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Tolstoy, Sophia A., The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, ed. O. A. Golinenko, trans. Cathy Porter (Random House, New York, 1985)

Wasiolek, Edward, Critical Essays on Tolstoy (G. K. Hall, Boston, 1986)

— Tolstoy’s Major Fiction (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978)

List of Principal Characters

Guide to pronunciation stresses, with diminutives and variants. Russian names are made up of first name, patronymic (from the father’s first name), and family name. Formal address requires the use of the first name and patronymic. Among family and intimate friends, a diminutive of the first name is normally used, such as Tanya for Tatiana or Kostya for Konstantin, never coupled with the patronymic. Some of Tolstoy’s aristocrats have adopted the fashion of using English or Russified English diminutives - Dolly, Kitty, Betsy, Stiva. With the exception of Karenina, we use only the masculine form of family names.

Oblónsky, Prince Stepán Arkádyich (Stiva)

Princess Dárya Alexándrovna (Dolly, Dásha, Dáshenka,

Dóllenka), his wife, oldest of the three Shcherbatsky

sisters

Shcherbátsky, Prince Alexander Dmitrievich or Alexandre (French)

Princess (‘the old princess’, no first name or patronymic

given), his wife

Princess Ekaterina Alexandrovna (Katerína, Kitty,

Kátia, Kátenka), their third daughter, later wife of

Konstantin Levin

Karénina, Anna Arkádyevna, née Princess Oblonsky, Stepan

Arkadyich’s sister

Karénin, Alexéi Alexándrovich, her husband

Sergéi Alexéich (Seryózha, Kútik), their son

Vrónsky, Count Alexéi Kiríllovich (Alyósha)

Countess (no first name and patronymic given), his mother

Alexander Kiríllovich, his brother

Várya (diminutive of Varvára), née Princess Chirkóv, wife of

Alexander Vronsky

Lévin, Konstantin Dmitrich (Kóstya)

Nikolái Dmitrich (Nikólenka), his brother

Kóznyshev, Sergéi Ivánovich, half-brother of Konstantin and Nikolai Levin

Lvov, Princess Natálya Alexándrovna (Natalie), née Shcherbatsky,

sister of Dolly and Kitty

Arsény (no patronym given), her husband

Tverskóy, Princess Elizavéta Fyódorovna (Betsy), Vronsky’s first

cousin

Márya Nikoláevna (Masha, no family name given), companion of Nikolai Levin

Agáfya Mikháilovna (no family name given), Levin’s former nurse, now his housekeeper

Countess Lydia Ivánovna (no family name given), friend of Karenin

Sviyázhsky, Nikolái Ivánovich, friend of Levin, marshal of nobility in Súrov district

Katavásov, Fyódor Vassilyevich, friend of Levin

Varvára Andréevna (Várenka, no family name given), friend of Kitty

Veslóvsky, Vásenka (or Váska, diminutives of Vassily, no patronymic given), friend of Oblonsky

Yáshvin, Captain or Prince (no name or patronymic given), friend of Vronsky

Vengeance is mine; I will repay.

Part One

I

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

All was confusion in the Oblonskys’ house. The wife had found out that the husband was having an affair with their former French governess, and had announced to the husband that she could not live in the same house with him. This situation had continued for three days now, and was painfully felt by the couple themselves, as well as by all the members of the family and household. They felt that there was no sense in their living together and that people who meet accidentally at any inn have more connection with each other than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife would not leave her rooms, the husband was away for the third day. The children were running all over the house as if lost; the English governess quarrelled with the housekeeper and wrote a note to a friend, asking her to find her a new place; the cook had already left the premises the day before, at dinner-time; the kitchen-maid and coachman had given notice.

On the third day after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyich Oblonsky - Stiva, as he was called in society - woke up at his usual hour, that is, at eight o‘clock in the morning, not in his wife’s bedroom