n’s Reviews > Anna Karenina > Status Update

I.23 is making me INSANE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the contrast between anna and kitty is so interestingly done bc every physical aspect seems determined to make you see how utterly opposite they are to each other and how, in all this, vronskyi’s interest in kitty seems immediately to fall flat when he completely loses himself without delay to her polar opposite, and to the point of it being… obvious and incorrect towards kitty… just CRAZY sauce…

shocked to learn that we are skipping the lunch. wdym the ball. WHAT HAPPENED AT LUNCH

a very interesting chapter on the conversation between anna and dolly specifically bc it’s so full of contradictions… how can you forgive him his affair “as if it never happened” if a second prior you say that you would never be the same as before you found out…

«Но как же простить, как мне опять быть его женою после нее? Мне жить с ним теперь будет мученье, именно потому, что я люблю свою прошедшую любовь к нему...»

💘 (derogatory)

Anna and Stiva being essentially twins… their pure, dripping charisma that seems to fill them with an energy source other ppl seem not to possess…

NOT TOLSTOY GIVING BOTH VRONSKYI AND KARENIN THE SAME FIRST NAME, OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD.

you see, this tells you that tolstoy was a bad bitch who lived for drama bc the first name “aleksei” is a perfectly common first name at any time through the centuries and it’s perfectly possible and realistic for both of them to be called that but it’s also not THAT common to make it LIKELY. its clearly a CHOICE.

WAIT 😭😭😭 oblonskyi DOES tell vronskyi about levin proposing to kitty the night prior and they both realise his bad mood meant kitty declined his proposal and instead of feeling guilty or whatever, it literally says he “felt like a victor” bc kitty chose him over levin despite him being sure he doesn’t even want to marry!!!!!!! HELLO 😭😭😭

sometimes having a vague idea of a work is good bc it makes you appreciate things immediately, like in the spectacular I.17, where vronskyi and oblonskyi meet at the train station, the former to meet his mother and the latter his sister coming down from st. petersburg by the same train, and your head begins spinning immediately with one million questions bc you KNOW it is that same sister who is the titular character

i never researched what you call this specific style that is so prominent in 19th century writing of this masterful omniscient pov but truly the greatest use of it must be to show us stuff like this, where kitty and her mother are sure of vronskys soon to come proposal and one chapter over we learn that vronsky doesn’t plan on marrying and doesn’t see how what he’s doing comes across as courting kitty 😭