Ana’s Reviews > Anna Karenin > Status Update

'"Yes, it is curious," he continued. "We work without making anything, as though we were ordained, like the vestals of old, to keep some sacred fire burning."'

'And she remembered that it was just when her inner feelings were touched upon that Anna drooped her eyelids. "As if she half-shut her eyes to her own life, so as not to see everything," thought Dolly.'

'He gave her a searching glance but she responded with that same defiant look of high spirits or despair, the meaning of which he could not fathom.'

'He was nine years old; he was a child; but he knew his own soul and treasured it, guarding it as the eyelid guards the eye, and without the key of love he let no one into his heart.'

'The church became so quiet that the drops of wax could be heard falling from the candles.'

'Her face shone with a vivid glow; but it was not a joyous glow – it suggested the terrible glow of a fire on a dark night.'

'At first Anna sincerely believed that she was displeased with him for daring to pursue her; but soon after her return from Moscow, having gone to a party where she expected to meet him but to which he did not come, she distinctly realized, by the disappointment that overcame her, that she had been deceiving herself and that his pursuit was not only distasteful to her, but was the whole interest of her life.'

'Anna read attentively but there was no pleasure in reading, no pleasure in entering into other people's lives and adventures. She was too eager to live herself.'

'It was as though her nature were so brimming over with something that against her will it expressed itself now in a radiant look, now in a smile.'

'Moving in a certain circle where a desire for some form of mental activity was part of maturity, he was obliged to hold views in the same way as he was obliged to wear a hat.'