Anna Karenina Summary Chapter by Chapter | Leo Tolstoy

Chapter 25: The Fear of Death
Nikolay rages against the social order while explaining his failed socialist ventures. Levin sees his brother is drinking heavily and is gripped by an awful, primal fear of death. Existential anxiety takes root.

Chapter 26: Refuge in the Country
Levin returns to his estate, and the peace of country life begins to soothe his Moscow-induced shame. He resolves to improve his farm management and help his brother Nikolay in the future. Work becomes his solace.

Chapter 27: Settling into Solitude
Levin settles back into his old house, finding comfort in the memory of his parents and the companionship of his dog, Laska. He decides that despite his rejection, “all is well,” embracing a quiet, stoic resolve.

Chapter 28: A Guilty Departure
Anna departs Moscow earlier than planned, admitting to Dolly that she is the cause of Kitty’s torture. She flees with the intention of avoiding Vronsky and returning to her ordinary life in Petersburg.

Chapter 29: Restless Thoughts
On the train home, Anna tries to read an English novel but finds herself longing to live her own life. During a stop in a snowstorm, she experiences a surreal, disoriented state, her inner turmoil growing.

Chapter 30: The Confession in the Storm
Vronsky appears in the storm at the station and confesses he has come to Petersburg simply to be where she is. Anna is both panic-stricken and blissful at his bold, relentless declaration of love.

Chapter 31: The Return Home
Upon reaching Petersburg, Anna is met by her husband, Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin. His physical traits—his ears, his tired eyes—suddenly repel her. Vronsky observes Karenin’s “property-like” claim on Anna with loathing.

Chapter 32: Domestic Discomfort
Anna spends the evening with her beloved son, Seryozha, but finds her husband’s presence increasingly uncomfortable.

She tries to convince herself that Vronsky’s declaration was a “trivial incident” of fashionable life, a futile attempt at denial.

Chapter 33: The Quenched Fire
Karenin tells Anna about his official successes at the ministry, pleased with her supposed tact.

Anna notices that the “fire of life” seems quenched in her as she goes to bed, feeling trapped in her marital role.

Chapter 34: Vronsky’s Resolve
Vronsky returns to his Petersburg apartment and rejoins the dissipated lifestyle of his fellow officers. He now prepares to enter Petersburg’s high society with a single, clear purpose: to pursue Anna Karenina.

Part II: The Affair Deepens and the First Fall

Chapter 1

Kitty’s heartbreak manifests as physical illness. Doctors recommend travel abroad. Emotional wounds become bodily.

Chapter 2

Dolly reflects on Kitty’s condition and her own struggles. Parental blame circulates. Family tension deepens.

Chapter 3

Kitty lashes out at pity before collapsing in remorse. She confronts her own pride. Suffering forces introspection.

Chapter 4

Anna enters Princess Betsy’s social circle to see Vronsky. Society becomes a stage for desire. Appearances mask intent.

Chapter 5

Vronsky mediates a social dispute, displaying confidence and charm. His public competence contrasts with private recklessness. Reputation shields him.

Chapter 6

Gossip circulates about Anna and Vronsky. Karenin’s blindness becomes conspicuous. Society notices what marriage ignores.

Chapter 7

Anna warns Vronsky against pursuing her while emotionally surrendering. Words and feelings diverge. Inner conflict sharpens.

Chapter 8

Karenin recognizes social impropriety and prepares to confront Anna. Fear paralyzes him. Authority proves fragile.

Chapter 9

Karenin cautions Anna about appearances. Anna responds with evasive falsehoods. Honesty collapses.

Chapter 10

The Karenins maintain outward respectability while living in emotional separation. Karenin senses deception but lacks control. Marriage becomes a façade.

Chapter 11

Anna and Vronsky consummate their affair. Both experience guilt and dread rather than triumph. A moral threshold is crossed.

Chapter 12

Levin continues rural life, unable to forget Kitty. Work provides solace. Emotional wounds linger.

Chapter 13

Levin joins peasants in mowing, finding unity in physical labor. He experiences rare peace. Meaning emerges through action.

Chapter 14

Stiva visits Levin with news of Kitty’s illness. Hope quietly returns. Distance begins to close.

Chapter 15

Levin learns Kitty was hurt by Vronsky’s indifference. His feelings resurface. The past regains relevance.

Chapter 16

Stiva sells forest land carelessly. Levin protests the waste. Moral responsibility clashes with indifference.

Chapter 17

The forest sale concludes badly. Levin’s anger reflects social decay. Nobility’s decline becomes concrete.

Chapter 18

Vronsky’s affair becomes public knowledge. He prepares for a steeplechase. Risk defines his identity.

Chapter 19

Vronsky discusses rivals and his horse Frou-Frou. Competition fuels his pride. Stakes rise.

Chapter 20

Family interference angers Vronsky. He resents moral pressure. Isolation grows.

Chapter 21

Vronsky prepares obsessively for the race. He senses falsity in his double life. Crisis approaches.

Chapter 22

Anna and Vronsky meet secretly, aware of her son’s silent judgment. Guilt intensifies. Motherhood complicates desire.

Chapter 23

Anna reveals her pregnancy. Vronsky urges escape. Anna feels trapped.

Chapter 24

Vronsky arrives late to the races, divided between love and ambition. Tension peaks. Public and private converge.

Chapter 25

Vronsky’s fatal mistake kills Frou-Frou. His recklessness is exposed. Symbolic loss mirrors moral failure.

Chapter 26

Karenin witnesses Anna’s reaction at the race. Truth becomes undeniable. Confrontation looms.

Chapter 27

Karenin finds Anna awaiting Vronsky. Disgust and anger surface. Authority asserts itself.

Chapter 28

Karenin publicly reads Anna’s emotions. Shame erupts. Control slips.

Chapter 29

Anna confesses the affair to Karenin. He demands propriety over honesty. Marriage becomes punishment.

Chapter 30

Kitty meets Varenka abroad and admires her selflessness. Spiritual healing begins. Kitty reorients her values.

Chapter 31

Varenka’s kindness inspires Kitty. Compassion replaces pride. Growth takes root.

Chapter 32

Kitty learns to forget herself through service. Humiliation loses power. Inner balance returns.

Chapter 33

Kitty adopts religious practices with sincerity. Peace follows. Faith emerges quietly.

Chapter 34

Kitty’s idealism collapses under scrutiny. Illusions fall away. Maturity replaces imitation.

Chapter 35

Kitty returns to Russia restored but changed. Innocence gives way to seriousness. Her arc resets.

Part III: Work, Reflection, and Deadlock

Chapter 1: Brotherly Debate
Sergey Koznishev visits Levin in the country, enjoying the “rural laziness.” Levin, however, finds it dull to sit still. They immediately launch into a debate about the nature and future of the Russian peasantry.

Chapter 2: Fishing and Philosophy
Sergey and Levin go fishing. Sergey poetically praises the beauty of nature, while Levin is preoccupied with the practical plans for the upcoming mowing. Their different approaches to country life are contrasted.

Chapter 3: The Futility of Politics
Sergey scolds Levin for not participating in local government, which Levin finds sterile and unimportant. Levin blurts out that he doesn’t want to establish schools for peasants who don’t want to attend them. His populist skepticism emerges.

Chapter 4: Joining the Mowers
To restore his temper, Levin decides to join the peasants mowing. He counts forty-two mowers and takes a place in the line behind an old peasant named Tit.

He seeks physical and mental purification through shared labor.

Chapter 5: The Joy of Labor
During the mowing, Levin experiences moments of “unconsciousness” where the scythe seems to move of itself. He dines simply with the old mowers, feeling a deep, wordless affection for them. He finds profound satisfaction in the work.

Chapter 6: A Call for Help
After the long day of labor, Levin feels refreshed and happy. His peace is interrupted by a letter from Stiva asking him to go and help Dolly, who is struggling at her country estate, Ergushovo. Duty calls him away.

Chapter 7: Dolly’s Domestic Struggles
Dolly is overwhelmed at Ergushovo, managing a dilapidated house and lacking basic supplies with her children in tow. Her nurse, Marya Filimonovna, is her only help. The harsh realities of her chosen country life are detailed.

Chapter 8: A Mother’s Pride
Dolly takes her children to mass for the sacrament, feeling a surge of pride in their good behavior.

Later, she forgives her son Grisha for a minor mischief, experiencing a rush of forgiving, motherly joy. Small comforts sustain her.

Chapter 9: Levin’s Light-Heartedness
Levin meets Dolly and her children returning from a walk and offers his help. He runs and plays with the children, feeling a “childlike light-heartedness” he hasn’t known in months. Their innocence revitalizes him.

Chapter 10: News of Kitty
Dolly tells Levin that Kitty is coming to stay with her soon and is quite well. Levin reacts with defensive pride, insisting he can never think of Kitty again because she rejected him.

His old wound is reopened.

Chapter 11: A Peasant Couple
Levin investigates a hay dispute on his sister’s estate. He observes the peasant Ivan Parmenov and his young wife working together in easy, loving harmony. Their simple, productive partnership stands as an ideal.

Chapter 12: A Carriage Passes
Reflecting on the peasant life, Levin briefly considers marrying a peasant girl. At that moment, he sees Kitty passing in a carriage.

The sight instantly confirms she is the “only creature” who gives his life meaning. His pretense collapses.

Chapter 13: Karenin’s Relief
After Anna’s confession, Karenin feels a strange relief, comparing it to the removal of a bad tooth. He rejects the ideas of a duel or divorce as vulgar and dangerous.

He decides to keep Anna in the house, seeing it as a punishment and a chance to “reform” her.

Chapter 14: The Formal Ultimatum
Karenin writes a formal letter to Anna, demanding she return to Petersburg and cease seeing Vronsky to avoid scandal.

He finds religious sanction for his decision, framing his coldness as a spiritual duty.

He codifies his position.

Chapter 15: Anna’s Desperation
Anna feels the words of her confession were “awful” and her position is now hopeless. In a moment of panic, she decides to take her son Seryozha and flee to Moscow, away from both husband and lover. She seeks escape.

Chapter 16: The Impossibility of Flight
Anna receives Karenin’s cold, formal letter and realizes its contents are even more “awful” than other solutions.

She understands she is not strong enough to break away and remains a “guilty wife” trapped by circumstance. Her rebellion falters.

Chapter 17: Defiance at the Croquet Party
Despite Vronsky saying he wouldn’t attend, Anna goes to a croquet party at Betsy’s hoping to see him. When he doesn’t appear, she writes a secret note inside a letter from Betsy, arranging a meeting.

She actively pursues the connection.

Chapter 18: The Enigmatic Liza
At the party, Anna meets new members of society, like the “enigmatic” Liza Merkalov. She finds the shallow, gossipy social atmosphere curiously easy compared to the crushing difficulty of her real life at home.

Society provides an anesthetic.

Chapter 19: Vronsky’s Reckoning
Vronsky conducts a “day of reckoning” for his tangled financial affairs. Realizing the cost of his lifestyle with Anna, he decides to borrow money and sell some of his horses.

The practical cost of the affair becomes tangible.

Chapter 20: A Code Without Principles
Vronsky reflects on his personal code of honor but finds it offers no guidance for his current situation with Anna. He learns his old rival Serpuhovskoy has returned to Russia with a brilliant military career, prompting comparison. He feels adrift.

Chapter 21: Advice from a Rival
Vronsky attends a fête and reunites with Serpuhovskoy.

The successful officer advises him that marriage is the only way to have love without it becoming a hindrance to a man’s career. A pragmatic solution is suggested.

Chapter 22: A Garden Meeting
Vronsky meets Anna secretly in a garden. She tells him she is returning to Petersburg with Karenin. In this moment, Anna realizes Vronsky will not offer her the absolute, all-sacrificing escape from her life that she secretly desires.

Chapter 23: The Policy of Ignoring
Back in Petersburg, Karenin wins a political victory.

He informs Anna he will “ignore” her infidelity as long as she does not disgrace his name publicly. He establishes a new, tortuous status quo based on willful denial.

Chapter 24: Levin’s Agricultural Theory
Dissatisfied with farming practices, Levin begins writing a book on agriculture. To avoid the Shtcherbatskys, he goes on a shooting trip to visit his liberal landowner friend, Sviazhsky. He channels his energy into intellectual work.

Chapter 25: A Prosperous Peasant
On his journey, Levin stops at the farm of a well-to-do peasant. He is deeply impressed by the family’s prosperity, cleanliness, and dignified simple life.

This model of successful peasant farming captivates him.

Chapter 26: The Liberal Landowner
Levin stays with Sviazhsky, a charming, advanced liberal whose actual life seems curiously disconnected from his progressive convictions. Levin is puzzled by this enigma. He encounters a different type of landowner.

Chapter 27: Debating the Emancipation
Levin listens to neighboring landowners complain about the peasants and debate the effects of the emancipation.

Levin argues that new, fair economic relations must be found between the laborer and the soil. He posits his own theory.

Chapter 28: The Need for Education
Sviazhsky argues that the Russian peasant is at a low stage of development and needs schools and education to progress.

Levin remains excited by his own idea of an “economic organization” that grants the peasants leisure and stake. The debate continues.

Chapter 29: A Failed Partnership
Inspired, Levin attempts to implement a profit-sharing partnership system with his own peasants. He meets with deep, ingrained disbelief and suspicion. His theoretical solution crashes against practical human resistance.

Chapter 30: Plans for Abroad
Despite the setback, Levin completes his agricultural work and prepares to travel abroad to study land systems. He feels his work could lead to a “bloodless revolution” in prosperity. Hope persists in research and theory.

Chapter 31: Nikolay’s Return
Levin’s brother Nikolay arrives at Pokrovskoe, terrifyingly emaciated and clearly dying. Levin is filled with a renewed, intense horror at the inevitability of death and decay. Mortality forcefully re-enters his life.

Chapter 32: A Final Quarrel
Levin and Nikolay have a last, bitter argument over the meaning of Levin’s agricultural work, which Nikolay dismisses. After his brother leaves, Levin feels despair, thinking “it’s time I was dead.” His spiritual crisis deepens.

Part IV: The Turning Point

Chapter 1: Misery for All Three
The Karenins now live as utter strangers in the same house, a situation described as “misery for all three.” Vronsky, tasked with escorting a foreign prince, finds the experience hollow and wearisome. Everyone is trapped and dissatisfied.

Chapter 2: A Terrifying Dream
Anna summons Vronsky while Karenin is at a meeting. Vronsky shares a terrifying dream he had of a peasant muttering French words, which shook him deeply.

The dream introduces a symbol of impending doom.

Chapter 3: The Fears of Childbirth
Anna expresses intense jealousy over Vronsky’s social evening. She tells him she believes she will die in childbirth, a thought that horrifies him. Her anxiety morphs into a dark premonition.

Chapter 4: Karenin’s Fury
Karenin returns home unexpectedly and finds Vronsky there. Consumed by fury, he takes Anna’s portfolio and threatens to obtain a divorce and take custody of Seryozha. The cold war turns hot.

Chapter 5: The Lawyer’s Office
Karenin consults a celebrated Petersburg lawyer about divorce proceedings.

He is morally repelled by the lawyer’s cynical suggestion of fabricating “adultery by mutual consent.” The legal path seems sordid and unacceptable to him.

Chapter 6: Political and Social Snub
Karenin’s political position weakens after his commission report is attacked. In Moscow, he meets Stiva and Dolly but coldly refuses their dinner invitation, isolating himself further.

He is under siege on all fronts.

Chapter 7: Stiva’s Dinner Party
Stiva prepares a fine dinner for various celebrities, including the newly-arrived Levin and the estranged Karenin. Levin arrives and is instantly overwhelmed with joy and agitation at seeing Kitty there.

Fates converge.

Chapter 8: Persuading Karenin
Stiva visits Karenin to personally persuade him to attend the dinner and speak with Dolly.

Karenin reluctantly agrees and reveals he is beginning a suit for divorce, updating Stiva on the dire situation.

Chapter 9: The Dinner Conversation
The dinner begins with lively, abstract conversation about the Russification of Poland. Levin and Kitty, however, have their first conversation in months, a interaction filled with unspoken tenderness and significance.

Their private world asserts itself.

Chapter 10: Debating Women’s Education
The general debate turns to women’s education and classical versus scientific studies. Even the stern Karenin is shown to smile at the old prince’s jokes.

A semblance of normal social interaction occurs.

Chapter 11: Private Communication
Levin and Kitty realize their silent, private communication is more important than the dinner talk.

Levin understands Kitty’s essential goodness by observing her concern for Dolly’s sick children. Their connection deepens wordlessly.

Chapter 12: Dolly’s Plea for Forgiveness
Dolly takes Karenin aside and passionately tries to persuade him to forgive Anna, citing her own experience of forgiving Stiva. Karenin coldly declares he hates Anna too much to ever forgive her. Mercy is rejected.

Chapter 13: The Chalk Letters
Left alone at a card-table, Levin and Kitty communicate by writing only the initial letters of words in chalk. They perfectly understand each other, realizing their love remains, and Kitty agrees to marry him. They find their own language.

Chapter 14: A Night of Radiant Joy
Levin is “stupefied with happiness.” He spends the night walking the streets of Moscow, seeing everyone and everything in a radiant, benevolent light. His spiritual and emotional world is utterly transformed.

Chapter 15: Parental Consent
Levin arrives at the Shtcherbatsky house first thing in the morning. He finds that Kitty’s parents have joyfully consented to the marriage after seeing their daughter’s happiness. All formal obstacles are removed.

Chapter 16: Confessions and Forgiveness
The wedding is set for before Lent. Kitty reads Levin’s personal diary, containing his past confessions and moral struggles.

She forgives him, and they experience a profound moment of total, unshielded acceptance. Intimacy is sealed.

Chapter 17: The Telegram
Anna, in Petersburg after a difficult childbirth, sends a telegram to Karenin: “I am dying. I beg you, come. I shall die easier with your forgiveness.” Karenin rushes home to find Vronsky weeping in his wife’s boudoir. Crisis peaks.

Chapter 18: Forgiveness at the Deathbed
At Anna’s bedside, Karenin experiences a “blissful spiritual condition” of complete, Christian forgiveness. He forgives Anna and, in a supreme act, forgives Vronsky, allowing him to stay. He achieves an unexpected moral height.

Chapter 19: Vronsky’s Humiliation
Crushed by Karenin’s magnanimity, Vronsky feels his own role rendered vile and pitiful. Overwhelmed with shame and despair, he returns home and attempts suicide by shooting himself in the chest. The forgiven sinner cannot forgive himself.

Chapter 20: An Intolerable Sanctity
Anna recovers from her fever but finds her position now intolerable. Karenin’s saintly forgiveness feels like a cage more suffocating than his previous coldness. She decides to refuse the divorce and instead go abroad with Vronsky. She rejects his salvation.

Chapter 21: Stiva’s Promise
Stiva visits the recovering Anna, who is in despair over her husband’s unbearable virtues. Stiva promises he will arrange the divorce with Karenin. The ever-optimistic fixer attempts to manage the situation.

Chapter 22: The Mystic’s Influence
Karenin, vulnerable after the emotional crisis, is influenced by the mystic Landau and Countess Lidia Ivanovna.

He initially agrees to a divorce, taking the disgrace upon himself, but under their sway, he retracts his consent. Reason is overthrown by mysticism.

Chapter 23: Departure for Italy
Vronsky, recovered from his wound, retires from the army. He and Anna, now with a newborn daughter, leave Russia for Italy without the legal resolution of a divorce. They choose exile over the tangled mess at home.

Part V: Marriage, Death, and Exile

Chapter 1: Levin prepares for his wedding, undergoing a confession that leaves him in a state of “blissful absurdity,” feeling both sanctified and ridiculous.

Chapter 2: Dining with bachelor friends, Levin realizes he feels no regret for his lost freedom, and a final moment of doubt is dispelled by his certainty of Kitty’s love.

Chapter 3: A crowd gathers at the church for the wedding, which is comically delayed because Levin’s servant has packed his clean shirt.

Chapter 4: The Orthodox wedding ceremony takes place; Levin is filled with a profound sense of “joy and dread” as he and Kitty are pronounced husband and wife.

Chapter 5: The guests gossip about the ceremony and the couple’s future as the service concludes, providing an external view of the sacred event.

Chapter 6: Levin and Kitty leave for the country immediately after the ceremony, beginning their life together in isolation.

Chapter 7: Vronsky and Anna travel through Europe, settling in a small Italian town where they meet Golenishtchev, an old comrade of Vronsky’s.

Chapter 8: Anna feels “unpardonably happy” in her freedom, but Vronsky begins to chafe with boredom, having no occupation or purpose.

Chapter 9: To fill his time, Vronsky takes up painting as a serious hobby and decides to visit a Russian artist named Mihailov.

Chapter 10: The artist Mihailov is shown working in his studio, absorbed in a sketch of a man in a rage, unaware of his impending visitors.

Chapter 11: Vronsky, Anna, and Golenishtchev visit Mihailov’s studio to see his painting, Christ before Pilate, which they critique with amateur confidence.

Chapter 12: They admire a smaller, incidental picture of two boys fishing, which Vronsky decides to purchase for his collection.

Chapter 13: Mihailov paints a stunning portrait of Anna that captures her spiritual beauty, though he is annoyed by his visitors’ pretentious talk. They decide to return to Russia.

Chapter 14: Levin discovers married life is “utterly different” from his dreams, filled with petty details and their first minor quarrel, which is quickly reconciled.

Chapter 15: Levin attempts to write his agricultural book while Kitty embroiders beside him, but he feels he is living “idly and unprofitably.”

Chapter 16: Levin receives word that his brother Nikolay is dying in a distant provincial town; he decides to go to him immediately.

Chapter 17: Kitty insists on accompanying Levin despite his protests, and they arrive to find Nikolay in a wretched, filthy hotel room, emaciated and near death.

Chapter 18: Kitty instinctively takes charge, cleaning the repulsive sickroom and caring for Nikolay with a competence that astonishes Levin.

Chapter 19: Levin watches Kitty nurse his brother with an intuitive, merciful skill, revealing a depth of character he hadn’t fully appreciated.

Chapter 20: Nikolay dies after receiving the sacrament, and in the aftermath, Levin learns that Kitty is pregnant, blending death with new life.

Chapter 21: Back in Petersburg, Karenin feels “appalled” by his solitary position and the social contempt he senses following the scandal.

Chapter 22: Countess Lidia Ivanovna inserts herself into Karenin’s life, taking over his household and offering zealous moral support, which he passively accepts.

Chapter 23: Lidia Ivanovna, believing herself “genuinely in love” with Karenin, receives a letter from Anna begging to see her son, Seryozha.

Chapter 24: Karenin attends a royal levee and receives new honors, then discusses Seryozha’s education with Lidia Ivanovna, who advocates for her mystical influence.

Chapter 25: Lidia Ivanovna persuades Karenin that allowing Anna to see Seryozha would be morally damaging, and he consents to refuse her request.

Chapter 26: Seryozha, on his birthday, dreams of his mother and expects a toy train, feeling her absence deeply despite his father’s attempts to mold him.

Chapter 27: Karenin gives Seryozha a Scripture lesson, but the boy is distracted, unable to connect the Biblical stories to his longing for his mother.

Chapter 28: Anna and Vronsky, now back in Russia, stay in a Petersburg hotel where society welcomes Vronsky but coldly shuns Anna.

Chapter 29: Determined and desperate, Anna decides to visit Seryozha at her old home on his birthday, knowing Karenin will be out.

Chapter 30: Anna has a brief, intensely emotional reunion with Seryozha, who clings to her, before Karenin unexpectedly enters the room, causing her to flee.

Chapter 31: Returning to the hotel, Anna feels her love for Seryozha is deeper than for her daughter and spirals into jealousy, fearing Vronsky’s love is fading.

Chapter 32: Defiantly, Anna decides to attend the opera to hear the singer Patti, a move Vronsky warns will be a direct challenge to society.

Chapter 33: At the theatre, Anna is publicly and cruelly insulted by Madame Kartasov; she returns home in a state of furious humiliation, directing her hatred toward Vronsky.

Part VI: Country Summers and Growing Shadows

Chapter 1: Dolly and her children spend the summer at the Levins’ estate, Pokrovskoe, where the household is bustling with visitors and activity.

Chapter 2: The women discuss jam-making, and talk turns to the possibility of Sergey Koznishev proposing to Varenka, who is also a guest.

Chapter 3: Walking in the forest, Levin confesses to Kitty his feelings of self-dissatisfaction when comparing himself to his accomplished brother.

Chapter 4: Sergey and Varenka go mushroom picking; he admires her simplicity and goodness, mentally preparing to propose.

Chapter 5: In a moment of comic failure, Sergey loses his nerve and, instead of proposing, asks Varenka about the difference between mushroom species.

Chapter 6: The house party discusses the Serbo-Turkish war, and the frivolous visitor Vassenka Veslovsky arrives, immediately focusing his attention on Kitty.

Chapter 7: Levin becomes intensely and painfully jealous of Veslovsky’s blatantly flirtatious behavior toward Kitty.

Chapter 8: Levin, Stiva, and Veslovsky go on a shooting expedition, with Levin’s mood already soured by his jealousy.

Chapter 9: The shooting party has mixed results; Levin is distracted and irritable, his enjoyment ruined by his private torment.

Chapter 10: Levin shoots poorly and becomes openly out of temper, his jealousy poisoning the entire outing for him.

Chapter 11: The men stay in a peasant’s hut and debate the ethics of wealth; Levin argues for the virtue of labor, indirectly criticizing Veslovsky’s idleness.

Chapter 12: Levin wakes early for a solitary, successful morning of shooting, finding temporary peace in the action and the marshland.

Chapter 13: Returning home, Levin finds the provisions eaten but is happy with his game and a loving note from Kitty, which briefly mollifies him.

Chapter 14: Veslovsky’s continued flirting with Kitty in the drawing-room leads Levin to a final, quiet confrontation.

Chapter 15: Levin firmly asks Veslovsky to leave his house, causing a familial stir but ultimately restoring his peace and asserting his marital dignity.

Chapter 16: Dolly travels to visit Anna at Vronsky’s magnificent estate, Vozdvizhenskoe, reflecting wistfully on the hardships of her own marriage.

Chapter 17: Dolly arrives and is immediately struck by the imposing luxury and calculated modernity of Vronsky’s estate.

Chapter 18: Anna declares to Dolly that she is “inexcusably happy,” but Dolly detects a new, hard, and febrile quality in her friend’s manner.

Chapter 19: Dolly visits the nursery and is disturbed by Anna’s obvious emotional disconnection from her baby daughter, Annie.

Chapter 20: The party plays lawn tennis and tours Vronsky’s new, model hospital, showcasing his attempts at meaningful occupation and philanthropy.

Chapter 21: Vronsky privately asks Dolly to persuade Anna to write to Karenin to finally secure a divorce, revealing his desire for legitimacy.

Chapter 22: At a stylish dinner, Anna talks brilliantly about architecture and machinery, performing happiness for her guest.

Chapter 23: Alone with Dolly, Anna confesses she does not want more children and reveals her dependence on morphine to sleep.

Chapter 24: Anna speaks of her agonizing choice between her son Seryozha and Vronsky, acknowledging the impossible sacrifice she has made.

Chapter 25: Vronsky and Anna have managed the estate successfully all summer, but both now feel restless and in need of a change, sensing stagnation.

Chapter 26: Levin and Kitty move to Moscow for her confinement, and Levin finds himself reluctantly involved in provincial noble elections.

Chapter 27: At the elections, the provincial nobility splits into old conservative and new liberal parties, engaging in heated political wrangling.

Chapter 28: A stormy debate erupts over a legal technicality regarding a voter named Flerov, highlighting the pettiness of the proceedings.

Chapter 29: Levin observes the excitement with detached irony and meets a sensible old landowner who shares his disdain for the process.

Chapter 30: After much intrigue, the liberal candidate Nevyedovsky is elected as the new provincial marshal.

Chapter 31: Vronsky hosts a celebratory dinner for Nevyedovsky’s victory, actively participating in the political world closed to Anna.

Chapter 32: Anna, feeling neglected, writes Vronsky a hostile letter about their daughter’s minor illness; he returns home to find her well and feels trapped by her “burdensome love.”

Part VII: The Climax

Chapter 1: In Moscow, Kitty is past her due date, and Levin feels a mounting, superstitious terror about the impending birth.

Chapter 2: Kitty urges the restless Levin to pay social calls, while he frets over their mounting living expenses in the city.

Chapter 3: Levin meets the scholar Metrov and attends a scientific society meeting, finding intellectual society just as unsatisfying as political society.

Chapter 4: Levin visits his brother-in-law Lvov and admires the modern, enlightened way he and his wife are raising their children.

Chapter 5: Levin attends a concert but finds the modern music—a fantasia on King Lear—disconnected and bewildering, deepening his sense of alienation from fashionable life.

Chapter 6: Levin pays a brief, awkward visit to Countess Bol, then drives to a public meeting to fetch his sister-in-law, going through the motions of society.

Chapter 7: Levin dines at his club with Stiva, Vronsky, and others, finally enjoying himself in the atmosphere of simple, comfortable male camaraderie.

Chapter 8: At the club, Levin and Vronsky are formally, civilly reconciled. Stiva then suggests they go together to visit Anna, who is living in Moscow.

Chapter 9: Stiva takes Levin to see Anna. She receives them in her elegant, isolated lodgings, charming and captivating Levin with her intelligence and beauty.

Chapter 10: Anna speaks warmly of Kitty, claiming to love her as before. Levin falls under her spell, leaving enchanted and full of pity for her.

Chapter 11: Levin returns home to find Kitty jealous, hurt, and in tears over his visit to the fallen woman. He realizes the gulf between his pity and Kitty’s moral judgment.

Chapter 12: Alone, Anna reflects on her total social isolation and her consuming, corrosive jealousy of Vronsky’s independent life and freedom.

Chapter 13: Kitty’s labor begins in the early morning, plunging Levin into a state of primal terror and helplessness.

Chapter 14: Racing through Moscow to fetch the doctor, Levin prays fervently for the first time in years, making spontaneous promises to God in his desperation.

Chapter 15: After a long and painful labor, Kitty gives birth to a healthy son. Levin is overwhelmed with a surge of explosive joy and relief.

Chapter 16: Looking at his newborn son, Mitya, Levin feels the terrifying opening of a new “sphere of liability to pain”—the boundless vulnerability of fatherhood.

Chapter 17: Stiva’s financial affairs are desperate. He travels to Petersburg to seek a lucrative new government appointment and to finally secure Anna’s divorce from Karenin.

Chapter 18: Stiva pleads with Karenin for the divorce, but Karenin, under the influence of his religious fervor and Countess Lidia, remains obstinate.

Chapter 19: (Numbering skip in source) Stiva enjoys Petersburg’s social life and is briefed on the powerful influence of the clairvoyant Landau over Karenin.

Chapter 20: Stiva attends a gathering at Lidia Ivanovna’s where Landau, in a trance, is consulted on Anna’s request for a divorce.

Chapter 21: Landau’s mystic pronouncement leads to a definitive refusal of the divorce. Stiva leaves the house disgusted by the farcical mysticism that governs Anna’s fate.

Chapter 22: (Numbering skip in source) Anna and Vronsky’s relationship rapidly deteriorates into constant suspicion and bitter recrimination over his mother’s invitation and his independence.

Chapter 23: They have a final, devastating quarrel. Anna accuses him of loving another, and he storms out, exhausted. She whispers, “All is over.”

Chapter 24: Anna packs for a move to the country but discovers a telegram from Stiva to Vronsky, which she misinterprets, reigniting her jealous fury.

Chapter 25: (Numbering skip in source) Sinking into suicidal despair, Anna has a recurrent nightmare of a peasant muttering in French, a symbol of death.

Chapter 26: Vronsky leaves for his mother’s estate. Anna sends a note, then a telegram begging him to return, but he is already gone.

Chapter 27: (Numbering skip in source) In a final attempt at connection, Anna visits Dolly but unexpectedly encounters Kitty, feeling the full weight of her own humiliation as an outcast.

Chapter 28: (Numbering skip in source) Consumed by fury and a desire for revenge, Anna drives to the railway station, her thoughts chaotic and desperate.

Chapter 29: On the train, Anna looks at the other passengers with loathing, seeing the world as a grotesque theater of universal hatred and falsehood.

Chapter 30: (Numbering skip in source) At the station, Anna walks down the platform and throws herself under a moving luggage train, her final thought a prayer for forgiveness.

Part VIII: Epilogue—War and Meaning

Chapter 1: Two months later, Sergey Koznishev’s philosophical book is published to public indifference. He turns his attention to the Slavic cause in the Serbo-Turkish war.

Chapter 2: Sergey and his friend Katavasov see off volunteer troops at the station, where they observe the gaunt, changed figure of Vronsky departing as well.

Chapter 3: On the train, Katavasov talks with the volunteers and is unimpressed by their simplistic, unthinking patriotism.

Chapter 4: Sergey speaks with Vronsky’s mother, who calls the war a “providential blessing” that gave her son a purpose after Anna’s death.

Chapter 5: Vronsky, suffering from toothache and profound grief, tells Sergey that life is loathsome to him and he is going merely to find death.

Chapter 6: Sergey and Katavasov arrive at Levin’s country estate. They find Kitty healthy and absorbed in caring for her baby, Mitya.

Chapter 7: Kitty worries anxiously over whether the baby recognizes her and reflects sadly on Levin’s ongoing spiritual struggle and unbelief.

Chapter 8: Levin, despite his domestic happiness, is secretly in the grips of a paralyzing existential crisis, haunted by thoughts of suicide as he searches for undeniable meaning.

Chapter 9: He reads philosophers and theologians but finds no answers, until he stops reading and simply observes life itself.

Chapter 10: Returning to farm work, Levin notices he acts rightly and purposefully by instinct, even while his intellect doubts.

Chapter 11: A chance conversation with a meek peasant named Fyodor, who says a good man “lives for his soul,” strikes Levin with extraordinary force.

Chapter 12: The peasant’s simple words trigger a sudden, luminous epiphany in Levin: the “miracle” is the innate human capacity to know and choose goodness.

Chapter 13: Levin realizes the faith he sought was always within him, not in reason but in the unconscious, righteous conduct of life. He must simply live for goodness.

Chapter 14: His inner revelation doesn’t change his external personality; he still feels petty irritations with his guests, understanding now that faith is separate from perfection.

Chapter 15: The party debates the war. Levin argues private citizens have no right to encourage war, clashing with Sergey’s romantic nationalism.

Chapter 16: The argument continues about the “spirit of the people,” with Levin remaining stubbornly skeptical of such abstract, dangerous concepts.

Chapter 17: A sudden thunderstorm strikes, and Levin is seized with animal terror for the safety of Kitty and the baby, who are in the woods.

Chapter 18: He finds them safe in the maple woods, and his joy is crowned by the baby’s clear sign of recognizing him. Love and fear are intertwined.

Chapter 19: Levin concludes that his life now has the “positive meaning of goodness,” a power implanted in him by an unseen force, which he must use in every moment granted to him.

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