Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

  15 Fomin's ... Fulde's: Fomin's was an actual florist's shop in Moscow, and Fulde's was an actual jewellery shop.

  16 Froom: That is, Froom's Railway Guide for Russia and the Continent of Europe, published in English in 1870.

  17 that holy martyr...: Anna is thinking of St Mary of Egypt, a fifth-century saint much venerated in the Orthodox Church, a prostitute who converted to Christianity and withdrew to the Egyptian desert, where she spent more than forty years in solitude and repentance.

  18 Yeliseev's: The Yeliseev brothers owned famous delicatessen shops in Petersburg and Moscow which have survived to this day.

  Part Five

  1 prepared for communion: Only practising Orthodox Christians could be married in the Orthodox Church. To be a practising Christian meant to receive communion, and the necessary preparation for communion was the confession of one's sins.

  2 the ambo: A raised platform leading from the body of the church to the doors of the sanctuary.

  3 The mixing of these trades ...: The sentence is a slightly altered quotation from the comedy Woe from Wit by the Russian poet, playwright and diplomat Alexander Griboedov (179 5-182.9).

  4 suitor in Gogol: The suitor Ivan Kuzmich Podkolesin, in Gogol's comedy The Wedding, jumps out the window and flees just before he is expected to propose.

  5 icon for the bride: In the Orthodox wedding ceremony, the bride and groom enter the church preceded by two children carrying icons - an icon of the Saviour for the groom and of the Mother of God for the bride.

  6 the iconostasis: In an Orthodox church this is an icon-bearing partition with three doors that separates the body of the church from the sanctuary.

  7 the heated church: City churches are often very large and only part of them can be kept warm in winter. This wedding, since it is before the Great Lent, is taking place in the very early spring.

  8 new ones?: Specially painted and decorated candles are held by the bride and groom in an Orthodox wedding. They are often kept afterwards, but, as they are costly and burn down very little during the service, they may also be given back to the church.

  9 step on the rug: A small piece of fine cloth is placed in the middle of the church for the bride and groom to stand on during the actual marriage ceremony. There is a popular belief that whoever steps on it first will be the dominant partner in the marriage.

  10 porch of the church: The Orthodox marriage service has two parts: the betrothal and the marriage proper (the 'crowning', during which attendants hold crowns over the heads of the bride and groom). The betrothal takes place in the porch of the church, the crowning inside the church itself.

  11 kamilavka: A special round velvet hat worn by Orthodox priests; the Russian word is a distortion of the Greek kalimavka, meaning 'beautiful hat'.

  12 the Synod: At the death of the patriarch Adrian in 1700, Peter the Great reorganized the administration of the Russian Orthodox Church, appointing a

  Holy Synod of bishops, instead of a new patriarch, to preside over Church affairs, headed by a Chief Procurator who was a layman answerable to the tsar. The Church was thus regarded not as a divine institution but as a department of the state. This 'synodal' period of Russian church history lasted until 1917, when an all-church council elected a new patriarch, Tikhon (now St Tikhon).

  13 'For thou ... in love': The extracts from the Orthodox marriage service in this chapter are taken from The Service Book of the Holy Orthodox-Catholic Apostolic Church, compiled, translated and arranged by Isabel Florence Hap-good with the endorsement of the patriarch Tikhon, published since 1918 in a number of editions.

  14 ... would be happy: Another popular belief concerning the marriage ceremony. The crowns are customarily held above the heads of the bride and groom during the service, but it was thought that if the crown was actually put on the person's head, it would help to make the person happy in married life.

  15 '...reverence her husband': Ephesians 5:33. The Slavonic version reads 'fear' instead of the milder 'reverence' of the King James version.

  16 elaborate psalm: Psalm 12.8, beginning: 'Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.'

  17 see their children's children: Tolstoy quotes snippets from prayers and petitions in the marriage service (see note 13, Part Five).

  18 'Rejoice, O Isaiah': At this central moment in the marriage service, the priest takes the bride and groom by the hand and leads them three times around the lectern, the attendants following them holding the crowns over their heads, while the choir sings certain verses, the best known beginning 'Rejoice, O Isaiah'.

  19 Tintoretto: Jacopo Robusti, known as Tintoretto (1518-94), was an Italian painter of the Venetian school.

  20 The Two Origins ... explanation: The Slavophiles (see note 13, Part Four) often touched on the notion of the two origins - Catholic and Orthodox, rational and spiritual, Western and Eastern - of Russian culture. A. S. Khomiakov (1804-60), religious philosopher and poet, an important representative of the Slavophile movement, wrote about the Byzantine origin of Russian history. At the end of the novel, Levin will be 'disappointed in Khomiakov's teaching about the Church'.

  21 Ivanov-Strauss-Renan: A. A. Ivanov (1806-58), an artist of the 'Wanderers' group, was the founder of the historical school of Russian painting; his most famous work was 'Christ Shown to the People' (1858). David Strauss (1808-74), German theologian and philosopher, wrote a famous 'historical' Life of Jesus, as did the French religious historian and lapsed Catholic Ernest Renan (1823-92).

  22 new school: The artist I. N. Kramskoy (1837-87), also a 'Wanderer', met Tolstoy in 1873 and may have told him about his plans for a painting on the subject of the mocking of Christ. The 'new school' treated traditional religious subjects with the techniques of realism. Tolstoy thought they had taken a wrong turn; his preference went neither to the traditionally 'religious' nor to the new 'realistic', but to a 'moral' treatment of the subject (see his What Is Art?).

  23 Charlotte Corday: Charlotte Corday d'Armont (1768-93) became famous for assassinating the French revolutionary politician Jean-Paul Marat (1743-93), a Montagnard, in revenge for the 'September massacres' of the Girondin party, which he instigated. She went to the guillotine.

  24 Raphael's: Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520), one of the greatest painters of the Florentine school, was commonly regarded in the nineteenth century as the supreme master of the art of painting. It was his 'idealizing' influence above all that the new historical school rejected.

  25 Pre-Raphaelite Englishman: The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of English painters that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century, W. Holman-Hunt (1827-1910), J. E. Millais (1829-96) and D. G. Rossetti (1828-82) chief among them, revolted against the imitation of nature and favoured convention in art. They held up the Italian masters before Raphael, particularly Giotto and Botticelli, as models. The influential critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) championed their work.

  26 Rachel: The Swiss-born actress Eliza Felix (1820-58), known as Mlle Rachel, contributed greatly to the revival of French classical tragedy on the nineteenth-century stage.

  27 ... man-God... God-man: According to Christian dogma, God became man in the 'God-man' Christ. Golenishchev implies that Mikhailov, in portraying a Christ whose divinity he denies, is in fact turning man into a god. (Kirillov makes the same reversal in Dostoevsky's Demons.)

  28 Capuan: According to Livy (59 bc-ad 17) in his history of Rome, after spending the winter in Capua, near Naples, during the second Punic War, Hannibal's army became physically and morally soft and was subsequently defeated. In journalism of the 1870s, the name 'Capua' was often applied to the Paris of Napoleon III, but the use of 'Capuan' here is peculiar to Tolstoy: in his diaries he referred to his own periods of inactivity as 'Capua'.

  29 'Hidden from the wise...': A misquotation of Matthew 11:25: '... thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes'. (See also Luke 10:21.)

  30 when in doubt...: A literal translation of the F
rench proverb: Dans le doute abstiens-toi, which was Tolstoy's favourite saying.

  31 burden is light: Cf. Matthew 11:30: 'For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.'

  32 mystical mood ... in Petersburg: See note 34, Part Two.

  33 'He that humbleth himself...': See Luke 14:11.

  34 Komisarov: In April 1866 a certain O. I. Komissarov (1838-92), a peasant hatter from Kostroma (Tolstoy spells the name with one s), turned up by chance near the fence of the Summer Garden in Petersburg and inadvertently hindered Karakozov's attempt to assassinate Alexander II. For that he was granted nobility and became socially fashionable for a time. He eventually drank himself into obscurity.

  35 Ristich-Kudzhitsky: That is, Yovan Ristich (1831-99), a Serbian political activist who opposed Turkish and Austrian influence in Serbia. His name was well known in Russia. The 'Slavic question' was the question of freeing the Slavic peoples from the Ottoman yoke, one of the most important political issues of the 1870s. In 1875 a popular revolt broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1876 in Montenegro. Serbia declared war on Turkey that same year. Bulgaria placed its hopes in Russia. In 1877 Russia declared war on Turkey, and there was talk of 'taking Constantinople' in revenge for the Russian defeat in the Crimean War (1854-6).

  36 the Alexander Nevsky: That is, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, created by Peter the Great in 1722, named after St Alexander Nevsky (1220-63), a prince whose victories over the Swedes and the Teutonic knights made him a national hero.

  37 'He that is married ...': Cf. 1 Corinthians 7:32-3. Karenin inverts the two halves of the sentence.

  38 throw the stone: See note 33, Part One.

  39 Slav tutor: It was traditional to have an English or French tutor; Karenin follows the new fashion in having his son learn Russian from a Slav tutor.

  40 the Vladimir ... Andrew the First-called: That is, the Order of St Vladimir, named after Prince Vladimir of Kiev (956?-1015), who laid the foundations of the Kievan state and in 988 converted his people to Christianity, and the Order of St Andrew the apostle, patron saint of Russia, traditionally known as 'the first-called' from the account of his calling in John 1:37-40.

  41 Enoch... alive to heaven: See Genesis 5:18-24 and Hebrews 1,1:5.

  42 Patti: Carlotta Patti (1835-89), Italian opera singer, elder sister of the more famous Adelina Patti (1843-1919), toured in Russia from 1872 to 1875.

  43 perfumed glove: The long, tight-fitting gloves fashionable at the time could only be put on by first being rolled up like a stocking.

  Part Six

  1 Gvozdevo ... near side: The topography of Pokrovskoe resembles that of Tolstoy's estate Yasnaya Polyana down to the smallest details. The marsh where Tolstoy used to hunt was divided in two by railway tracks; that is why Levin says 'on the near side'.

  2 Automedon: Achilles' charioteer in the Iliad.

  3 tax farmers: private persons authorized by the state to collect taxes in exchange for a fixed fee. The practice was obviously open to abuse, and tax farmers could become extremely wealthy, though never quite respectable. The practice was abolished in the 1860s by the reforms of Alexander II.

  4 Gretchen: Diminutive of Margarete, a peasant girl in Goethe's Faust who is seduced and abandoned by Faust.

  5 hat of Monomakh: A slightly altered quotation from Pushkin's historical drama Boris Godunov. The 'hat of Monomakh' is the hereditary crown of the Russian tsars, named after Prince Vladimir Monomakh (1053-1126).

  6 bring forth children: See Genesis 3:16 (Revised Standard Version).

  7 Gautier: An actual bookshop in Moscow, owned by V. I. Gautier, located on Kuznetsky Bridge.

  8 '-- kiss the cross': It was customary to seal an oath by kissing the cross.

  9 '... sancta simplicitas': 'O holy simplicity' - words said to have been spoken by the Czech reformer Jan Hus (1369-1415), as he was being burned at the stake, to an old woman who came up to add a stick to the fire.

  10 bast: The flexible inner bark of the linden, which had many uses (as roofing material, fibre for binding, material for shoes) in rural Russia.

  11 vestals: The Vestal Virgins were priestesses who tended the sacred fire in the temple of Vesta, goddess of the hearth and household, in ancient Rome.

  12 the brothers: That is, 'brother Slavs' - Serbians, Bulgarians, Montenegrins -whose struggle for independence drew sympathy and aid from Russian society (see note 35, Part Five).

  13 Taine: Hippolyte Taine (1828-93), French philosopher, historian and critic. His book Intelligence was published in 1870. In What Is Art? Tolstoy includes him among the futile reasoners about beauty.

  Part Seven

  1 Montenegrins... fighters: Over the course of some six centuries Montenegro never ceased its resistance to Turkish rule. In 1876 the Montenegrins formed bands and embarked on a guerrilla war in the mountains, which was followed closely in the European press.

  2 Svintich's fiftieth birthday: An ironic reference to the celebrating of all sorts of anniversaries that became fashionable in the 1870s.

  3 the university question: The January 1875 issue of the Russian Herald, in which the first chapters of Anna Karenina were published, also contained an article by Professor N. Liubimov on 'The University Question'. Liubimov, who opposed the autonomy of the universities, was accused by young professors of handing them over to the government.

  4 Ment: The name of the poet Ment, which means '[he] lies' in French, is Tolstoy's invention, as is the name of the scholar Metrov, from 'metre' or 'measure'.

  5 Journal de St-Petersbourg: A semi-official magazine published in French from 1842, reflecting the political views of the higher aristocratic circles.

  6 Buslaev's grammar: F. I. Buslaev (1818-97), Russian scholar and philologist, was the author of two fundamental works of historical grammar.

  7 King Lear on the Heath: This fantasia is Tolstoy's parody of the programme music that had become popular in nineteenth-century concert halls, which he disapproved of (see What Is Art?). Two Russian composers used Shakespeare's King Lear as a subject: M. A. Balakirev (1837-1910) in his King Lear (1860), and P. I. Tchaikovsky (1840-93) in The Storm (1874). Tolstoy believed that the need for adjusting music to literature or literature to music destroyed creative freedom.

  8 das ewig Weibliche: The notion of the ewig Weibliche comes from the finale of Goethe's Faust.

  9 Wagnerian trend ...: Like Levin, Tolstoy considered the operas of Richard Wagner (1813-83) and the musical 'trend' that followed from them another form of programme music. His strongest attack on Wagner and his theory of the Gesamtkunstwerk (total or composite work of art) appears in What Is Art?

  10 ... poet on a pedestal: Tolstoy has in mind the model for a monument to Pushkin by the sculptor M. M. Antokolsky (1843-1902), which was exhibited in the Academy of Art in 1875. Pushkin was shown sitting on a rock with the heroes of his works coming up some stairs towards him, the intention being to illustrate Pushkin's lines: 'Now an invisible swarm of guests comes to me,/ Familiar of old, the fruits of my dream.'

  11 panikhida: A memorial service for the dead.

  12 Lucca: Paulina Lucca (1841-1908), an Italian-born opera singer who made her career in Austria, visited Russia in the early 1870s. She had great successes as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni and Carmen in Bizet's Carmen.

  13 folle journee: The French phrase, taken from the comedy La Folle Journee, ou le Mariage de Figaro, by Beaumarchais (1732-99), came to be applied to all sorts of carnivals and festive evenings.

  14 foreigner ... to exile abroad: In October 1875 a commercial credit bank in Moscow was suddenly closed, and its directors and board members were arrested. The chief cause of the scandal was a certain foreign negotiator whose fraudulent dealings led to the bank's collapse. His trial lasted until November 1876, when he was found guilty and banished from Russia, a 'punishment' which aroused widespread indignation.

  15 Krylov's fables: The poet Ivan Krylov (1769-1843) was the father of the Russian fable. Levin's phrase is modelled on the line, 'And the pike w
as thrown into the river', from the fable 'The Pike', in which a corrupt court punishes the guilty pike by throwing it into the river.

  16 'Rejoice, O Isaiah': See note 18, Part Five.

  17 Bible illustrations...: The French graphic artist Gustave Dore (1832-83) is most famous as an illustrator of classics such as The Divine Comedy, Don Quixote, and Gargantua and Pantagruel. In 1875 a luxury edition of the Bible with Dore's illustrations went on sale in Russia. Tolstoy disapproved of Dore's illustrations for being 'merely aesthetic'.

  18 Zola, Daudet: Tolstoy is thinking of the naturalist movement in French literature in the latter half of the nineteenth century, headed by Emile Zola (1840-1902), based on the exact reproduction of life and the total absence of novelistic fiction. For a time Alphonse Daudet (1840-97) was also an adherent of naturalism. Tolstoy criticized the movement for its lack of 'spiritualizing' ideas.

  19 United Agency ... Banking Institutions: The title of the post is a parody conflating the names of two actually existing institutions of the time: The Society of Mutual Land Credit and The Society of Southwestern Railways.

  20 Rurik: See note 4, Part One.