 CHAPTER XXII It was six o'clock already, and so in order to be there quickly, and at the same time not to drive with his own horses known to everyone, Bronsky got into Yashvin's hired fly, and told the driver to drive as quickly as possible. It was a roomy old-fashioned fly, with seats for four. He sat in one corner, stretched his legs out on the front seat, and sank into meditation. A vague sense of the order into which his affairs had been brought, a vague recollection of the friendliness and flattery of Serpahovskoy, who had considered him a man that was needed, and most of all the anticipation of the interview before him, all blended into a general joyous sense of life. This feeling was so strong that he could not help smiling. He dropped his legs, crossed one leg over the other knee, and taking it in his hand, felt the springing muscle of the calf where it had been grazed the day before by his fall, and leaning back, he drew several deep breaths. I'm happy, very happy, he said to himself. He had often before had this sense of physical joy in his own body, but he had never felt so fond of himself, of his own body, as at that moment. He enjoyed the slight ache in his strong leg. He enjoyed the muscular sensation of movement in his chest as he breathed. The bright, cold August day, which had made Anna feel so hopeless, seemed to him keenly stimulating, and refreshed his face and neck that still tingled from the cold water. The scent of brilliantine on his whiskers struck him as particularly pleasant in the fresh air. Everything he saw from the carriage window, everything in that cold, pure air, in the pale light of the sunset, was as fresh and gay and strong as he was himself, the roofs of the houses shining in the rays of the setting sun, the sharp outlines of fences and angles of buildings, the figures of passers-by, the carriages that met him now and then, the motionless green of the trees and grass, the fields with evenly drawn furrows of potatoes, and the slanting shadows that fell from the houses and trees and bushes, and even from the rows of potatoes, everything was bright like a pretty landscape just finished and freshly varnished. Get on, get on," he said to the driver, putting his head out of the window and pulling a three-ruble note out of his pocket, he handed it to the man as he looked round. The driver's hand fumbled with something at the lamp, the whip cracked, and the carriage rolled rapidly along the smooth high road. I want nothing, nothing but this happiness, he thought, staring at the bone-button of the bell in the space between the windows and picturing to himself Anna just as he had seen her last time. And as I go on I love her more and more. Here's the garden of the Reed Villa. Whereabouts will she be? Where? How? Why did she fix on this place to meet me, and why does she write in Betsy's letter, he thought, wondering now for the first time at it? But there was now no time for wonder. He called to the driver to stop before reaching the avenue and opening the door, jumped out of the carriage as it was moving, and went into the avenue that led up to the house. There was no one in the avenue, but looking round to the right he caught sight of her. Her face was hidden by a veil, but he drank in with glad eyes the special movement in walking peculiar to her alone, the slope of the shoulders, and the setting of the head, and at once a sort of electric shock ran all over him. With fresh force he felt conscious of himself from the springy motions of his legs to the movement of his lungs as he breathed, and something said his lips twitching. She pressed his hand tightly. You're not angry that I sent for you. I absolutely had to see you, she said, and the serious and set line of her lips, which he saw under the veil, transformed his mood at once. I angry? But how have you come? Where from? Never mind, she said, laying her hand on his. Come along. I must talk to you. She saw that something had happened, and that the interview would not be a joyous one. In her presence he had no will of his own. Without knowing the grounds of her distress he already felt the same distress unconsciously passing over him. What is it? What? he asked her, squeezing her hand with his elbow and trying to read her thoughts in her face. She walked on a few steps in silence, gathering up her courage. Then suddenly she stopped. I did not tell you yesterday she began, breathing quickly and painfully, that coming home with Alexei Aleksandrovich I told him everything. I told him I could not be his wife, and told him everything. He heard her unconsciously bending his whole figure down to her as though hoping in this way to soften the hardness of her position for her. But directly she had said this he suddenly drew himself up, and a proud and hard expression came over his face. Yes, yes, that's better, a thousand times better. I know how painful it was, he said. But she was not listening to his words. She was reading his thoughts from the expression of his face. She could not guess that that expression arose from the first idea that presented itself to Vronsky, that a duel was now inevitable. The idea of a duel had never crossed her mind, and so she put a different interpretation on this passing expression of hardness. When she got her husband's letter she knew then at the bottom of her heart that everything would go on in the old way, that she would not have the strength of will to forego her position, to abandon her son and to join her lover. The morning spent at Princess Varskayas had confirmed her still more in this, but this interview was still of the utmost gravity for her. She hoped that this interview would transform her position and save her. If unhearing this news he were to say to her resolutely, passionately, without an instance wavering, throw up everything and come with me. She would give up her son and go away with him. But this news had not produced what she had expected in him. He simply seemed as though he were resenting some affront. It was not in the least painful to me. It happened of itself, she said irritably. And C. she pulled her husband's letter out of her glove. I understand, I understand, he interrupted her taking the letter but not reading it and trying to soothe her. The one thing I longed for, the one thing I prayed for, was to cut short this position so as to devote my life to your happiness. Why do you tell me that, she said? Do you suppose I can doubt it? If I doubted, who's that coming? said Bronsky suddenly, pointing to two ladies walking towards them. Perhaps they know us. And he hurriedly turned off, drawing her after him into a side path. Oh, I don't care, she said. Her lips were quivering. And he fancied that her eyes looked with strange fury at him from under the veil. I tell you that's not the point. I can't doubt that. But see what he writes to me. Read it. She stood still again. Again, just as at the first moment of hearing of her rupture with her husband, Bronsky, on reading the letter, was unconsciously carried away by the natural sensation aroused in him by his own relation to the betrayed husband. Now, while he held his letter in his hands, he could not help picturing the challenge, which he would most likely find at home to-day or to-morrow. And the duel itself, in which with the same cold and haughty expression that his face was assuming at this moment, he would await the injured husband shot after having himself fired into the air. And at that instant, there flashed across his mind the thought of what Superhoffskoe had just said to him, and what he had himself been thinking in the morning, that it was better not to bind himself, and he knew that this thought he could not tell her. Having read the letter, he raised his eyes to her, and there was no determination in them. She saw at once that he had been thinking about it before by himself. She knew that whatever he might say to her, he would not say all he thought. And she knew that her last hope had failed her. This was not what she had been reckoning on. You see the sort of man he is, she said with a shaking voice. He. Forgive me, but I rejoice at it, Bronsky interrupted. For God's sake, let me finish, he added, his eyes imploring her to give him time to explain his words. I rejoice because things cannot, cannot possibly remain as he supposes. Why can't they, Anna said, restraining her tears, and obviously attaching no sort of consequence to what he said, she felt that her fate was sealed. Bronsky meant that after the duel, inevitable, he thought, things could not go on as before, but he said something different. It can't go on. I hope that now you will leave him. I hope, he was confused and reddened, that you will let me arrange and plan our life. Tomorrow, he was beginning. She did not let him go on. But my child, she shrieked. You see what he writes. I should have to leave him, and I can't and won't do that. But for God's sake, which is better, leave your child, or keep up this degrading position. To whom is it degrading? To all, and most of all to you. You say degrading. Don't say that. Those words have no meaning for me, she said in a shaking voice. She did not want him now to say what was untrue. She had nothing left her but his love, and she wanted to love him. Don't you understand that from the day I loved you everything has changed for me? For me there is one thing, and one thing only, your love. If that's mine, I feel so exalted, so strong, that nothing can be humiliating to me. I am proud of my position, because—proud of being—proud—she could not say what she was proud of. Tears of shame and despair choked her utterance. She stood still and sobbed. He felt, too, something swelling in his throat and twitching in his nose, and for the first time in his life he felt on the point of weeping. He could not have said exactly what it was touched him so. He felt sorry for her, and he felt he could not help her, and with that he knew that he was to blame for her wretchedness, and that he had done something wrong. Is not a divorce possible, he said feebly? She shook her head, not answering. Couldn't you take your son and still leave him? Yes, but it all depends on him. Now I must go to him, she said shortly. Her presentiment that all would again go on in the old way had not deceived her. On Tuesday I shall be in Petersburg and everything can be settled. Yes, she said, but don't let us talk any more of it. Anna's carriage, which she had sent away in order to come back to the little gate of the freed garden, drove up. Anna said good-bye to Vronsky, and drove home. CHAPTER XXIII This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, auto-volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Morgan Goldfrench. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Constance Garnett. CHAPTER XXIII On Monday there was the usual sitting of the commission of the 2nd of June. Alexei Alexandrovich walked into the hall where the sitting was held, greeted the members and the president, as usual, and sat down in his place, putting his hand on the papers laid ready before him. Among these papers laid the necessary evidence and a rough outline of the speech he intended to make. But he did not really need these documents. He remembered every point and did not think it necessary to go over in his memory what he would say. He knew that when the time came and when he saw his enemy facing him, and studiously endeavouring to assume an expression of indifference, his speech would flow of itself better than he could prepare it now. He felt that the import of his speech was of such magnitude that every word of it would have weight. Meantime, as he listened to the usual report, he had the most innocent and inoffensive air, no one looking at his white hands with their swollen veins and long fingers, so softly stroking the edges of the white paper that lay before him. And at the air of weariness with which his head drooped on one side, it would have suspected that in a few minutes a torrent of words would flow from his lips, it would arouse a fearful storm, set the members shouting and attacking one another and forced the president to call for order. When the report was over, Alexei Alexandrovich announced in his subdued delicate voice that he had several points to bring before the meeting in regard to the commission for the reorganisation of the native tribes. All attention was turned upon him. Alexei Alexandrovich cleared his throat and not looking at his opponent but selecting as he always did while he was delivering his speeches, the first person sitting opposite him, an inoffensive little old man who never had an opinion of any sort in the commission, began to expound his views. When he reached the point about the fundamental and radical law, his opponent jumped up and began to protest, strung off, who was also a member of the commission and also stung to the quick, began defending himself and all together a stormy sitting followed. But Alexei Alexandrovich triumphed and his motion was carried, three new commissions were appointed and the next day in a certain Petersburg circle nothing else was taught of but this sitting. Alexei Alexandrovich's success had been even greater than he had anticipated. Next morning, Tuesday, Alexei Alexandrovich on waking up, recollected with pleasure his triumph of the previous day and he could not help smiling, though he tried to appear indifferent when the chief secretary of his department, anxious to flatter him, informed him of the rumours that had reached him concerning what had happened in the commission. Absorbed in business with the chief secretary, Alexei Alexandrovich had completely forgotten that it was Tuesday, the day fixed by him up for the return of Anna Akadyevna and he was surprised and received a shock of annoyance when a servant came in to inform him of her arrival. Anna had arrived in Petersburg early in the morning. The carriage had been sent to Mita in accordance with her telegram and so Alexei Alexandrovich might have known of her arrival but when she arrived he did not meet her. She was told that he had not yet gone out but was busy with his secretary. She sent word to her husband that she had come, went to her own room and occupied herself in sorting out her things, expecting he would come to her. By an hour pass he did not come. She went into the dining room on the pretext of giving some directions and spoke loudly on purpose, expecting him to come out there but he did not come, though she heard him go to the door of his study as he parted from the chief secretary. She knew that he usually went out quickly to his office and she wanted to see him before that so their attitude to one another might be defined. She walked across the drawing room and went resolutely to him. When she went into his study he was in official uniform, obviously ready to go out, sitting at a little table on which he rested his elbows, looking dejectedly before him. She saw him before he saw her and she saw that he was thinking of her. On seeing her he would have risen but changed his mind. Then his face flushed hotly, a thing Anna had never seen before and he got up quickly and went to meet her, looking not at her eyes but above them at her forehead and hair. He went up to her, took her by the hand and asked her to sit down. I'm very glad you have come, he said, sitting down beside her and obviously wishing to say something, he stuttered, several times he tried to begin to speak but stop. In spite of the fact that pairing herself and meeting him, she had schooled herself to despise and approach him. She did not know what to say to him and she felt sorry for him and so the silence lasted for some time. Zariozha quite well, he said and not waiting for an answer he added. I shan't be dining at home today and I have to go out directly. I had thought of going to Moscow, she said. No you did quite quite right to come, he said and was silent again. Seeing that he was powerless to begin the conversation she began herself. Alexei Alexandrovich, she said, looking at him and not dropping her eyes under his persistent gaze at her hair. I'm a guilty woman, I'm a bad woman but I'm the same as I was. As I told you then, I've come to tell you that I can change nothing. I've asked you no question about that, he said all at once, resolutely and with hatred looking us straight in the face. That was as I had supposed. Under the influence of anger he apparently regained complete possession of all his faculties. But as I told you then and I've written to you, he said in a thin shrill voice. I repeat now that I am not bound to know this. I ignore it, not all wives are so kind as you to be in such a hurry to communicate such agreeable news to their husbands. He laid special emphasis on the word agreeable. I shall ignore it so long as the world knows nothing of it. So long as my name is not disgraced and so I simply inform you that our relations must be just as they have always been. Not only in the event of your compromising me, I shall be obliged to take steps to secure my honour. But our relations cannot be the same as always. Anna began in a timid voice, looking at him with dismay. When she saw once more those composed gestures, I heard that shrill childish and sarcastic voice, a reversion for him extinguished her pity for him. And she felt only afraid. But it all cost she wanted to make clear her position. I cannot be your wife while I, she began. He laughed a cold and malignant laugh. The manner of life you have chosen is reflected, I suppose, in your ideas. I have too much respect or contempt or both. I respect your past and despise your present. That I was far from the interpretation you put on my words. Anna sighed and bowed her head. Though indeed I failed to comprehend how, with the independence you show, you went on getting hot. Announcing your infidelity to your husband and seeing nothing reprehensible in it. Apparently, you can see anything reprehensible in performing a wife's duties in relation to your husband. Alexi Alexandrovich, what is it you want of me? I want you not to meet that man here, and to conduct yourself so that neither the world nor the servants can report you. Not to see him. That's not much, I think. And in return, you will enjoy all the privileges of a faithful wife without fulfilling her duties. That's all I have to say to you. Now it's time for me to go. I'm not dining at home. He got up and moved towards the door. Anna got up too, bowing in silence. He let her pass before him. End of Chapter 23. According by Morgan Goldfranch, Leeds. Chapter 24 of Anna Karenina, Book 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Morgan Goldfranch. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Constance Garnett. Book 3, Chapter 24. The night spent by Levine on the haycock did not pass without result for him. The way in which he had been managing his land revolted him and had lost all attraction for him. In spite of the magnificent harvest, never had there been, or at least never it seemed to him, had there been so many hindrances and so many quarrels between him and the peasants as that year. And the origin of these failures and this hostility was now perfectly comprehensible to him. The delight he had experienced in the work itself and the consequent greater intimacy with the peasants, the envy he felt of them, of their life, their desire to adopt that life, which had been to him that night not a dream but an intention, the execution of which he had thought out in detail. All this had so transformed his view of the farming of the land as he had managed it, that he could not take his former interest in it, and could not help seeing that unpleasant relation between him and the work people which was the foundation of it all. The herd of improved cows such as Parva, the whole land plowed over and enriched, the nine leveled fields surrounded with hedges, the 240 acres heavily manureed, the seeds sown in drills and all the rest of it. It was all splendid if only the work had been done for themselves or for themselves and comrades, people in sympathy with them. But he saw clearly now his work on a book of agriculture in which the chief element in husbandry was to have been the labourer, greatly assisted him in this, that the sort of farming he was carrying on was nothing but a cruel and stubborn struggle against him and the labourers, in which there was on one side his side, a continual intense effort to change everything to a pattern he considered better, on the other side the natural order of things, and in this struggle he saw that with immense expenditure of force on his side, and with no effort or even intention on the other side, all that was attained was that the work did not go to the liking of either side, and that splendid tools, splendid castle and land were spoiled with no good to anyone. Worst of all, the energy expended on this work was not simply wasted, he could not help feeling now since the meaning of this system had become clear to him, that the aim of his energy was a most unworthy one, in reality what was the struggle about? He was struggling for every farthing of his share and he could not help it, for he had only to relax his efforts and he would not have had the money to pay his labour's wreck wages, while they were only struggling to be able to do their work easily and agreeably, that is to say, as they were used to doing it, it was for his interest that every labourer should work as hard as possible and that while doing so he should keep his wits about him, so as to try not to break the winnowing machines, the horse rates, the thrashing machines that he should attend to what he was doing. What the labourer wanted was to work as pleasantly as possible with rests and above all, carelessly and heedlessly without thinking. That summer Levin saw this at every step, he sent the men to mow some clover for hay, picking out the worst patches where the clover was overgrown with grass and weeds and of no use for seed. Again and again they mowed the best acres of clover, justifying themselves by the pretense that the bailiff had told them to, and trying to pacify him with the assurance that it would be splendid hay, but he knew that it was owing to those acres being so much easier to mow. He sent out a hay machine for pitching the hay. It was broken at the first row because it was dull work for a peasant to sit on the seat in front with the great wings waving above him and he was told, don't trouble your honour, sure the women folks will pitch it quick enough. The plows were practically useless because it never occurred to the labourer to raise the share when he turned the plow and forcing it round he strained the horses and tore at the ground and Levin was begged not to mind about it. The horses were allowed to stray into the wheat because not a single labourer would consent to be night watchmen and in spite of orders to the contrary, the labourers insisted on taking turns for night duty and Ivan after working all day long fell asleep and was very penitent for his fault saying do what you will to me your honour. They killed three of the best cars by letting them into the clover aftermath without care as to their drinking and nothing would make the men believe that they had been blown out by the clover but they told him by way of consolation that one of his neighbours had lost 112 head of cattle in three days all this happened not because anyone felt ill will to Levin or his farm on the contrary he knew that they liked him thought him a simple gentleman their highest praise but it happened simply because all they wanted was to work merrily and carelessly and his interests were not only remote and incomprehensible to them but fatally opposed to their most just claims. Long before Levin had felt dissatisfaction with his own position in regard to the land he saw where his boat leaked but he did not look for the leak perhaps purposely deceiving himself nothing would be left him if he lost faith in it but now he could deceive himself no longer the farming of the land as he was managing it had become not merely an attractive but revolting to him and he could take no further interest in it to this was joined the presence only 25 miles off of Kiti Shibatskaya who he longed to see and could not see Daria Alexandrovna Oblonskaya had invited him when he was over there to come to come with the object of renewing his offer to her sister who would so she gave him to understand accept him now Levin himself had felt on seeing Kiti Shibatskaya that he had never ceased to love her but he could not go over to the Oblonskis knowing she was there the fact that he had made her an offer and she had refused him had placed an insupportable barrier between her and him I can't ask her to be my wife merely because she can't be the wife of the man she wanted to marry he said to himself the thought of this made him cold and hostile to her I should not be able to speak to her without a feeling of reproach I could not look at her without resentment and she will only hate me all the more and as she's bound to and besides how can I now after what Daria Alexandrovna told me go to see them can I help showing that I know what she told me and me to go magnanimously to forgive her and that pity on her me go through a performance before her forgiving and deigning to bestow my love on her what induced Daria Alexandrovna to tell me that by chance I might have seen her then everything would have happened of itself but as it is it's out of the question out of the question Daria Alexandrovna sent him a letter asking him for a side saddle for kitty's use and told you have a side saddle she wrote him I hope you will bring it over yourself this was more than he could stand how could a woman of any intelligence of any delicacy put her sister in such a humiliating position he wrote 10 notes and tore them all up and sent the saddle without any reply to write that he would go was impossible because he could not go to write that he could not come because something prevented him or that he could not be away that was still worse he sent the saddle without an answer and with a sense of having done something shameful he handed over all the now revolting business of the estate to the bailiff and set off next day to a remote district to see his friend Vajarsky who had splendid marshes for grouse in his neighborhood and had lately written to ask him to keep a longstanding promise to stay with him the grouse marsh in the Serovsky district had long tempted Levin but he had continually put off his visit on account of his work on the estate now he was glad to get away from the neighborhood of the Shabatsky's and still more from his farm work especially on a shooting expedition which always in trouble served as the best consolation end of chapter 24 recording by Morgan Goldfrench London chapter 25 of Annika Renner book three this is Librevox recording all Librevox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librevox.org recording by Morgan Goldfrench Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy translated by Constance Garnet book three chapter 25 in the Serovsky district there was no railway nor service of host horses and Levin drove there with his own horses in his big old-fashioned carriage he stopped halfway to well to do peasants to feed his horses a bold well-preserved old man with a broad red beard gray on his cheeks opened the gate squeezing against the gatepost to let the three horses pass directing the coachman to a place under the shed in the big clean tidy yard with charred old-fashioned plows in it the old man asked Levin to come into the parlor the cleanly dressed young woman with clogs on her bare feet was scrubbing the floor in the new outer room she was frightened of the dog that ran in after Levin and uttered a shriek but began laughing at her own fright at once when she was told the dog would not hurt her pointing Levin with her bare arm to the door into the parlor she bent down again hiding her handsome face and went on scrubbing would you like the samovar she asked yes please the parlor was a big room with a dutch stove and the screen dividing it into two under the holy pictures stood a table painted in patterns a bench and two chairs near the entrance was a dresser full of crockery the shutters were closed there were few flies and it was so clean that Levin was anxious that laska who had been running along the road and bathing the puddles should not muddy the floor and ordered her to a place in the corner by the door after looking around the parlor Levin went out in the backyard good-looking young woman in clogs swinging the empty pails on the yoke ran on before him to the well of the water look sharp my girl the old man shouted after her because humorably and he went up to Levin well said are you Nikolai Avanovich Zvajarsky his honor comes to us too he began chatting leaning his elbows on the railing of the steps in the middle of the old man's account of his acquaintance which Zvajarsky the gates creaked again and laborers came into the yard from the field with wooden plows and harrows the horses harnessed to the plows and harrows were sleek and fat the laborers were obviously the household two were young men in cotton shirts and and caps the two others were high laborers in homespun shirts one an old man the other a young fellow moving off from the steps the old man went up to the houses and began enhancing them what have they been plowing ass Levin plowing up the potatoes we rent a bit of land too fed up don't let let out the gilding but take it to the trough and we'll put the other in harness oh father the plowshares I ordered as he brought them along that's the big healthy looking fellow obviously the old man's son there in the outer room answered the old man bundling together the harness he had taken out from flings on the ground you can put them on while they have dinner the good-looking young woman came into the outer room with the full pails dragging up her shoulders more women came on the scene from somewhere young and handsome middle age old and ugly with children without children samovar was beginning to sing the laborers and the family having disposed of the horses came into dinner Levin getting his provisions out of his carriage invited the old man to take tea with him well I have had some today already said the old man obviously accepting the invitation with pleasure but just a glass for company over their tea Levin heard all about the old man's farming ten years before the old man had rented 300 acres from the lady who owned them and a year ago he had bought them and rented another 300 from a neighboring landowner a small part of the land the worst part he let out for rent while a hundred acres of arable land he cultivated himself with his family and two hired laborers the old man complained that things were doing badly but Levin saw that he simply did so from feeling a propriety and that his farms in a flourishing condition if had been unsuccessful he would not have bought land of 35 rubles the acre he would not have married his three sons and a nephew he would not have rebuilt twice after fires and each time on a larger scale in spite of the old man's complaints it was evident that he was proud and justly proud of his prosperity proud of his sons his nephew his son's wives his horses and his cows and especially the fact that he was keeping all this farming going from his conversation with the old man Levin thought he was not averse to new methods either he had planted a great many potatoes and his potatoes as Levin had seen driving past were already past flowering and beginning to die down while Levin's were only just coming into flower he he earthed up his potatoes with a modern flower borrowed from a neighboring landowner he sowed wheat the trifling fact that thinning out his rye the old man used the rye he thinned out for his horses especially struck Levin how many times had Levin seen this splendid fodder wasted and tried to get it saved but always it had turned out to be impossible the peasant got this done and he could not say enough praise of it as food for the beasts what have the wenches to do they carried out in bundles to the roadside and the cart brings it away well we landowners can't manage well with our laborers said Levin handing him a glass of tea thank you said the old man and he took the glass but refused sugar pointing to a lump he had left their simple destruction said he look at Zvayashky's for instance we know what the lands like first raid yeah there's not much of a crop to boast of it's not looked after enough that's all it is but you work your land with hired laborers we're all peasants together we go into everything ourselves if a man's no use he can go and we can manage by ourselves father Finnegan wants some tar said the young woman in the clogs coming in yes yes that's how it is sir said the old man getting up and crossing himself deliberately he thanked Levin and went out when Levin went into the kitchen to call his coachman he saw the whole family at dinner the women were standing at waiting on them the young sturdy looking son was telling something funny with his mouth full and they were all laughing the woman in the clogs who was pouring cabbage soup into a bowl laughed most merrily of all very probably the good looking face of the young woman in the clogs had a good deal to do with the impression of well-being this peasant household mate upon Levin but the impression was so strong that Levin could never get rid of it and all the way from the old peasants to Zvayashky's he kept recalling his peasant farm as though there was something in this impression that demanded his special attention end of chapter 25 recording by Morgan Gulf French London chapter 26 of Anna Karenina book three this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jill Weselowsky Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy translated by Constance Garnett book three chapter 26 Zvayashky was the marshal of his district he was five years older than Levin and had long been married his sister-in-law a young girl Levin liked very much lived in his house and Levin knew that Zvayashky and his wife would have greatly liked to marry the girl to him he knew this with certainty as so-called eligible young men always know it though he could have never brought himself to speak of it to anyone and he knew too that although he wanted to get married and although by every token this very attractive girl would make an excellent wife he could no more have married her even if he had not been in love with Kirishter Bratskaya then he could have flown up to the sky and this knowledge poisoned the pleasure he had hoped to find in the visit to Zvayashky on getting Zvayashky's letter with the invitation for shooting Levin had immediately thought of this but in spite of it had made up his mind that Zvayashky's having such views for him was simply his own groundless supposition and so he would go all the same besides at the bottom of his heart he had a desire to try himself put himself to the test in regard to this girl the Zvayashky's home life was exceedingly pleasant and Zvayashky himself the best type of man taking part in local affairs that Levin knew was very interesting to him Zvayashky was one of those people always a source of wonder to Levin whose convictions very logical though never original go one way by themselves while their life exceedingly definite and firm in its direction goes its way quite a part and almost always in direct contradiction to their convictions Zvayashky was an extremely advanced man he despised the nobility and believed the mass of the nobility to be secretly in favor of serfdom and only concealing their views from cowardice he regarded Russia as a ruined country rather after the style of turkey and the government of Russia as so bad that he never permitted himself to criticize its doing seriously and yet he was a functionary of that government and a model marshal of nobility and when he drove about he always wore the cockade of office and the cap with the red band he considered human life only tolerable abroad and went abroad to stay at every opportunity and at the same time he carried on a complex and improved system of agriculture in Russia and with extreme interest followed everything and knew everything that was being done in Russia he considered the Russian peasant as occupying a stage of development intermediate between the ape and the man and at the same time in the local assemblies no one was ready to shake hands with the peasants and listen to their opinion he believed neither in god nor the devil but was much concerned about the question of the improvement of the clergy and the maintenance of their revenues and took special trouble to keep up the church in his village on the woman question he was on the side of the extreme advocates of complete liberty for women and especially their right to labor but he lived with his wife on such terms that their affectionate childless home life was the admiration of everyone and arranged his wife's life so that she did nothing and could do nothing but share her husband's efforts that her time should pass as happily and as agreeably as possible if it had not been a characteristic of leavens to put the most favorable interpretation on people swioski's character would have presented no doubt or difficulty to him he would have said to himself a fool or a nave and everything would have seemed clear but he could not say a fool because swioski was unmistakably clever and more over a highly cultivated man who was exceptionally modest over his culture there was not a subject he knew nothing of but he did not display his knowledge except when he was compelled to do so still less could leaven say that he was a nave as swioski was unmistakably an honest good-hearted sensible man who worked good humoredly keenly and perseveringly at his work he was held in high honor by everyone about him and certainly he had never consciously done and indeed was incapable of doing anything base leaven tried to understand him and could not understand him and looked at him and his life as at a living enigma leaven and he were very friendly and so leaven used to venture to sound swioski to try to get at the very foundation of his view of life but it was always in vain every time leaven tried to penetrate beyond the outer chambers of swioski's mind which were hospitably open to all he noticed that swioski was slightly disconcerted faint signs of alarm were visible in his eyes as though he were afraid leaven would understand him and he would give him a kindly good humored repulse just now since his disenchantment with farming leaven was particularly glad to stay with swioski apart from the fact that the sight of this happy and affectionate couple so pleased with themselves and everyone else and their well ordered home had always a cheering effect on leaven he felt a longing now that he was so dissatisfied with his own life to get at that secret in swioski that gave him such clearness definiteness and good courage in life moreover leaven knew that at the swioski's he should meet the landowners of the neighborhood and it was particularly interesting for him just now to hear and take part in those rural conversations concerning crops laborers wages and so on which he was aware are conventionally regarded as something very low but which seem to him just now to constitute the one subject of importance it may not perhaps be important in england and it was not perhaps of importance in the days of surfdom in both cases the condition of agriculture are firmly established but among us now when everything has been turned upside down and is only just taking shape the question what form these conditions will take is the one question of importance in russia thought leaven the shooting turned out to be worse than leaven had expected the marsh was dry and there were no grouse at all he walked about the whole day and only brought back three birds but to make up for that he brought back as he always did from shooting an excellent appetite excellent spirits and that keen intellectual mood which with him always accompanied violent physical exertion and while out shooting when he seemed to be thinking of nothing at all suddenly the old man in his family kept coming back to his mind and the impression of them seemed to claim not merely his attention but the solution of some connection connected with them in the evening at tea two landowners who would come about some business connected with a wardship were at the party and the interesting conversation leaven had been looking forward to spring up leaven was sitting beside his hostess at the tea table and was obliged to keep up a conversation with her and her sister who was sitting opposite him madams fiascaia was a round-faced fair-haired rather short woman all smiles and dimples leaven tried through her to get a solution of the weighty enigma her husband presented to his mind but he had not complete freedom of ideas because he was in an agony of embarrassment this agony of embarrassment was due to the fact that the sister-in-law was sitting opposite to him in a dress specially put on as he fancied for his benefit cut particularly open in the shape of a trapeze on her white bosom this quadrangular opening in spite of the bosoms being very white or just because it was very white deprived leaven of the full use of his faculties he imagined probably mistakenly that this low-necked bodice had been made on his account and felt that he had no right to look at it and tried not to look at it but he felt that he was to blame for the very fact of the low-necked bodice having been made it seemed to leaven that he had deceived someone that he ought to explain something but that to explain it was impossible and for that reason he was continually blushing was ill at ease and awkward his awkwardness infected the pretty sister-in-law too but their hostess appeared not to observe this and kept purposely drawing her into the conversation you say she said pursuing the subject that had been started that my husband cannot be interested in what's russian it's quite the contrary he is always in cheerful spirits abroad but not as he is here here he feels in his proper place he has so much to do and he has the faculty of interesting himself in everything oh you've not been to see our school have you i've seen it the little house covered with ivy isn't it yes that's nastia's work she said indicating her sister you teachin it yourself asked leaven trying to look above the open neck but feeling that wherever he looked in that direction he should see it yes i used to teach it myself and do teach still but we have a first rate school mistress now and we've started gymnastic exercises no thank you i won't have any more tea said leaven and conscious of doing a rude thing but incapable of continuing the conversation he got up blushing i hear a very interesting conversation he added and walked to the other end of the table where swioski was sitting with the two gentlemen of the neighborhood swioski was sitting sideways with one elbow on the table and a cup in one hand while with the other hand he gathered up his beard held it to his nose and let it drop again as though he were smelling it his brilliant black eyes were looking straight at the excited country gentleman with gray whiskers and apparently he derived amusement from his remarks the gentleman was complaining of the peasants it was evident to leaven that swioski knew an answer to this gentleman's complaints which would at once demolish his whole contention but that in his position he could not give utterance to this answer and listened not without pleasure to the landowner's comic speeches the gentleman with the gray whiskers was obviously an inveterate adherent of serfdom and a devoted agriculturalist who had lived all of his life in the country leaven saw proofs of this in his dress in the old-fashioned threadbare coat obviously not his everyday attire in his shrewd deep set eyes in his idiomatic fluent russian in the imperious tone that had become habitual from long use and in the resolute gestures of his large red sub-burnt hands with an old betrothal ring on the little finger end of chapter 26 recording by jill wasilowski chapter 27 of anna karenina book three this is a libravox recording all libravox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libravox.org recording by philip griffiths anna karenina by leo tollstoy translated by constance garnett book three chapter 27 if i'd only the heart to throw up what's been set going such a lot of trouble wasted i'd turn my back on the whole business sell up go off like nicolay evanovich to hear la bell helena said the landowner a pleasant smile lighting up his shrewd old face but you see you don't throw it up said nicolay evanovich shri asky so there must be something gained the only gain is that i live in my own house neither bought nor hired besides one keeps hoping the people will learn sense though instead of that you'd never believe it the drunkenness the immorality they keep chopping and changing their bits of land not a sight of a horse or a cow the peasants dying of hunger but just go and take him on as a laborer he'll do his best to do you a mischief and then bring you up before the justice of the peace but then you make complaints to the justice too said shri asky i lodged complaints not for anything in the world such a talking and such a to-do that one would have caused to regret it at the works for instance they pocketed the advance money and made off what did the justice do why acquitted them nothing keeps them in order but their own communal court and their village elder he'll flog them in the good old style but for that there'd be nothing for it but to give it all up and run away obviously the landowner was chaffing shri asky who far from resenting it was apparently amused by it but you see we manage our land without such extreme measures said he smiling levine and i and this gentleman he indicated the other landowner yes the thing's done at michael petrovich is but ask him how it's done do you call that a rational system said the landowner obviously rather proud of the word rational my system's very simple said michael petrovich thank god all my management rests on getting the money ready for the autumn taxes and the peasants come to me for the master help us well the peasants are all one's neighbors one feels for them so one advances them a third but one says remember lads i have helped you and you must help me when i need it whether it's the sowing of the oats or the hay cutting or the harvest and well one agrees so much for each taxpayer though there are dishonest ones among them too it's true levine who had long been familiar with these patriarchal methods exchanged glances with shri asky and interrupted michael petrovich turning again to the gentleman with the gray whiskers then what do you think he asked what system is one to adopt nowadays why manage like michael petrovich or let the land for half the crop or for rent to the peasants that one can do only that's just how the general prosperity of the country is being ruined where the land would surf labour and good management gave a yield of nine to one on the half crop system it yields three to one russia has been ruined by the emancipation sfiasky looked with smiling eyes at levine and even made a faint gesture of irony to him but levine did not think the landowner's words absurd he understood them better than he did sfiasky a great deal more of what the gentleman with the gray whiskers said to show in what way russia was ruined by the emancipation struck him indeed as very true knew to him and quite incontestable the landowner unmistakably spoke his own individual thought a thing that very rarely happens and a thought to which he had been brought not by a desire of finding some exercise for an idle brain but a thought which had grown up out of the conditions of his life which he had brooded over in the solitude of his village and had considered in every aspect the point is don't you see the progress of every sort is only made by the use of authority he said evidently wishing to show he was not without culture take the reforms of peter of kathryn of alexander take european history and progress in agriculture more than anything else the potato for instance that was introduced among us by force the wooden plow too wasn't always used it was introduced maybe in the days before the empire but it was probably bought in by force now in our own day we landowners in the serf times used various improvements in our husbandry drying machines and thrashing machines and carting manure and all the modern implements all that we bought into use by our authority and the peasants opposed it at first and ended by imitating us now by the abolition of serfdom we have been deprived of our authority and so our husbandry where it had been raised to a high level is bound to sink to the most savage primitive condition that's how i see it but why so if it's rational you'll be able to keep up the same system with hired labour said spiaski we've no power over them with whom am i going to work the system allow me to ask there it is the labour force the chief element in agriculture thought levine with labourers the labourers won't work well and won't work with good implements our labourer can do nothing but get drunk like a pig and when he's drunk he ruins everything you give him he makes the horses ill with too much water cuts good harness barters the tires of the wheels for a drink drops bits of iron into the thrashing machine so as to break it he loads the sight of anything that's not after his fashion and that's how it is the whole level of husbandry has fallen land's gone out of cultivation overgrown with weeds or divided among the peasants and where millions of bushels were raised you get a hundred thousand the wealth of the country has decreased if the same thing had been done but with care that and he proceeded to unfold his own scheme of emancipation by means of which these drawbacks might have been avoided this did not interest levine but when he had finished levine went back to his first position and addressing sfyashki and trying to draw him into expressing his serious opinion that the standard of culture is falling and that with our present relations to the peasants there is no possibility of farming on a rational system to yield a profit that's perfectly true said he i don't believe it sfyashki replied quite seriously all i see is that we don't know how to cultivate the land and that our system of agriculture in the surf days was by no means too high but too low we have no machines no good stock no efficient supervision we don't even know how to keep accounts ask any landowner he won't be able to tell you what crops profitable and what's not italian bookkeeping said the gentleman of the gray whiskers ironically you may keep your books as you like but if they spoil everything for you there won't be any profit why do they spoil things a poor thrashing machine or your russian presser they will break but my steam press they don't break a wretched russian nag they'll ruin but keep good stray horses they won't ruin them and so it is all round we must raise our farming to a higher level oh if one only had the means to do it nikolay Ivanovich it's all very well for you but for me with a son to keep at the university lads to be educated at the high school how am i going to buy these stray horses well that's what the land banks are for to get what's left me sold by auction no thank you i don't agree that it's necessary or possible to raise the level of agriculture still higher said levine i devote myself to it and i have means but i can do nothing as to the banks i don't know to whom they're any good for my part anyway whatever i've spent money on in the way of husbandry it has been a loss stock a loss machinery a loss that's true enough the gentleman with the gray whiskers chimed in positively laughing with satisfaction and i'm not the only one pursued levine i'm mixed with all the neighboring landowners who are cultivating their land on a rational system they all with rare exceptions are doing so at a loss come tell us how does your land do does it pay said levine and at once in swiaski's eyes he detected that fleeting expression of alarm which he had noticed whenever he had tried to penetrate beyond the outer chambers of swiaski's mind moreover this question on levine's part was not quite in good faith madams fiascaia had just told him at tea that they had that summer invited a german expert in bookkeeping from moscow who for a consideration of 500 rubles had investigated the management of their property and found that it was costing them a loss of 3 000 odd rubles she did not remember the precise sum but it appeared that the german had worked it out to the fraction of a farthing the gray whiskered landowner smiled at the mention of the profits of swiaski's family obviously aware how much gain his neighbor and marshal was likely to be making possibly it does not pay answered swiaski that merely proves either that i'm a bad manager or that i've sunk my capital for the increase of my rents oh rent levine cried with horror rent there may be in europe where land has been improved by the labour put into it but with us all the land is deteriorating from the labour put into it in other words they're working it out so there's no question of rent how no rent it's a law then we're outside the law rent explains nothing for us but simply muddles us no tell me how there can be a theory of rent will you have some junket marshal pass us some junket or raspberries he turned to his wife extraordinarily late the raspberries lasting this year and in the happiest frame of minds fiaski got up and walked off apparently supposing the conversation to have ended at the very point went to levine it seemed that it was only just beginning having lost his antagonist levine continued the conversation with the gray whiskered landowner trying to prove to him that all the difficulty arises from the fact that we don't find out the peculiarities and habits of our labourer but the landowner like all men who think independently and in isolation was slow in taking in any other person's idea and particularly partial to his own he stuck to it that the russian peasant is a swine and likes swinishness and that to get him out of his swinishness one must have authority and there is none one must have the stick and we have become so liberal that we have all of a sudden replaced the stick that served us for a thousand years by lawyers and model prisons where the worthless stinking peasant is fed on good soup and has a fixed allowance of cubic feet of air what makes you think said levine trying to get back to the question that it's impossible to find some relation to the labourer in which the labourer would become productive that never could be so with a russian peasantry we've no power over them answered the landowner how can new conditions be found says fiaschi having eaten some junket and lighted the cigarette he came back to the discussion all possible relations to the labour force have been defined and studied he said the relic of barbarism the primitive commune with each guarantee for all will disappear of itself serfdom has been abolished there remains nothing but free labour and its forms are fixed and ready made and must be adopted permanent hands day labourers rammers you can't get any of those forms but europe is dissatisfied with those forms dissatisfied and seeking new ones and will find them in all probability that's just what i was meaning answered levine why shouldn't we seek them for ourselves because it would be just like inventing a fresh the means for constructing railways they are ready invented but if they don't do for us if they're stupid asked the veen and again he detected the expression of alarm in the eyes of shri asky oh yes we'll bury the world under our caps we found the secret europe was seeking for i've heard all that but excuse me do you know all that's been done in europe on the question of the organisation of labour no very little that question is now absorbing the best minds in europe the schultz adilish movement and then all this enormous literature of the labour question the most liberal asal movement the millhausen experiment that's a fact by now as you're probably aware i have some idea of it but very vague no you only say that no doubt you know all about it as well as i do i'm not a professor of sociology of course but it interested me and really if it interests you you ought to study it but what conclusion have they come to you excuse me the two neighbours had risen and shri asky once more checking levine in his inconvenient habit of peeping into what was beyond the outer chambers of his mind went to see his guests out end of chapter 27 chapter 28 of anna karenina book three this is a librivox recording all librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox.org recording by philip griffiths anna karenina by leo tollstoy translated by constant scar net book three chapter 28 levine was insufferably bored that evening with the ladies he was stirred as he had never been before by the idea that the dissatisfaction he was feeling with his system of managing his land was not an exceptional case but the general condition of things in russia that the organization of some relation of the laborers to the soil in which they would work as with the peasant he had met halfway to the sviaskys was not a dream but a problem which must be solved and it seemed to him that the problem could be solved and that he ought to try and solve it after saying good night to the ladies and promising to stay the whole of the next day so as to make an expedition on horseback with them to see an interesting ruin in the crown forest levine went before going to bed into his house study to get the books on the labor question that sviasky had offered him sviasky's study was a huge room surrounded by bookcases and with two tables in it one a massive writing table standing in the middle of the room and the other a round table covered with recent numbers of reviews and journals in different languages ranged like the rays of a star and the lamp on the writing table was a stand of drawers marked with gold lettering and full of papers of various sorts sviasky took out the books and sat down in a rocking chair what are you looking at there he said to levine who was standing at the round table looking through the reviews oh yes there's a very interesting article here said sviasky of the review levine was holding in his hand it appears he went on with eager interest that frederick was not after all the person chiefly responsible for the partition of poland it is proved and with his characteristic clearness he summed up those new very important and interesting revelations although levine was engrossed at the moment by his ideas about the problem of the land he wondered as he heard sviasky what is there inside of him and why why is he interested in the partition of poland when sviasky had finished levine could not help asking well and what's then but there was nothing to follow it was simply interesting that it had been proved to be so and so but sviasky did not explain and saw no need to explain why it was interesting to him yes but i was very much interested by your irritable neighbour said levine's sighing he's a clever fellow and said a lot that was true oh get along with you an inveterate supporter of serfdom at heart like all of them said sviasky who's marshal you are yes i only marshal them in the other direction said sviasky laughing i tell you what interests me very much said levine he's right that our system that's to say of rational farming doesn't answer that the only thing that answers is the moneylender system like that meek looking gentlemen's or else the very simplest whose fault is it our own of course besides it's not true that it doesn't answer it answers with vasilychkov a factory but i really don't know what it is you are surprised at the people are at such a low state of rational and moral development that it's obvious they're bound to oppose everything that's strange to them in europe a rational system answers because the people are educated it follows that we must educate the people that's all but how are we to educate the people to educate the people three things are needed schools and schools and schools but you said yourself the people are at such a low stage of material development what help are schools for that who you know you remind me of the story of the advice given to the sick man you should try purgative medicine taken worse try leeches tried them worse well then there's nothing left but to pray to god tried it worse that's just how it is with us i say political economy you say worse i say socialism worse education worse but how do schools help matters they give the peasant fresh wants well that's a thing i've never understood levine replied with heat in what way are schools going to help the people to improve their material position you say schools education will give them fresh wants so much the worse since they won't be capable of satisfying them and in what way a knowledge of addition and subtraction and catechism is going to improve their material condition i never could make out the day before yesterday i met a peasant woman in the evening with a little baby and asked her where she was going she said she was going to the wise woman her boy had screaming fits so she was taking him to be doctored i asked why how does this wise woman cure screaming fits she puts the child on the hen roost and repeats some charm well you're saying it yourself what's wanted to prevent her taking her child to the hen roost to cure it of screaming fits is just she asked he said smiling good to humbly oh no said levine with annoyance that method of doctoring i merely meant as a simile for doctoring the people with schools the people are poor and ignorant that we see as surely as the peasant woman sees the baby's ill because it screams but in what way this trouble of poverty and ignorance is to be cured by schools is as incomprehensible as how the hen roost affects the screaming what has to be cured is what makes him poor well in that at least you're in agreement with spencer whom you dislike so much he says too that education may be the consequence of greater prosperity and comfort of more frequent washing as he says but not of being able to read and write well then i'm very glad or the contrary very sorry that i'm in agreement with spencer only i've known it a long while schools can do no good what will do good is an economic organization in which the people will become richer will have more leisure and then there will be schools still all over europe now schools are obligatory and how far do you agree with spencer yourself about it asked levine but there was a gleam of alarm in sveask his eyes and he said smiling no that screaming story is positively capital did you really hear it yourself levine saw that he was not to discover the connection between this man's life and his thoughts obviously he did not care in the least what his reasoning led him to all he wanted was the process of reasoning and he did not like it when the process of reasoning bought him into a blind alley that was the only thing he disliked and avoided by changing the conversation to something agreeable and amusing all the impressions of the day beginning with the impression made by the old peasant which served as it were as the fundamental basis of all the conceptions and ideas of the day through levine into violent excitement this dear good sveasky keeping a stock of ideas simply for social purposes and obviously having some other principles hidden from levine while with the crowd whose name is legion he guided public opinion by ideas he did not share that irascible country gentlemen perfectly correct in the conclusions that he had been worried into by life but wrong in his exasperation against a whole class and that's the best class in russia his own dissatisfaction with the work he had been doing and the vague hope of finding a remedy for all this all was blended in a sense of inward turmoil and anticipation of some solution near at hand left alone in the room assigned him lying on a spring mattress that yielded unexpectedly at every movement of his arm or his leg levine did not fall asleep for a long while not one conversation with sveasky though he had said a great deal that was clever had interested levine but the conclusions of the irascible landowner required consideration levine could not help recalling every word he had said and in imagination amending his own replies yes i ought to have said to him you say that our husbandry does not answer because the peasant hates improvements and that they must be forced on him by authority if no system of husbandry answered at all without these improvements you would be quite right but the only system that does answer is where laborer is working in accordance with his habits just as on the old peasants land halfway here your and our general dissatisfaction with the system shows that either we are to blame or the laborers we have gone our way the european way a long while without asking ourselves about the qualities of our labor force let us try to look upon the labor force not as an abstract force but as the russian peasant with his instincts and we shall arrange our system of culture in accordance with that imagine i ought to have said to him that you have the same system as the old peasant has that you have found means of making your laborers take an interest in the success of the work and have found the happy mean in the way of improvements which they will admit and you will without exhausting the soil get twice or three times the yield you got before divide it in halves give half as the share of labor the surplus left you will be greater and the share of labor will be greater too and to do this one must lower the standard of husbandry and interest the laborers in its success how to do this that's a matter of detail but undoubtedly it can be done this idea threw levine into a great excitement he did not sleep half the night thinking over in detail the putting of his idea into practice he had not intended to go away next day but he now determined to go home early in the morning besides the sister-in-law with her low-necked bodice aroused in him a feeling akin to shame and remorse for some utterly base action most important of all he must get back without delay he would have to make haste to put his new project to the peasants before the sowing of the winter wheat so that the sowing might be undertaken on a new basis he had made up his mind to revolutionize his whole system End of Chapter 28 Chapter 29 of Anna Karenina Book 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Philip Griffiths Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy translated by Constance Garnett Book 3 Chapter 29 The carrying out of Levine's plan presented many difficulties but he struggled on doing his utmost and attained a result which though not what he desired was enough to enable him without self-deception to believe that the attempt was worth the trouble One of the chief difficulties was that the process of cultivating the land was in full swing, that it was impossible to stop everything and begin it all again from the beginning and the machine had to be mended while in motion When on the evening that he arrived home he informed the bailiff of his plans, the latter, with visible pleasure, agreed with what he said so long as he was pointing out that all that had been done up to that time was stupid and useless The bailiff said that he had said so a long while ago but no he had been paid him But as for the proposal made by Levine to take apart a shareholder with his labourers in each agricultural undertaking, at this the bailiff simply expressed a profound despondency and offered no definite opinion but began immediately talking of the urgent necessity of carrying the remaining sheaves of rye the next day, and of sending the men out for the second plowing so that Levine felt that this was not the time for discussing it On beginning to talk to the peasants about it and making a proposition to seed them the land on new terms, he came into collision with the same great difficulty that they were so much absorbed by the current work of the day that they had not time to consider the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed scheme The simple heart of Ivan, the cowherd, seemed completely to grasp Levine's proposal, that he should, with his family, take a share of the profits of the cattle-yard, and he was in complete sympathy with the plan. But when Levine hinted at the future advantages Ivan's face expressed alarm and regret that he could not hear all he had to say, and he made haste to find himself some task that would admit of no delay. He either snatched up the fork to pitch the hay out of the pens, or ran to get water, or to clear out the dung. Another difficulty lay in the invincible disbelief of the peasant, that a landowner's object could be anything else than a desire to squeeze all he could out of them. They were firmly convinced that his real aim, whatever he might say to them, would always be in what he did not say to them, and they themselves, in giving their opinion, said a great deal, but never said what was their real object. Moreover, Levine felt that the irascible landowner had been right. The peasants made their first and unalterable condition of any agreement whatever, that they should not be forced to any new methods of tillage of any kind, nor to use new implements. They agreed that the modern plough plowed better, that the scarifier did the work more quickly, but they found thousands of reasons that made it out of the question for them to use either of them. And though he had accepted the conviction that he would have to lower the standard of cultivation, he felt sorry to give up improved methods, the advantages of which were so obvious. But in spite of all these difficulties, he got his way, and by autumn the system was working, or at least, so it seemed to him. At first Levine had thought of giving up the whole farming of the land, just as it was to the peasants, the labourers, and the bailiff on new conditions of partnership. But he was very soon convinced that this was impossible, and determined to divide it up. The cattle-yard, the garden, hayfields, and arable land, divided into several parts, had to be made into separate lots. The simple-hearted cowherd, Yvan, who Levine fancied understood the matter better than any of them, collecting together a gang of workers to help him, principally of his own family, became a partner in the cattle-yard. A distant part of the estate, a tract of waste land that had lain fallow for eight years, was with the help of the clever carpenter, Feodor Rozenov, taken by six families of peasants on new conditions of partnership, and the peasant Shvarev took the management of all the vegetable gardens on the same terms. The remainder of the land was still worked on the old system, but these three associated partnerships were the first step to a new organization of the whole, and they completely took up Levine's time. It is true that in the cattle-yard things went no better than before, and Yvan strenuously opposed warm housing for the cows, and Butter made a fresh cream, affirming that cows require less food if kept cold, and that Butter is more profitable made from sour cream. And he asked for wages, just as under the old system, and took not the slightest interest in the fact that the money he received was not wages, but an advance out of his future share in the profits. It is true that Feodor Rozenov's company did not plow over the ground twice before sowing, as has been agreed, justifying themselves on the plea that the time was too short. It is true that the peasants of the same company, though they had agreed to work the land on new conditions, always spoke of the land, not as held in partnership, but as rented for half the crop. And more than once the peasants and Rozenov himself said to Levine, if you would take a rent for the land it would save you trouble, and we should be more free. Moreover the same peasants kept putting off, on various excuses, the building of a cattle yard and barn on the land as agreed upon, and delayed doing it until the winter. It is true that Shvarev would have liked to let out the kitchen gardens he had undertaken in small lots to the peasants. He evidently quite misunderstood, and apparently intentionally misunderstood, the conditions upon which the land had been given him. Often, too, talking to the peasants, and explaining to them all the advantages of the plan, Levine felt that the peasants heard nothing but the sound of his voice, and were firmly resolved, whatever he might say, not to let themselves be taken in. He felt this especially when he talked to the cleverest of the peasants, Rozenov, and detected the gleam in Rozenov's eyes, which he showed so plainly both ironical amusement at Levine, and the firm conviction that, if anyone were to be taken in, it would not be he, Rozenov. But in spite of all this, Levine thought the system worked, and that by keeping accounts strictly, and insisting on his own way, he would prove to them, in the future, the advantages of the arrangement, and then the system would go of itself. These matters, together with the management of the land still left on his hands, and the indoor work over his book, sowing gross Levine the whole summer, that he scarcely ever went out shooting. At the end of August, he heard that the Oblonskis had gone away to Moscow, from their servant who bought back the sidesaddle. He felt that in not answering Daria Alexandrovna's letter, he had, by his rudeness, of which he could not think without a flush of shame, burned his ships, and that he would never go and see them again. He had been just as rude with the Shryaskis, leaving them without saying goodbye, but he would never go to see them again either. He did not care about that now. The business of reorganizing the farming of his land absorbed him, as completely as though there would never be anything else in his life. He read the books lent him by Shryasky, and copying out what he had not got, he read both the economic and socialistic books on the subject. But, as he had anticipated, found nothing bearing on the scheme he had undertaken. In the books on political economy, in Mill, for instance, whom he studied first with great ardor, hoping every minute to find an answer to the questions that were engrossing him, he found laws deduced from the condition of land culture in Europe, but he did not see why these laws, which did not apply in Russia, must be general. He saw just the same thing in the socialistic books. Either they were the beautiful, but impractical fantasies which had fascinated him when he was a student, or they were attempts at improving, rectifying the economic position in which Europe was placed, with which the system of land tenure in Russia had nothing in common. Political economy told him that the laws by which the wealth of Europe had been developed, and was developing, were universal and unvarying. Socialism told him that development along these lines leads to ruin. And neither of them gave an answer, or even a hint in reply to the question what he, Levine, and all the Russian peasants and landowners, were to do with their millions of hands and millions of acres, to make them as productive as possible for the common wheel. Having once taken the subject up, he read conscientiously everything bearing on it, and intended in the autumn to go abroad to study land systems on the spot, in order that he might not, on this question, be confronted with what so often met him on various subjects. Often, just as he was beginning to understand the idea in the mind of anyone he was talking to, and was beginning to explain his own, he would suddenly be told, But Kaufmann, but Jones, but Dubois, but McKelly, you haven't read them. They've thrashed that question out thoroughly. He saw now distinctly that Kaufmann and McKelly had nothing to tell him. He knew what he wanted. He saw that Russia has splendid land, splendid labourers, and that in certain cases, as at the peasants on the way to Sviaskis, the produce raised by the labourers and the land is great. In the majority of cases, when capital is applied in the European way, the produce is small, and that this simply arises from the fact that the labourers want to work and work well only in their own peculiar way, and that this antagonism is not incidental, but invariable, and has its roots in the national spirit. He thought that the Russian people, whose task it was to colonize and cultivate vast tracts of unoccupied land, consciously adhered till all their land was occupied, to the methods suitable to their purpose, and that their methods were by no means so bad as was generally supposed, and he wanted to prove this theoretically in his book and practically on his land. End of Chapter 29 Chapter 30 of Anna Karenina, Book 3 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Amanda Richmond, Virginia. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett, Book 3 Chapter 30 At the end of September, the timber had been carted for building the cattle yard on the land that had been allotted to the Association of Peasants, and the butter from the cows was sold, and the profits divided. In practice, the system worked capitalally, or at least, so it seemed to leaven, in order to work out the whole subject theoretically and to complete his book, which, in Leaven's daydreams, was not merely to effect a revolution in political economy, but to annihilate that science entirely, and to lay the foundation of a new science, of the relation of the people to the soil. All that was left to do was to make it to our broad, and to study on the spot all that had been done in the same direction, and to collect conclusive evidence that all that had been done there was not what was wanted. Leaven was only waiting for the delivery of his wheat to receive the money for it and go abroad. But the rains began, preventing the harvesting of the corn and potatoes left in the fields, and putting a stop to all work, even to the delivery of the wheat. The mud was impassable along the roads. Two mills were carried away, and the weather got worse and worse. On the 30th of September, the sun came out in the morning, and hoping for fine weather, Leaven began making final preparations for his journey. He gave orders for the wheat to be delivered, sent the bailiff to the merchant to get the money owing him, and went out himself to give some final directions on the estate before starting off. Having finished all his business, soaked through with the streams of water which kept running down the leather behind his neck and his gators, but in the keenest and most confident temper, Leaven returned homewards in the evening. The weather had become worse than ever towards evening. The hail lashed the drenched mare so cruelly that she went along sideways, shaking her head and ears. But Leaven was all right under his hood, and he looked cheerfully about him at the muddy streams running under the wheels, at the drops hanging on every bare twig, at the whiteness of the patch of unmelted hailstones on the planks of the bridge, at the thick layer of still juicy, fleshy leaves that lay heaped up about the stripped elm tree. In spite of the bloominess of nature around him, he felt peculiarly eager. The talk he had been having with the peasants in the further village had shown that they were beginning to get used to their new position. The old servant to whose hut he had gone to get dry evidently approved of Leaven's plan, and of his own accord proposed to enter the partnership by the purchase of cattle. I have only to go stubbornly on towards my aim, and I shall attain my end, thought Leaven. And it's something to work and take trouble for. This is not a matter of myself individually. The question of the public welfare comes into it. The whole system of culture, the chief element in the condition of the people, must be completely transformed. Instead of poverty, general prosperity and content, instead of hostility, harmony and unity of interests. In short, a bloodless revolution, but a revolution of the greatest magnitude, beginning in the little circle of our district, then the province, then Russia, the whole world, because a just idea cannot but be fruitful. Yes, it's an aim worth working for, and it's being me, Kostya Leaven, who went to a ball in a black tie, and was refused by the Stravatskaya girl, and who is intrinsically such a pitiful, worthless creature. That proves nothing. I feel sure Franklin felt just as worthless, and he too had no faith in himself, thinking of himself as a whole. That means nothing. And he too, most likely, had an agafea mihalovna to whom he confided his secrets. Musing on such thoughts, Leaven reached home in the darkness. The bailiff, who had been to the merchant, had come back and brought part of the money for the wheat. An agreement had been made with the old servant, and on the road the bailiff had learned that everywhere the corn was still standing in the fields, so that his 160 shocks that had not been carried were nothing in comparison with the losses of others. After dinner, Leaven was sitting, as he usually did, in an easy chair with a book, and as he read he went on thinking of the journey before him in connection with his book. Today all the significance of his book rose before him with special distinctness, and whole periods ranged themselves in his mind and illustration of his theories. I must write that down, he thought. That ought to form a brief introduction, which I thought unnecessary before. He got up to go to his writing table, and Laska, lying at his feet, got up too, stretching and looking at him as though to inquire where to go. But he had not time to write it down, for the head peasants had come around, and Leaven went out into the hall to them. After his levy, that is to say, giving directions about the labours of the next day, and seeing all the peasants who had business with him, Leaven went back to his study and sat down to work. Laska lay under the table, Agafea Mihalovna settled herself in her place with her stocking. After writing for a little while, Leaven suddenly thought with exceptional vividness of Kitty, her refusal and their last meeting. He got up and began walking about the room. What's the use of being dreary, said Agafea Mihalovna? Come, why do you stay on at home? You ought to go to some warm springs, especially now you're ready for the journey. While I am going away the day after tomorrow, Agafea Mihalovna, I must finish my work. There, there, your work, you say, as if you hadn't done enough for the peasants. Why, as tis they're saying, your master will be getting some honour from the Tsar for it. Indeed, and it is a strange thing, why need you worry about the peasants? I'm not worrying about them, I'm doing it for my own good. Agafea Mihalovna knew every detail of Leaven's plans for his land. Leaven often put his views before her in all their complexity, and not uncommonly he argued with her and did not agree with her comments. But on this occasion she entirely misinterpreted what he had said. Of one soul's salvation we all know and must thank before all else, she said with a sigh. Parfen Dennisich now, for all he was no scholar, he died to death that God grant every one of us the like, she said referring to his servant who had died recently. Took the sacrament in all. It's not what I mean, said he. I mean that I'm acting for my own advantage. It's all the better for me if the peasants do their work better. Well, whatever you do, if he's a lazy good for not, everything will be at sixes and sevens. If he is a conscience, he'll work. And if not, there's no doing anything. O come, you say yourself Ivan has begun looking after the cattle better. All I say is, answered Agafea Mihalovna, evidently not speaking at random but in strict sequence of idea. That you ought to get married, that's what I say. Agafea Mihalovna's allusion to the very subject he had only just been thinking about, hurt and stung him. Levin scowled, and without answering her he sat down again to his work, repeating to himself all that he had been thinking of the real significance of that work. Only at intervals he listened in the stillness to the click of Agafea Mihalovna's needles, and recollecting what he did not want to remember, he frowned again. At nine o'clock they heard the bell and the faint vibration of a carriage over the mud. Well, here's visitors come to us and you won't be dull, said Agafea Mihalovna, getting up and going to the door. But Levin overtook her. His work was not going well now, and he was glad of a visitor, whoever it might be. End of Chapter 30. Recording by Amanda, Richmond, Virginia, deadwhiteguyslitt.blogspot.com Chapter 31 of Anna Karenina, Book 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Amanda, Richmond, Virginia, Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett, Book 3, Chapter 31. Running halfway down the staircase, Levin caught a sound he knew, a familiar cough in the hall. But he heard it indistinctly through the sound of his own footsteps and hoped he was mistaken. Then he caught sight of a long, bony, familiar figure, and now it seemed there was no possibility of mistake, and yet he still went on hoping that this tall man taking off his fur cloak and coughing was not his brother Nikolai. Levin loved his brother, but being with him was always a torture. Just now, when Levin, under the influence of the thoughts that had come to him, an agafea mehalovna's hint, was in a troubled and uncertain humor, the meeting with his brother that he had to face seemed particularly difficult. Instead of a lively, healthy visitor, some outsider who would, he hoped, cheer him up in his uncertain humor, he had to see his brother, who knew him through and through, who would call forth all the thoughts nearest his heart, would force him to show himself fully, and that he was not disposed to do. Angry with himself for so base a feeling, Levin ran into the hall. As soon as he had seen his brother close, this feeling of selfish disappointment vanished instantly and was replaced by pity. Terrible as his brother Nikolai had been before in his emaciation and sickliness, now he looked still more emaciated, still more wasted. He was a skeleton, covered with skin. He stood in the hall, jerking his long, thin neck, and pulling the scarf off it, and smiled a strange and pitiful smile. When he saw that smile, submissive and humble, Levin felt something clutching at his throat. You see, I've come to you, said Nikolai in a thick voice, never for one second taking his eyes off his brother's face. I've been meaning to a long while, but I've been unwell all the time, now I'm ever so much better, he said, rubbing his beard with his big, thin hands. Yes, yes, answered Levin, and he felt still more frightened when, kissing him, he felt with his lips the dryness of his brother's skin and saw close to him his big eyes full of a strange light. A few weeks before, Constantine Levin had written to his brother that, through the sale of a small part of the property that had remained undivided, there was a sum of about two thousand rubles to come to him as his share. Nikolai said that he had come now to take his money, and, what was more important, to stay a while in the old nest, to get in touch with the earth, so as to renew his strength like the heroes of old for the work that lay before him. In spite of his exaggerated stoop and the emaciation that was so striking from his height, his movements were as rapid and abrupt as ever. Levin led him into his study. His brother dressed with particular care, a thing he never used to do, combed his scanty, lank hair, and, smiling, went upstairs. He was in the most affectionate and good-humored mood, just as Levin often remembered him in childhood. He even referred to Sergei Ivanovich without rancor. And when he saw Agafea Mihalovna, he made jokes with her and asked after the old servants. The news of the death of Parfen Denisich made a painful impression on him. A look of fear crossed his face, but he regained his serenity immediately. Of course he was quite old, he said, and changed the subject. Well, I'll spend a month or two with you, and then I'm off to Moscow. Do you know Mayakov has promised me a place there, and I'm going into the service. Now I'm going to arrange my life quite differently, he went on. You know I got rid of that woman. Maria Nikolayvna? Why, what for? Oh, she was a horrid woman. She caused me all sorts of worries. But he did not say what the annoyances were. He could not say that he had cast off Maria Nikolayvna because the tea was weak, and above all because she would look after him as though he were an invalid. Besides, I want to turn over a new leaf completely now. I've done silly things, of course, like everyone else, but money's the last consideration. I don't regret it. So long as there's health, and my health, thank God, is quite restored. Levin listened and wracked his brains, but could think of nothing to say. Nikolay probably felt the same. He began questioning his brother about his affairs, and Levin was glad to talk about himself, because then he could speak without hypocrisy. He told his brother of his plans and his doings. His brother listened, but evidently he was not interested by it. These two men were so akin, so near each other, that the slightest gesture, the tone of voice, told both more than could be said in words. Both of them now had only one thought, the illness of Nikolay and the nearness of his death, which stifled all else. But neither of them dared to speak of it, and so whatever they said, not uttering the one thought that filled their minds, was all falsehood. Never had Levin been so glad when the evening was over, and it was time to go to bed. Never with any outside person, never on any official visit, had he been so unnatural and false as he was that evening. And the consciousness of this unnaturalness, and the remorse he felt at it, made him even more unnatural. He wanted to weep over his dying, dearly loved brother, and he had to listen and keep on talking of how he meant to live. As the house was damp, and only one bedroom had been kept heated, Levin put his brother to sleep in his own bedroom behind his screen. His brother got into bed, and whether he slept or did not sleep, tossed about like a sick man, coughed, and when he could not get his throat clear, mumbled something. Sometimes when his breathing was painful, he said, Oh my God! Sometimes when he was choking, he muttered angrily, Ugh the devil! Levin could not sleep for a long while, hearing him. His thoughts were of the most various, but the end of all his thoughts was the same, death. Death, the inevitable end of all, for the first time presented itself to him with irresistible force, and death, which was here in this loved brother, groaning half asleep and from habit calling without distinction on God and the devil, was not so remote as it had hitherto seemed to him. It was in himself too, he felt that. If not today, tomorrow, if not tomorrow, in thirty years, wasn't it all the same? And what was this inevitable death? He did not know, had never thought about it, and what was more, had not the power, had not the courage to think about it. I work, I want to do something, but I had forgotten it must all end, I had forgotten death. He thought on his bed in the darkness, crouched up, hugging his knees and holding his breath from the strain of thought, he pondered. But the more intensely he thought, the clearer it became to him that it was indubitably so, that in reality, looking upon life, he had forgotten one little fact, that death will come and all ends, that nothing was even worth beginning, and that there was no helping it anyway. Yes, it was awful, but it was so. But I am alive still. Now what's to be done? What's to be done? he said in despair. He lighted a candle, got up cautiously, and went to the looking-glass, and began looking at his face and hair. Yes, there were grey hairs about his temples. He opened his mouth. His back teeth were beginning to decay. He bared his muscular arms. Yes, there was strength in them. But Nicolai, who lay there breathing with what was left of lungs, had had a strong, healthy body too. And suddenly he recalled how they used to go to bed together as children, and how they only waited till Fioror Bogdanich was out of the room to fling pillows at each other and laugh, laugh irrepressibly, so that even their awe of Fioror Bogdanich could not check the ever-vessing, over-brimming sense of life and happiness. And now that bent hollow chest, and I, not knowing what will become of me or wherefore, damn nation, why do you keep fidgeting? Why don't you go to sleep? His brother's voice called to him. Oh, I don't know. I'm not sleepy. I have had a good sleep. I'm not in a sweat now. Just see, feel my shirt. It's not wet, is it? Love and felt withdrew behind the screen and put out the candle, but for a long while he could not sleep. The question how to live had hardly began to grow a little clearer to him when a new insoluble question presented itself. Death. Why, he's dying. Yes, he'll die in the spring. And how help him? What can I say to him? What do I know about it? I'd even forgotten that it was it all. End of Chapter 31. Recording by Amanda Richmond, Virginia. DeadWhiteGuysLit.blogspot.com. Chapter 32 of Anna Karenina, Book 3. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Amanda Richmond, Virginia. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. Translated by Constance Garnett, Book 3, Chapter 32. Levin had long before made the observation that when one is uncomfortable with people from their being excessively amenable and meek, one is apt very soon after to find things intolerable from their touchiness and irritability. He felt that this was how it would be with his brother. And his brother Nicolai's gentleness did in fact not last out for long. The very next morning he began to be irritable and seemed doing his best to find fault with his brother, attacking him on his tenderest points. Levin felt himself to blame and could not set things right. He felt that if they had both not kept up appearances but had spoken, as it is called, from the heart, that is to say, had said only just what they were thinking and feeling, they would simply have looked into each other's faces and Constantine could only have said, you're dying, you're dying. And Nicolai could only have answered, I know I'm dying, but I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm afraid. And they could have said nothing more if they had said only what was in their hearts. But life like that was impossible and so Constantine tried to do what he had been trying to do all his life and never could learn to do, though as far as he could observe, many people knew so well how to do it, and without it there was no living at all. He tried to say what he was not thinking, but he felt continually that it had to bring a falsehood, that his brother detected him in it and was exasperated at it. The third day Nicolai induced his brother to explain his plan to him again and began not merely attacking it, but intentionally confounding it with communism. You've simply borrowed an idea that's not your own, but you've distorted it and are trying to apply it where it's not applicable. But I tell you it's nothing to do with it. They deny the justice of property, of capital, of inheritance, while I do not deny this chief stimulus. Levin felt disgusted himself at using such expressions, but ever since he had been engrossed by his work he had unconsciously come more and more frequently to use words not Russian. All I want is to regulate labour, which means you've borrowed an idea, stripped it of all that gave it its force, and want to make believe that it's something new, said Nicolai, angrily tugging at his necktie. But my idea has nothing in common. That, anyway, said Nicolai Levin with an ironical smile, his eyes flashing malignantly, has the charm of, what's one to call it, geometrical symmetry, of clearness, of definiteness. It may be a utopia, but if once one allows the possibility of making of all the pasta tabula rasa, no property, no family, then labour would organize itself. But you gain nothing. Why do you mix things up? I've never been a communist. But I have, and I consider its premature but rational, and it has a future, just like Christianity, in its first ages. All that I maintain is that the labour force ought to be investigated from the point of view of natural science. That is to say, it ought to be studied, its qualities ascertained. But that's utter waste of time. That force finds a certain form of activity of itself according to the stage of its development. There have been slaves first everywhere, then metiers, and we have the half-crop system, rent, and day labourers. What are you trying to find? Levin suddenly lost his temper at these words, because at the bottom of his heart he was afraid that it was true. True that he was trying to hold the balance even between communism and the familiar forms, and that this was hardly possible. I'm trying to find means of working productively for myself and for the labourers. I want to organize, he answered hotly. You don't want to organize anything. It's simply just as you've been all your life that you want to be original to pose as not exploiting the present simply but with some idea in view. Oh, all right, that's what you think, and let me alone, answered Levin, feeling the muscles of his left cheek twitching uncontrollably. You've never had and never have convictions. All you want is to please your vanity. Oh, very well, then let me alone. And I will let you alone, and it's high time I did, and go to the devil with you, and I'm very sorry I ever came. In spite of all Levin's efforts to soothe his brother afterwards, Nicolai would listen to nothing he said, declaring that it was better to part, and Constantine saw that it simply was that life was unbearable to him. Nicolai was just getting ready to go when Constantine went into him again and begged him, rather unnaturally, to forgive him if he had hurt his feelings in any way. Ah, generosity, said Nicolai, and he smiled. If you want to be right, I can give you that satisfaction. You're in the right, but I'm going all the same. It was only just at parting that Nicolai kissed him, and said, looking with sudden strangeness and seriousness at his brother. Anyway, don't remember evil against Micostia and his voice quivered. These were the only words that had been spoken sincerely between them. Levin knew that these words meant, you see, and you know, that I'm in a bad way, and maybe we shall not see each other again. Levin knew this, and the tears gushed from his eyes. He kissed his brother once more, but he could not speak, and knew not what to say. Three days after his brother's departure, Levin, too, set off for his foreign tour. Happening to meet Stravatsky, kitty's cousin, in the railway train, Levin greatly astonished him by his depression. What's the matter with you? Stravatsky asked him. Oh, nothing. There's not much happiness in life. Not much. You come with me to Paris instead of Malhausen. You shall see how to be happy. No, I've done with it all. It's time I was dead. Well, that's a good one, said Stravatsky, laughing. Why, I'm only just getting ready to begin. Yes, I thought the same not long ago, but now I know I shall soon be dead. Levin said what he had genuinely been thinking of late. He saw nothing but death or the advance towards death and everything, but his cherished scheme only engrossed him the more. Life had to be got through somehow, till death did come. Darkness had fallen upon everything for him, but just because of this darkness he felt that the one guiding clue in the darkness was his work, and he clutched it and clung to it with all his strength. End of Chapter 32, Recording by Amanda Richmond, Virginia. DeadWhiteGuysLit.blogspot.com. End of Anna Karenina, Book 3 by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett.