Creating Anna Karenina

by Bob Blaisdell

  LXXIV. Anna Karenina, Part 6, Chapter 23, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_180.htm.

  LXXV. Anna Karenina, Part 6, Chapter 21, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_178.htm.

  LXXVI. Anna Karenina, Part 6, Chapter 16, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_173.htm.

  LXXVII. Tolstaya, My Life, 209.

  LXXVIII. Ibid.

  LXXIX. Ibid.

  LXXX. Tolstaya, My Life, 210.

  LXXXI. Ibid.

  8 Summer, Fall, Winter 1875

  I. PSS 62: 193, footnote 2, letter of June 20, 1875.

  II. Sergei further explains: “My father had planned to have a large stud at the Samara farm. By crossing trained English and Russian trotters with wild Kirghiz, Kalmik, and Bashkir animals it was hoped to get strong, enduring horses, particularly suitable for cavalry. The conditions in the Samara steppes for such a stud were very favorable. The steppe hay, grown on almost virgin soil, was as nourishing as oats, and there were plenty of meadows. To fulfill this plan my father bought several beautiful pedigree horses and a great number of steppe mares.” Tolstoy Remembered by His Son, 25.

  III. Tolstaya, My Life, 210.

  IV. Tolstoy Remembered by His Son, 23.

  V. PSS 62: 193.

  VI. PSS 62: 193.

  VII. PSS 62: 194–195, letter of July 24–25, 1875.

  VIII. Tolstoy, Tolstoy: A Life of My Father, 211.

  IX. Behrs, Recollections of Count Leo Tolstoy, 100–101.

  X. Tolstoy Remembered by His Son, 24–25.

  XI. Behrs, Recollections of Count Leo Tolstoy, 101.

  XII. Anna Karenina, Part 2, Chapter 28, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-kareninaanna_62.htm.

  XIII. Tolstaya, My Life, 214.

  XIV. According to Gusev (Letopis’, 445), it was August 22. According to Gusev (Materials, 213), it was August 23. Whom are we to trust, Gusev or Gusev? Perhaps the question should be: Whom was Gusev to trust, Tolstoy or Tolstoy? In his August 25 letters to Nagornov and Sergei Tolstoy, Tolstoy says they returned “three days ago.” Writing to Strakhov on the same day, Tolstoy says “two days ago.”

  XV. PSS 62: 195–196, letter of August 25, 1875.

  XVI. PSS 62: 198, letter of August 25, 1875.

  XVII. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 280–281, August 25, 1875.

  XVIII. Ibid.

  XIX. PSS 62: 198–199, letter of August 25, 1875.

  XX. PSS 62: 199.

  XXI. Gusev, Materials, 214.

  XXII. PSS 62: 202, letter of September 6–10, 1875.

  XXIII. PSS 62: 202.

  XXIV. PSS 62: 203.

  XXV. Ibid.

  XXVI. “Education and Culture,” in Tolstoy on Education, trans. Leo Wiener (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 149.

  XXVII. PSS 62: 204, letter of September 15–20, 1875.

  XXVIII. Gusev, Materials, 215.

  XXIX. PSS 62: 203, note 2.

  XXX. Gusev, Materials, 215.

  XXXI. Gusev, Letopis’, 446.

  XXXII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 219. According to PSS 62: 208, Strakhov’s letter was written in the period of October 10–17, but in accordance with Donskov (219), the context of the whole letter makes more sense that it was in late September, within a few days after Strakhov’s departure from Yasnaya Polyana.

  XXXIII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 219.

  XXXIV. The Diaries of Sophia Tolstoy, 51–52.

  XXXV. Confession, Chapter 4, 18–19, http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/a-confession/4/.

  XXXVI. Gusev, Materials, 216, [ref: PSS 23: 494].

  XXXVII. PSS 23: 494. The novel goes unmentioned in the published edition of Confession.

  XXXVIII. Anna Karenina, Part 3, Chapter 32, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_101.htm.

  XXXIX. Anna Karenina, Part 8, Chapter 9, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_229.htm.

  XL. Gusev, Materials, 216.

  XLI. Confession, Chapter 4, http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/a-confession/4/.

  XLII. PSS 62: 207–208, letter of October 10–20, 1875.

  XLIII. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 281, c. October 26, 1875.

  XLIV. PSS 62: 210–211, letter of October 26, 1875.

  XLV. PSS 62: 213.

  XLVI. Ibid.

  XLVII. Tolstaya, My Life, 214. Tolstoy, in the October 30 letter to Nagornov, says the baby lived only a half-hour (see PSS 62: 218).

  XLVIII. PSS 62: 214, letter of November 5–9, 1875.

  XLIX. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 283. Gusev, however, says that it wasn’t until November 17 that Tolstoy began “On a Future Life Outside Space and Time.” (Gusev, Materials, 226.)

  L. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 283, November 8–9, 1875.

  LI. PSS 62: 216, letter of November 8–9, 1875.

  LII. PSS 62: 216, note 4.

  LIII. PSS 62: 216, letter of November 8–9, 1875.

  LIV. PSS 62: 218.

  LV. Confession, Chapter 7, http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/a-confession/7/.

  LVI. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 283.

  LVII. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 287.

  LVIII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, xxxv.

  LIX. Ibid. (In Materials [222], Gusev thought the accompanying manuscript of Tolstoy’s was “Why I Write.” There is a discrepancy here. I trust Donskov, the later editor, that the manuscript was Confession rather than the unknown “Why I Write.”)

  LX. Popoff, Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography, 84.

  LXI. PSS 62: 233.

  LXII. Gusev, Materials, 208.

  LXIII. PSS 62: 233.

  LXIV. PSS 62: 233, letter of December 10–12, 1875.

  LXV. Gusev, Materials, 229–230.

  LXVI. PSS 17: 340–352.

  LXVII. Tolstaya, My Life, 217.

  LXVIII. What Is Art? and Essays on Art, The World’s Classics edition, trans. Aylmer Maude (London: Oxford University Press, 1950), 182–183.

  LXIX. Explaining more comically (perhaps) and certainly with more disgust, Tolstoy describes the effect of Vronsky’s painting on Mikhailov: “He knew that Vronsky could not be prevented from amusing himself with painting; he knew that he and all dilettanti had a perfect right to paint what they liked, but it was distasteful to him. A man could not be prevented from making himself a big wax doll, and kissing it. But if the man were to come with the doll and sit before a man in love, and begin caressing his doll as the lover caressed the woman he loved, it would be distasteful to the lover. Just such a distasteful sensation was what Mihailov felt at the sight of Vronsky’s painting: he felt it both ludicrous and irritating, both pitiable and offensive.” Part 6, Chapter 13, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_137.htm.

  9 The Serialization of Anna Karenina Resumes: January–May 1876

  I. PSS 62: 235.

  II. PSS 62: 237, footnote 2.

  III. PSS 62: 237.

  IV. PSS 62: 238, letter of January 3–4, 1876.

  V. PSS 62: 240, letter of January 17, 1876.

  VI. PSS 62: 241, letter of January 24–25, 1876.

  VII. PSS 62: 241–242.

  VIII. PSS 62: 243. The editors guess the date as sometime in January.

  IX. Tatyana A. Kuzminskaya, Tolstoy as I Knew Him: My Life at Home and at Yasnaya Polyana (New York: Macmillan, 1948), 333–334. See also “Exhibition Devoted to Leo Tolstoy’s Sister Mariya Tolstaya,” Yasnaya Polyana website, http://ypmuseum.ru/en/2011-04-13-17-30-44/2011-04-14-19-34-40/1021-13-02-2013.html and L. N. Tolstoi: Entsiklopediya (Moscow: Prosveshchenie, 2009), 309–310, 315.

  X. William Mills Todd III, “V. N. Golitsyn Reads Anna Karenina: How One of Karenin’s Colleagues Responded to the Novel,” in Reading in Russia, ed. Damiano Rebecchini and Raffaella Vassena (Milan: Ledizioni, 2014), 189–200.

  XI. Anna Karenina, Part 3, Chapter 12, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_81.htm.

  XII. Anna Karenina, Part 3, Chapter 13
, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_82.htm.

  XIII. PSS 62: 247, letter of February 14–15, 1876.

  XIV. I wish I could design a chart illustrating “Tolstoy’s Assessments of Anna Karenina.” The categories are: Good, Bad, Disgusting. Almost all of his assessments fall into the second and third categories.

  XV. In the February issue of the Russian Herald, what became the book’s 17 chapters were divided into 15.

  XVI. PSS 83: 221, letter of February 9–15,1876.

  XVII. PSS 83: 222.

  XVIII. PSS 83: 223, footnote 7.

  XIX. Tolstoy, 1876, http://tolstoy.ru/media/photos/index.php?df=1846&dt=1876&q=&page=5.

  XX. PSS 62: 247–248, letter of February 21, 1876.

  XXI. PSS 62: 198, letter of August 25, 1875. PSS 62: 218, letter of November 9–10, 1875.

  XXII. PSS 62: 282, letter of July 31, 1876.

  XXIII. PSS 62: 247–248, letter of February 21, 1876.

  XXIV. Anna Karenina, Part 3, Chapter 32, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_101.htm.

  XXV. PSS 62: 248, letter of February 21, 1876.

  XXVI. Tolstaya, My Life, 215.

  XXVII. Tolstaya, My Life, 228.

  XXVIII. PSS 83: 223.

  XXIX. Tolstaya, My Life, 216.

  XXX. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 9, http://literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_133.htm.

  XXXI. Tolstaya, My Life, 243.

  XXXII. Tolstaya, My Life, 223.

  XXXIII. Tolstaya, My Life, 230.

  XXXIV. Tolstaya, My Life, 281.

  XXXV. PSS 62: 248–249.

  XXXVI. F. M. Dostoievsky [sic], The Diary of a Writer, trans. Boris Brasol (New York: George Braziller, 1954). (See “Chapter II, 1, One of the Principal Contemporaneous,” February 1877, 610–611.)

  XXXVII. Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 17, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_118.htm.

  XXXVIII. Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 17, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_118.htm.

  XXXIX. Gusev, Materials, 288.

  XL. Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 17, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_118.htm.

  XLI. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 291–292.

  XLII. PSS 62: 253, letter of March 1, 1876.

  XLIII. PSS 62: 253, letter of February 29–March 1, 1876.

  XLIV. Dostoievsky [sic], The Diary of a Writer, 610.

  XLV. This is how I understand the expression “the sins get pulled under the elbow”: When you are doing something great, the little faults are forgotten. PSS 62: 254, letter of March 8, 1876.

  XLVI. Regarding the “relative-aunt,” Tolstoy’s “Auntie” helped raise him; she was his father’s second cousin. Andrew Donskov, Tolstoy and Tolstaya: A Portrait of a Life in Letters (Ottawa: University of Ottawa, 2017), 412. PSS 62: 254, letter of March 1, 1876.

  XLVII. Tolstaya, My Life, 222.

  XLVIII. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 10, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_134.htm.

  XLIX. Tolstaya, My Life, 222–223.

  L. Tolstaya, My Life, 223.

  LI. Ibid.

  LII. PSS 62: 255, letter of March 8–9, 1876.

  LIII. PSS 62: 256–257, letter of March 8–12, 1876.

  LIV. Tolstoy, Tolstoy: A Life of My Father, 213.

  LV. PSS 62: 258, letter of March 12–15, 1876.

  LVI. PSS 62: 255.

  LVII. Tolstaya, My Life, 223.

  LVIII. Gusev, Letopis’, 453.

  LIX. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 292–293, March 17–20, 1876.

  LX. “As you read [The Kreutzer Sonata], you can barely keep from shouting, ‘That’s true!’ or ‘That’s ridiculous!’ True, it has some very irritating faults. Besides the ones you listed [Simon Karlinsky’s editorial note tells us that Alexei Pleshcheyev, Chekhov’s letter’s recipient, had called Tolstoy’s novella “paradoxical, one-sided, extraordinary and possibly false”], there is one that I am unwilling to pardon the author, namely the audacity with which Tolstoy treats topics about which he knows nothing and which out of obstinacy he does not wish to understand. For example, his opinions on syphilis, foundling homes, women’s revulsion for sexual intercourse, and so on are not only debatable; they expose him as an ignorant man who has never at any point in his long life taken the trouble to read two or three books written by specialists. Nevertheless, these faults are as easily dispersed as feathers in the wind; the worth of the work is such that they simply pass unnoticed. And, if you do notice them, the only result is that you find yourself annoyed it has not escaped the fate of all human works, all of which are imperfect and tainted.” Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary, selected by Simon Karlinsky, trans. Michael Henry Heim and Karlinsky (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973), 155–157.

  LXI. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 293.

  LXII. Eikhenbaum, Tolstoi in the Seventies, 121.

  LXIII. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 294, March 20–23, 1876.

  LXIV. Elena Sergeevna Tolstaya (1863–1942). (See also PSS 83: 531.) Maria Tolstaya returned for visits to Yasnaya Polyana and to her own estate, Pokrovskoye, but did not visit Russia with her illegitimate daughter until Elena turned eighteen, at which time she brought her there and introduced her as her ward. Maria eventually became a nun. When Tolstoy left Sofia in 1910, he tried to go see Maria in her convent, but he died on the way. Tolstoy’s son Sergei says, “She lived for a time at Yasnaya Polyana, though my mother never approved of it. Aunt Masha was always restless and never seemed to settle down anywhere.” (Tolstoy Remembered by His Son, 157.) Sofia did not in My Life or her diaries expess disapproval of Maria or her visits.

  LXV. Perepiski Russkikh Pisateley: Perepiska L. N. Tolstogo s sestroy i brat’yami (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya Literatura, 1990), 352–353, letter of March 1876.

  LXVI. Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 21, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_122.htm.

  LXVII. Ibid.

  LXVIII. Tolstaya, My Life, 221.

  LXIX. PSS 62: 262, letter of early April 1876.

  LXX. Gusev, Letopis’, 454.

  LXXI. Gusev, Materials, 288.

  LXXII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, April 8, 1876, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62256-.htm.

  LXXIII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 256, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62256-.htm.

  LXXIV. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 295, April 8–9, 1876.

  LXXV. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, April 15–17?, 1876, 296.

  LXXVI. Confession, Chapter 5, http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/a-confession/5/.

  LXXVII. PSS 62: 267–268, letter of April 20–23?, 1876.

  LXXVIII. In Donskov’s edition (L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 264), dated as “the second half of April,” http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62264-.htm.

  LXXIX. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62264-.htm.

  LXXX. Ibid.

  LXXXI. Anna Karenina, Part 4, Chapter 5, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_106.htm.

  LXXXII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 264, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62264-.htm.

  LXXXIII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62264-.htm.

  LXXXIV. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 264, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62264-.htm.

  LXXXV. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 11, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-kareninaanna_135.htm.

  LXXXVI. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 265, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62264-.htm.

  LXXXVII. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 296–297, April 23 and 26, 1876.

  LXXXVIII. The Complete Works of Count Tolstoy, Volume 24, trans. Leo Wiener (London: J.M. Dent, 1905), 262–263.

  LXXXIX. Chr
istian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 298, April 28–29, 1876.

  XC. Fet died in 1892, eighteen years before Tolstoy.

  XCI. Christian, Tolstoy’s Letters, 298.

  XCII. PSS 62: 273.

  XCIII. Gusev, Materials, 238. (Anna Karenina, Part 8, Chapter 9, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_229.htm.)

  XCIV. PSS 83: 223–224, letter of April 1876.

  XCV. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 8, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_132.htm/.

  XCVI. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 8, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_132.htm.

  XCVII. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 14, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_138.htm.

  XCVIII. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 270, May 8, 1876, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62270-.htm.

  XCIX. Donskov, L. N. Tolstoy – N. N. Strakhov, 272, May 17–18, 1876, http://feb-web.ru/feb/tolstoy/texts/selectpe/ts6/ts62272-.htm.

  C. Ibid.

  CI. Ibid.

  CII. Anna Karenina, Part 5, Chapter 24, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_148.htm.

  CIII. PSS 62: 273–274.

  CIV. PSS 62: 275, letter of May 16, 1876.

  CV. PSS 62: 277, letter of May 17–18, 1876.

  10 From Idle to Full Steam Ahead: June–December 1876

  I. Gusev, Letopis’, 459.

  II. PSS 62: 278, letter of June 7–8, 1876.

  III. Ibid.

  IV. PSS 62: 279, letter of June 22–23, 1876.

  V. PSS 62: 281, letter of July 21, 1876.

  VI. Ibid.

  VII. The letter containing this description hasn’t been found.

  VIII. PSS 62: 282.

  IX. PSS 62: 284, letter of August 27–28, 1876.

  X. PSS 83: 225–226, letter of September 4, 1876.

  XI. PSS 83: 228.

  XII. Tolstaya, My Life, 226.

  XIII. Ibid.

  XIV. Anna Karenina, Part 6, Chapter 25, http://www.literatureproject.com/anna-karenina/anna_182.htm.

  XV. PSS 83: 229–230, letter of September 7, 1876.

  XVI. PSS 83: 230, letter of September 7, 1876.

  XVII. PSS 83: 229, footnote 6.

  XVIII. Tolstaya, My Life, 226.