Some Reading Notes--No Comments, Please

[Laurel]

I'll use this thread to give just a few notes that might help you as you read and before we start discussing a section. This is a read-only thread--please do not add any comments, because it would be easy to inadvertently include spoilers.

[Laurel]

ANNA KARENINA Part 1--Happy Families?

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

With this famous opening line Tolstoy lets us know that we are about to read a novel about families, that it is a philosophical novel (one that will cause us to think and make distinctions), and that there can be happy and unhappy families. We immediately encounter a family that is in turmoil--definitely not a happy family. As we finish Part One we wonder whether any family can be happy.

In Part One we meet the seven principal characters of Anna Karenina within the context of their families:

THE OBLONSKY FAMILY

* Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky (Stiva), Anna's brother
* Princess Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya (Dolly), Stiva's wife, Kitty's sister, and eldest daughter of Prince Shcherbatsky
* Tanya, Grisha, Alyosha, Nikolenka, four of the children of Stiva and Dolly

THE KARENIN FAMILY

* Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, Karenin's wife, and Stiva's sister
* Alexey Alexandrovich Karenin, Anna's husband
* Sergey Alexeyich Karenin (Seriozha), their son

THE LEVIN FAMILY

* Konstantin Dmitrich Levin (Kostya),usually called just Levin
* Nicolai Dmitrich Levin, his ne'r-do-well brother
*Sergey Ivanitch Koznyshev, their elder half-brother, a famous thinker and writer

THE SHCHERBATSKY FAMILY

* Prince Alexander Shcherbatsky, the father of Kitty, Dolly, and Nataly
* Princess Shcherbatskaya, the mother of Kitty, Dolly, and Nataly
* Catherine Alexandrovna Levina (Kitty), their the youngest daughter

THE VRONSKY FAMILY

* Count Alexey Kirilich Vronsky
* Alexander Vronsky, his brother
* Countess Vronskaya, his mother

Note: A Russian has three names--a given name (such as Anna or Stepan); a middle name that refers to the father (patronymic), the suffix of which means either "son of" or "daughter of" (for example, Anna Arkadyevna and Stepan Arkadyevich, children of Arkady); and a family name, which also has masculine and feminine forms (Anna Arkadyevna Oblonskaya and Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky). When a woman marries, she takes the feminine form of her husband's family name (Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, wife of Karenin)

Here is a simple outline of Part One:

1.1-5 Stiva at home and at work

1.6-11 Levin in Moscow

1.12-15 Kitty at home

1.16-23 Anna in Moscow

1.24-27 Levin in the country

1.28-33 Anna on the train home to Petersburg

1.34 Vronsky at home in Petersburg

[Laurel]

Patrice wrote: "I won't be able to read along with the group but i can't help asking, is this first sentence true? I've thought about it forever and I'm still not sure. At times I believe it and at others I thin..."

Let's be thinking of that question as we read. Frankly, I've never quite figured out the answer.

LET'S KEEP THIS A READ-ONLY THREAD.