverted
European tradition. In the arts, this theory was reflected in the
high valuation given to icon painting (see part two, chap. XVI,
note 2)—stylized, traditional, ethereal—as opposed to the “fleshy,”
overly realistic character of religious painting in the European
Renaissance.
3
(p. 429) heirs of Byzantium: In emphasizing Russian culture as
descending from Byzantium (the Eastern Christian empire with its
capital in Constantinople until the sacking of 1453), Golenishtchev
expresses typical Slavophile views (see part one, chap. V, note
3).
Chapter IX
1
(p. 433) Mihailov’s picture: The character of the artist
Mihailov is possibly based on that of Alexander Ivanov (1806-1858),
a member of the Wanderers School of Russian painting; see note 3,
below. In the novel, Mihailov’s painting is known as Christ before
Pilate and is usually compared to Ivanov’s large canvas, The
Appearance of Christ before the People.
2
(p. 433) the Ivanov-Strauss-Renan attitude to Christ and to
religious painting: The reference is to an emphasis on a
historical, realistic depiction of Jesus and the events in the
Bible. For Ivanov, see the note directly above. David Friedrich
Strauss (1823-1892), a scholar of religion, wrote what is
considered to be the first realistic, historical account of Jesus,
The Life of Jesus Critically Examined (1843). Ernest Renan
(1823-1892) was a French historian best known for his work that
looks at Jesus as a human being, The Life of Jesus.
3
(p. 433) the new school: This is a reference to the Wanderers
School of Russian painting, which strove for Realism of style and
subject matter. Known also for their large, dramatic canvases, the
Wanderers broke with the stilted figures and stylized, neoclassical
format prescribed by tradition.
4
(p. 433) Let them take from history a Socrates, a Franklin, a
Charlotte Corday, but not Christ: Socrates (470-399 B.C.), a
leading Greek philosopher whose work became known through the
philosophical dialogues of his pupil Plato (see part one, chap. XI,
note 4), was found guilty of corrupting the youth of Athens and
condemned to death, which he welcomed heroically by drinking poison
(hemlock). The reference to Franklin is to Benjamin Franklin, the
American statesman and inventor; see part three, chap. XXX, note 1.
Charlotte Corday (1768-1793) was arrested and guillotined for the
murder of French revolutionary Jean Paul Marat (1743-1793), whom
she stabbed while he was in the bath.
5
(p. 433) a Russian Mæcenas: Caius Maecenas, who died in 8
B.C., was a Roman statesman and patron of the arts.
6
(p. 434) who grow up directly in ideas of negation in everything,
that is to say, savages: The reference is to the rising Russian
middle classes and their acceptance of the popular theory of
nihilism; see part four, chap. X, note 2.
Chapter X
1
(p. 436) Raphael: Raphael Sanzio, known as Raphael
(1483-1520), painted in a manner that idealized the human figure.
Together with Michelangelo Buonarroti, better known simply as
Michelangelo (1475-1564), Raphael is considered one of the greatest
painters of the Italian Renaissance.
Chapter XI
1
(p. 437) Pre-Raphaelite: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was
a group of British artists who blended medieval style and subject
matter with Renaissance texture and complexity. Proponents of
realism considered their style overly ornate, sensual, and
decadent. Leading Pre-Raphaelites were Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1828-1882) and William Holman Hunt (1827-1910).
2
(p. 438) those endless Christs of Titian, Raphael,
Rubens: Titian, as Tiziano Vecelli is known (1490-1576), was
considered one of the great painters of the Italian Renaissance.
For Raphael, see part five, chap. X, note 1. Peter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640) was a renowned Flemish painter, noted for his human
figures, which tended to be large, fleshy, and naturalistic.
3
(p. 438) the new Rachel: Mademoiselle Rachel (1820-1858) was a
Swiss actress and proponent of French neoclassical drama.
Neoclassicism in drama emphasized clarity and precision of
language, preservation of the classical unities of time and space,
and attention to other prescriptive features of dramatic
form.
4
(p. 440) the man-god, and not the God-man: Here and
in the remainder of the conversation, Golenishtchev takes up
contemporary debates on the person of Jesus. According to the
Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (454 A.D.), Jesus Christ was
determined to be fully human and fully divine. The pictorial
representation of Jesus raised debates over whether it is lawful to
make an image of God at all and whether an artistic image of Jesus
split his nature in showing his human form. According to the Church
Fathers, the case for the veneration of icons (see part two, chap.
XVI, note 2) could be made based on the idea of the incarnation
itself, proving the incorporation of spirit into matter. However,
the religious art of the West had departed from the constraints
imposed on icon painting, generating aesthetic debates over what
art represents or is capable of representing. The humanism of the
European Renaissance, which made man “the measure of all things,”
had no corollary in Russian culture, where the style and manner of
icon painting retained its traditional form.
5
(p. 440) picture of Ivanov: The reference is to the painter
Alexander Ivanov; see part five, chap. IX, note 1.
Chapter XIV
1
(p. 444) Levin had been married three months: The description of
the early days of Levin’s marriage to Kitty is quite similar to
Tolstoy’s own experience; similar descriptions of the honeymoon and
married life appear in War and Peace and in his short novel
The Kreutzer Sonata.
Chapter XV
1
(p. 448) the same old-fashioned leather sofa ...
grandfather’s days: In the same way, Tolstoy cherished the
couch he had been born on, which had also been in his family for
generations.
2
(p. 450) Capuan: In the history of Rome by Livy (59 B.C-A.D. 17),
Capua was the wintering spot for Hannibal’s troops, who became soft
and accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle and therefore were easily
defeated in the Second Punic War.
Chapter XVIII
1
(p. 458) Katya: Levin’s brother uses Kitty’s Russian
nickname (Katya is the diminutive form of Katerina).
2
(p. 459) Levin, shaking with sobs ... went out of the room:
In the scenes describing the death of Nikolay Levin, Tolstoy drew
on his own experiences at his brother’s deathbed.
Chapter XIX
1
(p. 459) Thou hast hid ... unto babes: This passage is a
direct quote from the King James version of the Bible, Matthew
11:25.
2
(p. 460) He took the sacrament and received
absolution: In the Orthodox Church, last rites involve
confession, absolution, anointing with oil, and the taking of
communion. Devout people feared dying without having received these
sacraments.
3
(p. 460) Persian powder: This was a popular powder used against
bedbugs and cockroaches.
Chapter XX
1
(p. 462) “Death”: This is the only chapter to which Tolstoy gave a
title.
2
(p. 462) extreme unction: This is the term the Roman Catholic
Church uses for last rites. The last rites of the Orthodox Church
are described in part five, chapter XIX, note 2.
Chapter XII
1
(p. 471) His burden is light: Countess Lidia Ivanovna is
paraphrasing a passage in the Bible, Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is
easy, and my burden is light.”
2
(p. 471) new mystical fervor which had lately gained ground in
Petersburg : In addition to Pietism (see part two, chap. XXXIV,
note 1), Evangelicalism had become popular. It emphasized the
conversion experience as a sign of having being born again,
receiving a new heart. Later Lidia Ivanovna and Karenin are
attracted by mystical occultism as well.
3
(p. 472) He who humbles himself shall be exalted: The countess is
making another biblical reference, this time to Matthew
23:12.
4
(p. 472) the new doctrine: The new doctrine possibly refers to the
teachings of Lord Radstock (1831-1913), a Protestant evangelical
missionary to Russia during the 1870s. He taught that being born
again was evidence of spiritual regeneration. This teaching would
have diverged from traditional Russian Orthodoxy, which held that
spiritual regeneration occurred through the sacrament of baptism in
infancy and was supported throughout life in adherence to
devotional practices and the continued reception of the various
sacraments.
Chapter XXIII
1
(p. 474) three Slavophils: “Slavophils” is an alternative
spelling to “slavophiles,” who stressed the importance of
maintaining traditional, national, and religious customs; see part
one, chap. V, note 3, and part five, chap. VII, note 2. In the
original Russian text Tolstoy uses the term “three Slavs,” probably
indicating non-Russian Serbs, whose cause would be championed as
part of the pan-Slavism movement in which Lidia Ivanovna was
involved.
2
(p. 474) Komissarov: Osip Komissarov (1838-1892) was a
Russian peasant who happened to cross paths with a would-be
assassin of Czar Alexander II and blocked the assassination
attempt. He became a hero of Russian society, was granted noble
status, and was lionized by high society.
3
(p. 474) Ristitch-Kudzhitsky ... Slavonic question: Jovan Ristic
(1831-1899) was foreign minister and premier of Serbia in the 1870s
and a proponent of the creation of a vast Slavic state in response
to the Slavonic question. At issue was Russia’s relationship with
the Slavic countries in the Balkans (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia,
Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Montenegro), which were under
Turkish and therefore Muslim domination. The debate revolved around
whether Russia should supply military aid to her “Slavic brethren.”
The final part of Anna Karenina treats this issue at
length.
4
(p. 475) the levee: The reference is to the imperial ceremony and
festive reception that followed the bestowing of awards and
decorations.
Chapter XXIV
1
(p. 476) the Alexander Nevsky: The Alexander Nevsky is a
military decoration. Saint Alexander Nevsky (1220-1263) was a
Russian prince who won a glorious victory against the Teutonic
Knights. The battle was fought on ice and is comparable in its
celebrity to Henry V’s celebrated victory at the Battle of
Agincourt in 1415.
2
(p. 476) Imperial Council: The highest cabinet in the
Russian government had the further distinction of being appointed
by the czar.
3
(p. 477) the Apostle Paul: The reference is to the Bible, Paul’s
First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 7:32-3).
Chapter XXV
1
(p. 480) “Who is to throw a stone?”: This is a reference to
the passage in the Bible, John 8:7; see part one, chap. XXII, note
2.
Chapter XXVI
1
(p. 482) his birthday: By old tradition, Russians celebrate not
birthdays but name days—that is, the feast day of the patron saint
after whom one is named; sometimes this coincides with the date of
birth. Seryozha is the nickname for Sergey; he is named for Saint
Sergius, whose feast day is celebrated by the Orthodox Church on
September 25.
2
(p. 483) Vladimir: The decoration is named in honor of Saint
Vladimir (956-1015), the prince who converted Russia to
Christianity in 988.
3
(p. 483) Andrey Pervozvanny: The reference is to Saint
Andrew, the first disciple called by Jesus, according to the Bible,
John 1:37-40. The Order of Saint Andrew was the highest honor the
czar could bestow.
Chapter XXVII
1
(p. 486) what certain events prefigured: Events in the Old
Testament of the Bible are often considered to be the
prefiguration, or prototype, of accounts in the New Testament. For
example, in Genesis 22:13, a ram with its horns caught in a thorn
bush serves as the sacrifice required of Abraham: The ram is
considered a prefiguration of the propitiatory atonement of Jesus’
crucifixion; the thorn bush prefigures Christ’s crown of thorns. It
is significant that Seryozha, who forgets the rest of his lesson,
nonetheless remembers Enoch being taken up alive into heaven
(Genesis 5:23-25), as this could be seen as a prefiguration of the
Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Seryozha appears to apply
Enoch’s bodily assumption into heaven to his mother’s case,
refusing to believe she is dead, as he had been told.
2
(p. 486) Enoch ... taken up alive to heaven: The
reference is to the Bible, Genesis 5:23-25; see note 1,
above.
Chapter XXVIII
1
(p. 489) the game of cat and mouse ... to bar the way for
Anna: This is a reference to a children’s game similar to
“London Bridge Is Falling Down,” in which two players form an
archway with their hands and allow the other players to pass under
until the song ends. They then lower their arms to trap the player
who has the misfortune to be passing through at that point.
Chapter XXXII
1
(p. 501) to hear Patti: The Patti sisters, Adelina
Patti (1843-1919) and Carlotta Patti (1835-1889), were operatic
divas. Tushkevitch probably means Carlotta, as she toured Russia in
the 1870s.
Part Six
Chapter VI
1
(p. 526) “Is ea id, ejus, ejus, ejus!”: This phrase is the Latin
declension of personal pronouns, nominative and possessive forms:
He, she, it, his, hers, its.
Chapter IX
1
(p. 537) Automedon: The reference is to the charioteer for
Achilles, the warrior hero of Homer’s Iliad.
Chapter XI
1
(p. 546) Gretchen: This is a reference to the young woman
Mephistopheles seduces and abandons in the opera Faust; see part
two, chap. XX, note 1.
Chapter XIV
1
(p. 553) Heavy is the cap of Monomach: The reference is to the
royal cap, or crown, of the second grand prince of Russia, Vladimir
Monomakh (reign 1113-1125). The fur-trimmed crown was the subject
of many legends and became the ultimate emblem of the divine
authority of the Russian czars. The quotation is from the play
Boris Godunov (1825), by Aleksandr Pushkin. Boris Godunov was
considered to have usurped the throne and to have assassinated the
rightful heir, much like Richard III and the Princes in the Tower.
The line has been compared to one in Henry IV, Part II, by William
Shakespeare (act 3, scene 1): “Uneasy lies the head that wears a
crown.”
Chapter XVI
1
(p. 560) The curse laid on woman was that in sorrow she should
bring forth children: This is a reference to the Bible, Genesis
3:16, and one of the curses God laid on Eve as she was expelled
from the Garden of Eden: “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly
multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children.”
Chapter XXI
1
(p. 579) legitimization: Vronsky is concerned about the
legal status of his daughter and any other children he may have
with Anna. According to law, they are illegitimate and could be
legally claimed by Karenin. Even if Anna were able to obtain a
divorce and marry Vronsky, a special petition to the czar would be
necessary in order to render the children legitimate and give them
the rights to the name Vronsky.
Chapter XXIX
1
(p. 606) ancient vestals set to keep in a fire: In
Roman antiquity the vestal virgins were consecrated to tend the
sacred fire in the temple of the hearth-goddess, Vesta.
Chapter XXXII
1
(p. 614) Taine: French critic and historian
Hippolyte-Adolphe Taine (1828-1893) subscribed to a deterministic
view of the individual as formed by heredity and the environment.
The first volume of his Origins of Contemporary France had
just been published.
Part Seven
Chapter III
1
(p. 625) Montenegrins: Montenegro was one of the Balkan
countries resisting Turkish domination at the time of the novel;
see part five, chap. XXIII, note 3.
2
(p. 627) the university question: The reference is to the issue of
balancing academic freedom with accountability to governmental
authority.
3
(p. 627) the old university: The reference is to the older part of
the campus of the University of Moscow, originally built in 1793
and partially rebuilt after the fire of 1812.
Chapter IV
1
(p. 629) Buslaev’s Grammar: Fiodr Buslaev (1818-1897)
authored the definitive Russian grammar textbook of his day.
Tolstoy had been engrossed in questions of primary and secondary
education during the years he spent founding and teaching in the
school for peasant children he established on his estate at Yasnaya
Polyana.
2
(p. 630) Eastern Question: The reference is to the question of the
resettlement of various peoples in Siberia.
Chapter V
1
(p. 631) King Lear: The title in Tolstoy’s original Russian text is
“King Lear of the Steppe,” a nonexistent musical composition. Ivan
Turgenev (1818-1883) wrote a story of the same title. Tolstoy would
have known the “King Lear” of Mily Alekseyevich Balakirev (1837-
1910), one of the five leading nineteenth-century Russian composers
known as the Mighty Handful. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
also put the story of King Lear to music in his composition “The
Storm” (1874). Tolstoy severely criticized the works of
Shakespeare, using King Lear as an example of what is wrong in his
drama.
2
(p. 632) das ewig Weibliche: The phrase translates as “the Eternal
Feminine,” an idea introduced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749-1832), who intended it to be an abstract feminine principle
or the manifestation of the ineffable, mysterious, and
desirable.
3
(p. 632) Cordelia: The reference is to one of the king’s
three daughters in Shakespeare’s King Lear; see note 1, above. Lear
doubts her love, setting in motion a series of tragic events.
4
(p. 632) Wagner school: In the arts, the Wagnerian school
was a trend set by the operas of Richard Wagner (1813-1883), who
had elaborated the idea of merging music, painting, poetry, and
performance in a totality called the Gesamtkunstwerke.
5
(p. 632) phantoms were ... positively clinging on the
ladder: Levin may be referring to the model of a statue by
Mark Matveyevich Antokolski (1843-1902), intended to honor the poet
Aleksandr Pushkin (1799-1835). Levin’s opinions are reminiscent of
the aesthetic argument advanced by German philosopher and dramatist
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) in his classic Laokoon (1766),
the main point of which is that the different arts require
different modes of expression and therefore should remain
separate.
6
(p. 632) Pre-Raphaelites: The reference is to a group of
nineteenth-century British artists; see part five, chap. XI, note
1.
Chapter VI
1
(p. 633) Lucca: Pauline Lucca (1841-1908) was an Austrian
opera singer.
2
(p. 634) public trial: The trial concerned the bankruptcy
and defaulting on loans of an international railway entrepreneur,
whose punishment—exile to his home country—was considered
inadequate by many.
3
(p. 634) a fable of Krilov’s: Ivan Krilov
(1768-1844), the Russian Aesop, wrote numerous fables, including
“The Carp.”
Chapter X
1
(p. 643) a French artist: The reference may be to
Gustav Doré (1832 1883), whose illustrated Bible had just been
published.
2
(p. 644) Zola, Daudet: Anna names two French writers
associated with Naturalism, a literary movement that attempted to
move beyond realism to less stylized representations of every
aspect of human life, even the most sordid, presented
dispassionately. Émile Zola (1840-1902) is best known for his novel
Nana (1880), which relates the life of a prostitute.
Alphonse Daudet (1840-1897) was a less caustic commentator on
French life.
Chapter XVII
1
(p. 665) a descendant of Rurik: The reference is to
one of the oldest noble families in Russia; see part one, chap.
III, note 1.
Chapter XX
1
(p. 674) Countess Bezzubova... adopted him: The name
Bezzubova literally means “toothless” and would remind most Russian
readers of Tolstoy’s time of an itinerant medium who had married
into the family of Count Bezborodko (which means
“beardless”).
Chapter XXI
1
(p. 677) unprepared, like Saul: The reference is to the dramatic
conversion story of Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus, told in
the Bible, Acts 9:3-9. Saul had been persecuting the followers of
Jesus, but while traveling on the road to Damascus he saw a
blinding vision of the resurrected Christ and became a Christian.
As a result of his conversion, he renamed himself Paul and became a
missionary.
2
(p. 677) faith without works is dead: This is another biblical
reference, this time to James 2:26. This argument is the standard
scriptural counter to Protestant evangelicalism, which holds that
salvation is through faith alone. From the evangelical perspective,
the devout practices of Orthodoxy (scorned by Lidia Ivanovna as
“the crude ideas of our monks” in the discussion that follows)
appear to be an effort to “earn” salvation, which, according to
evangelical teaching, is a free, unmerited gift of God’s grace. The
argument in the book of James suggests that spiritual reformation
will follow regeneration and will be expressed in good works, which
are necessary to sustain faith. However, the theological debates of
the Reformation were fueled by this particular passage to such an
extent that Martin Luther (1483- 1546) and other reformers
challenged the authenticity of the epistle of James and questioned
its inclusion in the New Testament.
3
(p. 678) “Safe and Happy,” or “Under the Wing”: The
titles are in English in the original Russian and are typical
titles of evangelical salvation tracts.
Chapter XXXI
1
(p. 706) shadow of the carriage ... from myself: In
earlier drafts of the novel, Tolstoy had planned for his heroine to
commit suicide by drowning herself. However, in 1872 the cast-off
mistress of a neighbor, Anna Pirogova, jumped under a train after
sending a desperate note to her lover that he did not receive in
time. Tolstoy viewed the corpse, which may have swayed him in his
choice of a name for his heroine, which originally was
Tatiana.
Part Eight
Chapter I
1
(p. 711) the Northern Beetle ... on the singer Drabanti:
These names are fictitious, although there was a periodical called
the Northern Bee.
2
(p. 712) dissenting sects ... the Slavonic question: This
sentence touches on some of the most important topics of the day.
“Dissenting sects” is probably a reference to the uniate churches;
see part one, chap. XXXII, note 2. The reference could also include
the Old Believers, who had separated from the Orthodox Church over
the minor church reforms implemented in 1666. Other schismatic
groups in Russia included the Dukhobors (the “spirit-wrestlers”),
in whom Tolstoy later became interested because of their doctrines
on pacifism ; he personally funded their relocation to Canada with
the royalties from his novel Resurrection (1899-1900).
The American alliance is a reference to Russian
support for the Union in the American Civil War and the formal
delegation that, in response, the United States sent to Russia in
1866 to cement diplomatic relations. Russia in turn sent
ambassadors to the United States in the early 1870s and took part
in the Philadelphia World’s Fair of 1876.
A severe drought in 1871 and 1872 resulted in
widespread famine in Samara province the following year. Tolstoy
had been personally active in relief efforts, as he owned property
in this region.
The exhibition Tolstoy refers to is probably the
Philadelphia World’s Fair. Russian journalists had been stimulated
by the Great Exhibition held in London in 1851 to call for the
widespread preparation of national crafts and displays that would
show great Russian culture to advantage at future exhibitions on
the continent and abroad.
Spiritualism—in the sense of dabbling in the
occult—was then popular with the aristocracy; see part one, chap.
XIV, note 2.
The Slavonic question (see part five, chap.
XXIII, note 3) was no longer theoretical, as public opinion
increasingly favored sending military aid to the nationalists
fighting the Turks in the Balkans. Unofficial military aid was lent
on a volunteer basis, culminating in a formal declaration of war in
1877. At this point, Tolstoy had completed the agreed-upon number
of installments of his novel for his editor, ending the work with
Anna’s suicide. However, his interest in the Slavonic question and
the advent of war spurred him to write an additional installment,
which he called an Epilogue and which is now known as Part Eight.
However, his editor decided not to publish this part and printed
only a brief summary in his journal, the Russian Herald. Tolstoy
was forced to publish the Epilogue separately as a brochure. The
final part was ultimately included in the book edition as printed
later that year.
3
(p. 712) the Servian war: The reference is to the war
between nationalists and the Turks in Serbia; see the comments on
the Slavonic question in the note above.
Chapter IX
1
(p. 728) Plato, Spinoza, Kant, Schelling, Hegel, and
Schopenhauer: These are some of the philosophers Tolstoy read
at this time of his life. Tolstoy had taught himself to read Greek
in order to appreciate Plato more deeply; see part one, chap. XI,
note 4.
Of the other philosophers listed, the German
philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was probably the most
influential for Tolstoy. Many of Anna’s meditations in the passages
preceding her suicide are based on ideas in Schopenhauer, as are
Levin’s theories about human will and determinism. According to
Schopenhauer, the driving force in humanity is the will to survive;
human relations are based on the tensions that emerge from the
conflict of wills.
Schopenhauer’s views build on the earlier
philosophical systems of Spinoza and Kant. Baruch Spinoza
(1632-1677) was a Dutch Jewish philosopher who rejected the concept
of free will, countering that hu man action was determined by the
motivation for self-preservation. The German idealist philosopher
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) is gen erally recognized as the creator
of modern transcendental philosophy. He posited the a priori
existence of the unknowable world and stated the ethical
requirement of moral action in accordance with belief; his
articulation of the categorical imperative addresses specifically
the idea of human will that engaged Schopenhauer: “Act as if the
maxim from which you act were to become through your will a
universal law.”
An opposing strand of philosophical thought, with
which Schopenhauer contended, is represented by Hegel and
Schelling. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) articulated an
absolute idealism, expressed as the World-Soul (Zeitgeist), which
directs the course of human history through the dialectical process
(thesis-antithesis-synthesis). Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von
Schelling (1775- 1854) was a German idealist philosopher whose
ideas about the merging of nature and the absolute through the
stages of history was foundational for the Romantic movement in the
arts. German Idealist philosophy had been extremely influential
among the Russian intelligentsia.
2
(p. 728) Homiakov: Alexey Homiakov (1804-1860) was a leading
Slavophile who wrote on theological topics and emphasized the
significance of Russian Orthodoxy as the foundation of the Russian
natural character. Tolstoy read Homiakov in 1877 and was
disappointed. The second volume of Homiakov’s collected works that
Levin reads contains an essay, titled “The Church Is One,” that
elaborates on the necessity for the Christian faith to be expressed
through the continued existence of “one holy and Apostolic Church,”
as expressed in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds of the Christian
faith. The claim to be the fulfillment of that Church is made by
both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. The
splitting of the Protestant churches into numerous denominations
necessitated a different understanding of the terms of the creed,
so that the “one church” was redefined as consisting of the holy
and faithful believers within any array of denominations.
Chapter XV
1
(p. 744) the “unclean sons of Hagar”: The Arab peoples were
considered to have descended from Abraham, who had fathered a son,
Ishmael, with his wife’s handmaiden, Hagar. In the Bible, Genesis
21, Abraham’s wife, Sarah, gives birth to their son, Isaac, and
Hagar and Ishmael are driven out into the wilderness.
2
(p. 745) to Pogatchev’s bands: The leader of the peasant
rebellion of 1773-1774 was a Don Cossack, Emelian Ivanovich
Pugachev, who mustered his troops from the Cossacks and the
discontented peasantry. He successfully conquered towns throughout
the Volga and Ural regions before Catherine the Great (see part
three, chap. XXVII, note 4) suppressed the uprising and executed
Pugachev.
Chapter XVI
1
(p. 746) Alphonse Karr: Karr (1808-1890), a French
journalist, was very outspoken in opposing the Franco-Prussian
war.
2
(p. 746) Cossacks: With their high levels of training and
discipline, the Cossacks were notorious as shock troops, especially
suited for attack.
3
(p. 747) I bring not peace, but a sword: The reference is to
the Bible, Matthew 10:34: “Think not that I am come to send peace
on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.”
4
(p. 747) Varyagi: The reference is to the Varangian Princes,
who were the first rulers of Russia; see part one, chap. III, note
1.
Chapter XIX
1
(p. 752) the Jews, the Mohammedans, the Confucians, the
Buddhists: In listing the major non-Christian belief systems of
the world, Levin omits, among others, Hinduism. Confucianism and
Buddhism are more properly philosophies, incorporating ideas of
Taoism and Zen that attracted Tolstoy at this time of his life.
Orthodox Christianity, which Levin appears to embrace, does not
stipulate the damnation of those outside the Church but emphasizes
the mercy of God. In the words of a leading Orthodox theologian,
“We know where the Church is; we do not know where the Church is
not.”