Pearls My Mother Wore

Leo Tolstoy Sept 9, 1828 - Nov 20, 1910

Last weekend we received a good inch of rain, which meant there was no mountain-bike riding on Sunday.  Consequently, I was able to do some extra reading this week and finished part two of Tolstoy’s eight part novel, Anna Karenina.

Part one introduced the main characters and took place primarily in Moscow.  By the end of part one, we see that Anna Karenina has stolen the heart of young Kitty Shcherbatskaya’s suitor, Count Vronsky.

Part two begins with Kitty ill from a broken heart.  At her mother’s insistence, she’s being seen by the crack doctor of the day.  Kitty finds the whole exam to be humiliating and pointless.  She assumes a rosier disposition, but is too emotionally weak to sustain it.  The doctor is reluctant to see his patient travel abroad but eventually consents to her going with her parents to a German Spa for several weeks of curative waters.

Next, the action moves to Petersburg where Anna, her son, and her husband live, where Vronsky is stationed, and where high society is peopled by three distinct groups.  One group consists of Alexei Karenin’s political circle.  A second group is described as “the conscience of Petersburg society” and is made up of religious minded, elderly women and clever, ambitious men.  The third group is the wealthiest of them all.  It’s a tier of society that Anna only barely belongs.  This coterie is occupied with holding balls and fine dinning.  They are the young and fashionable, and they adore gossip and intrigue.  I picture the Paris Hilton crowd of the 1800′s.  Anna and Vronsky are darlings of this scene for their unveiled passion for one another and Anna’s scandalous infidelity to her husband, the elder statesman.

I was surprised in Chapter Eleven when nearly a year has gone by and after the final consummation of their affair, Anna is only then inconsolable with shame and remorse.  I didn’t expect her to be so thoroughly deflated by Vronsky’s sexual conquest.  To his credit, Vronsky does not use and then lose Anna; he remains devotedly committed to her, come what may.

In another part of Russia, Levin has all but recovered from the humiliating refusal he received from Kitty.  It’s the beginning of Spring, and Levin is filled with joy and enthusiasm for the preparatory work that must be done to ready his agricultural operations for the coming seasons.  He’s absolutely in his element, perfectly at ease with the rural life he’s chosen when his old friend Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky arrives from Moscow to sell some neighboring land.  Levin does his best to ignore the memories of Kitty that Oblonsky’s appearance rekindles.  By the end of the day however, he can’t stop himself and demands to know what has become of Oblonsky’s sister-in-law, Kitty.  Discovering Kitty has been unwell and remains unmarried seriously disrupts Levin’s bucolic serenity.  He becomes irrationally perturbed by his friend’s handling of the neighboring property sale, and their discussion become heated and uncomfortable.  In the end however, the two men fight like brothers and eventually calm down and reaffirm their friendship.

Back in Petersburg, Anna is pregnant.  Vronsky insists they find a way to be together, but Anna points out how impossible it would be — that her husband will have none of it.  The action of this dilemma is perhaps metaphorically embedded in a steeplechase race that Vronsky is to compete in.  His beloved horse, Frou-Frou, is beautiful and high-spirited.  Tragedy occurs in the race when Vronsky lands a jump improperly and breaks the horse’s back.  During the rush of concern for horse and rider, Anna, in the grandstands, loses sight of Vronsky and openly displays her horror that her lover may be dead.  Alexei Karenin is keenly aware of Anna’s unseemly distress and all but pulls her from the crowd.  During the carriage ride home, Anna is petulant and cruel to her husband.  Finally, she burst with rage and tells her husband that she hates him and wants out of the marriage.  She confesses that she is Vronsky’s mistress, but says nothing of the pregnancy.  In an act of absolute self-control, her husband merely asks that she respect his position in society and observe a reasonable amount of propriety until he can secure his honor.  I suppose we’ll see what that means later in the novel.

Part two concludes back at the German Spa with Kitty and her parents.  It’s a place filled with invalids and the dying, rather purgatory-esque.  Kitty makes up fanciful, elevated stories about the people she encounters.  She befriends one girl in particular, Verenka.  Verenka is quite saintly in her attention and ministrations to the weak around her.  Kitty attempts to copy her friend but in a moment of real growth comes to realize how fake she is being, and that care must be more than just a show, it must come from the heart.  When Kitty and her parents return to Russia she is on much more sure footing and is prepared to face Moscow society.

So that’s how far I’ve gotten.  I’m enjoying the novel, and I’m eager to see what will happen next.

Meanwhile in my personal life, all is calm.  I spent a pile of cash this week at my local nursery on flowers.  Among my purchases were two Daphne Ordora; they’re  small winter-flowering shrubs, and their fragrance is divine.  My backyard looks so cheerful now that the fresh pink, yellow, purple and red flowers are in.

As always, have a good week, and I’ll write again next Friday.  Comments are always welcomed; just click on the “Comment” link.

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