Anna Karenina 17: Part III - Chapters 28-32

[LynnB]

I'm not quite done with this section yet, but am posting the topic in case anyone else is ready to comment! (It should have been posted last weekend, but I was out of town and didn't get around to it -- sorry!)

[Andrea]

No worries Lynn, if someone jogs my memory I can probably jump in.

[LynnB]

In these chapters, Levin is dissatisfied with how he manages the land. He thinks that the peasants will work better on the land if they have a share in it. He is determined to put his new theory into practice on his estate, but the peasants resist thinking that Levin is somehow trying to cheat them. Levin still wants to try out his theory. Most of these chapters dealt with the details, so I did some skimming of a few sections, but it was just too much detail on the farming!

His brother Nikolai, who is emaciated and sicker than before, visits (ch 31). The next day, Nikolai purposely irritates Levin by mocking his ideas. Levin is left understanding that life has to be got through until death comes. In his thoughts of death, he is like Anna at the beginning of the story in the train station. Both ponder the closeness of death in everyday life.

[Andrea]

Lynn, I'm sorry but I don't recall any of this part of the story. Like you said some of the farming details are boring when they keep going on and on, I may have not absorbed much from these chapters....lol