An excerpt from the original text.(complete · 2417 words)
hen Levin went into the restaurant with Oblonsky, he could not help
noticing a certain peculiarity of expression, as it were, a restrained
radiance, about the face and whole figure of Stepan Arkadyevitch.
Oblonsky took off his overcoat, and with his hat over one ear walked
into the dining-room, giving directions to the Tatar waiters, who were
clustered about him in evening coats, bearing napkins. Bowing to right
and left to the people he met, and here as everywhere joyously greeting
acquaintances, he went up to the sideboard for a preliminary appetizer
of fish and vodka, and said to the painted Frenchwoman decked in
ribbons, lace, and ringlets, behind the counter, something so amusing
that even that Frenchwoman was moved to genuine laughter. Levin for his
part refrained from taking any vodka simply because he felt such a
loathing of that Frenchwoman, all made up, it seemed, of false hair,
poudre de riz, and vinaigre de toilette. He made haste to move away
from her, as from a dirty place. His whole soul was filled with
memories of Kitty, and there was a smile of triumph and happiness
shining in his eyes.
“This way, your excellency, please. Your excellency won’t be disturbed
here,” said a particularly pertinacious, white-headed old Tatar with
immense hips and coat-tails gaping widely behind. “Walk in, your
excellency,” he said to Levin; by way of showing his respect to Stepan
Arkadyevitch, being attentive to his guest as well.
Instantly flinging a fresh cloth over the round table under the bronze
chandelier, though it already had a table cloth on it, he pushed up
velvet chairs, and came to a standstill before Stepan Arkadyevitch with
a napkin and a bill of fare in his hands, awaiting his commands.
“If you prefer it, your excellency, a private room will be free
directly; Prince Golistin with a lady. Fresh oysters have come in.”
“Ah! oysters.”
Stepan Arkadyevitch became thoughtful.
“How if we were to change our program, Levin?” he said, keeping his
finger on the bill of fare. And his face expressed serious hesitation.
“Are the oysters good? Mind now.”
“They’re Flensburg, your excellency. We’ve no Ostend.”
“Flensburg will do, but are they fresh?”
“Only arrived yesterday.”
“Well, then, how if we were to begin with oysters, and so change the
whole program? Eh?”
“It’s all the same to me. I should like cabbage soup and porridge
better than anything; but of course there’s nothing like that here.”
“Porridge à la Russe, your honor would like?” said the Tatar, bending
down to Levin, like a nurse speaking to a child.
“No, joking apart, whatever you choose is sure to be good. I’ve been
skating, and I’m hungry. And don’t imagine,” he added, detecting a look
of dissatisfaction on Oblonsky’s face, “that I shan’t appreciate your
choice. I am fond of good things.”
“I should hope so! After all, it’s one of the pleasures of life,” said
Stepan Arkadyevitch. “Well, then, my friend, you give us two—or better
say three—dozen oysters, clear soup with vegetables....”
“Printanière,” prompted the Tatar. But Stepan Arkadyevitch apparently
did not care to allow him the satisfaction of giving the French names
of the dishes.
“With vegetables in it, you know. Then turbot with thick sauce, then
... roast beef; and mind it’s good. Yes, and capons, perhaps, and then
sweets.”
The Tatar, recollecting that it was Stepan Arkadyevitch’s way not to
call the dishes by the names in the French bill of fare, did not repeat
them after him, but could not resist rehearsing the whole menu to
himself according to the bill:—“Soupe printanière, turbot, sauce
Beaumarchais, poulard à l’estragon, macédoine de fruits ... etc.,” and
then instantly, as though worked by springs, laying down one bound bill
of fare, he took up another, the list of wines, and submitted it to
Stepan Arkadyevitch.
“What shall we drink?”
“What you like, only not too much. Champagne,” said Levin.
“What! to start with? You’re right though, I dare say. Do you like the
white seal?”
“Cachet blanc,” prompted the Tatar.
“Very well, then, give us that brand with the oysters, and then we’ll
see.”
“Yes, sir. And what table wine?”
“You can give us Nuits. Oh, no, better the classic Chablis.”
“Yes, sir. And your cheese, your excellency?”
“Oh, yes, Parmesan. Or would you like another?”
“No, it’s all the same to me,” said Levin, unable to suppress a smile.
And the Tatar ran off with flying coat-tails, and in five minutes
darted in with a dish of opened oysters on mother-of-pearl shells, and
a bottle between his fingers.
Stepan Arkadyevitch crushed the starchy napkin, tucked it into his
waistcoat, and settling his arms comfortably, started on the oysters.
“Not bad,” he said, stripping the oysters from the pearly shell with a
silver fork, and swallowing them one after another. “Not bad,” he
repeated, turning his dewy, brilliant eyes from Levin to the Tatar.
Levin ate the oysters indeed, though white bread and cheese would have
pleased him better. But he was admiring Oblonsky. Even the Tatar,
uncorking the bottle and pouring the sparkling wine into the delicate
glasses, glanced at Stepan Arkadyevitch, and settled his white cravat
with a perceptible smile of satisfaction.
“You don’t care much for oysters, do you?” said Stepan Arkadyevitch,
emptying his wine-glass, “or you’re worried about something. Eh?”
He wanted Levin to be in good spirits. But it was not that Levin was
not in good spirits; he was ill at ease. With what he had in his soul,
he felt sore and uncomfortable in the restaurant, in the midst of
private rooms where men were dining with ladies, in all this fuss and
bustle; the surroundings of bronzes, looking-glasses, gas, and
waiters—all of it was offensive to him. He was afraid of sullying what
his soul was brimful of.
“I? Yes, I am; but besides, all this bothers me,” he said. “You can’t
conceive how queer it all seems to a country person like me, as queer
as that gentleman’s nails I saw at your place....”
“Yes, I saw how much interested you were in poor Grinevitch’s nails,”
said Stepan Arkadyevitch, laughing.
“It’s too much for me,” responded Levin. “Do try, now, and put yourself
in my place, take the point of view of a country person. We in the
country try to bring our hands into such a state as will be most
convenient for working with. So we cut our nails; sometimes we turn up
our sleeves. And here people purposely let their nails grow as long as
they will, and link on small saucers by way of studs, so that they can
do nothing with their hands.”
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled gaily.
“Oh, yes, that’s just a sign that he has no need to do coarse work. His
work is with the mind....”
“Maybe. But still it’s queer to me, just as at this moment it seems
queer to me that we country folks try to get our meals over as soon as
we can, so as to be ready for our work, while here are we trying to
drag out our meal as long as possible, and with that object eating
oysters....”
“Why, of course,” objected Stepan Arkadyevitch. “But that’s just the
aim of civilization—to make everything a source of enjoyment.”
“Well, if that’s its aim, I’d rather be a savage.”
“And so you are a savage. All you Levins are savages.”
Levin sighed. He remembered his brother Nikolay, and felt ashamed and
sore, and he scowled; but Oblonsky began speaking of a subject which at
once drew his attention.
“Oh, I say, are you going tonight to our people, the Shtcherbatskys’, I
mean?” he said, his eyes sparkling significantly as he pushed away the
empty rough shells, and drew the cheese towards him.
“Yes, I shall certainly go,” replied Levin; “though I fancied the
princess was not very warm in her invitation.”
“What nonsense! That’s her manner.... Come, boy, the soup!... That’s
her manner—grande dame,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. “I’m coming, too,
but I have to go to the Countess Bonina’s rehearsal. Come, isn’t it
true that you’re a savage? How do you explain the sudden way in which
you vanished from Moscow? The Shtcherbatskys were continually asking me
about you, as though I ought to know. The only thing I know is that you
always do what no one else does.”
“Yes,” said Levin, slowly and with emotion, “you’re right. I am a
savage. Only, my savageness is not in having gone away, but in coming
now. Now I have come....”
“Oh, what a lucky fellow you are!” broke in Stepan Arkadyevitch,
looking into Levin’s eyes.
“Why?”
“‘I know a gallant steed by tokens sure,
And by his eyes I know a youth in love,’”
declaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch. “Everything is before you.”
“Why, is it over for you already?”
“No; not over exactly, but the future is yours, and the present is
mine, and the present—well, it’s not all that it might be.”
“How so?”
“Oh, things go wrong. But I don’t want to talk of myself, and besides I
can’t explain it all,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch. “Well, why have you
come to Moscow, then?... Hi! take away!” he called to the Tatar.
“You guess?” responded Levin, his eyes like deep wells of light fixed
on Stepan Arkadyevitch.
“I guess, but I can’t be the first to talk about it. You can see by
that whether I guess right or wrong,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, gazing
at Levin with a subtle smile.
“Well, and what have you to say to me?” said Levin in a quivering
voice, feeling that all the muscles of his face were quivering too.
“How do you look at the question?”
Stepan Arkadyevitch slowly emptied his glass of Chablis, never taking
his eyes off Levin.
“I?” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, “there’s nothing I desire so much as
that—nothing! It would be the best thing that could be.”
“But you’re not making a mistake? You know what we’re speaking of?”
said Levin, piercing him with his eyes. “You think it’s possible?”
“I think it’s possible. Why not possible?”
“No! do you really think it’s possible? No, tell me all you think! Oh,
but if ... if refusal’s in store for me!... Indeed I feel sure....”
“Why should you think that?” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, smiling at his
excitement.
“It seems so to me sometimes. That will be awful for me, and for her
too.”
“Oh, well, anyway there’s nothing awful in it for a girl. Every girl’s
proud of an offer.”
“Yes, every girl, but not she.”
Stepan Arkadyevitch smiled. He so well knew that feeling of Levin’s,
that for him all the girls in the world were divided into two classes:
one class—all the girls in the world except her, and those girls with
all sorts of human weaknesses, and very ordinary girls: the other
class—she alone, having no weaknesses of any sort and higher than all
humanity.
“Stay, take some sauce,” he said, holding back Levin’s hand as it
pushed away the sauce.
Levin obediently helped himself to sauce, but would not let Stepan
Arkadyevitch go on with his dinner.
“No, stop a minute, stop a minute,” he said. “You must understand that
it’s a question of life and death for me. I have never spoken to anyone
of this. And there’s no one I could speak of it to, except you. You
know we’re utterly unlike each other, different tastes and views and
everything; but I know you’re fond of me and understand me, and that’s
why I like you awfully. But for God’s sake, be quite straightforward
with me.”
“I tell you what I think,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch, smiling. “But I’ll
say more: my wife is a wonderful woman....” Stepan Arkadyevitch sighed,
remembering his position with his wife, and, after a moment’s silence,
resumed—“She has a gift of foreseeing things. She sees right through
people; but that’s not all; she knows what will come to pass,
especially in the way of marriages. She foretold, for instance, that
Princess Shahovskaya would marry Brenteln. No one would believe it, but
it came to pass. And she’s on your side.”
“How do you mean?”
“It’s not only that she likes you—she says that Kitty is certain to be
your wife.”
At these words Levin’s face suddenly lighted up with a smile, a smile
not far from tears of emotion.
“She says that!” cried Levin. “I always said she was exquisite, your
wife. There, that’s enough, enough said about it,” he said, getting up
from his seat.
“All right, but do sit down.”
But Levin could not sit down. He walked with his firm tread twice up
and down the little cage of a room, blinked his eyelids that his tears
might not fall, and only then sat down to the table.
“You must understand,” said he, “it’s not love. I’ve been in love, but
it’s not that. It’s not my feeling, but a sort of force outside me has
taken possession of me. I went away, you see, because I made up my mind
that it could never be, you understand, as a happiness that does not
come on earth; but I’ve struggled with myself, I see there’s no living
without it. And it must be settled.”
“What did you go away for?”
“Ah, stop a minute! Ah, the thoughts that come crowding on one! The
questions one must ask oneself! Listen. You can’t imagine what you’ve
done for me by what you said. I’m so happy that I’ve become positively
hateful; I’ve forgotten everything. I heard today that my brother
Nikolay ... you know, he’s here ... I had even forgotten him. It seems
to me that he’s happy too. It’s a sort of madness. But one thing’s
awful.... Here, you’ve been married, you know the feeling ... it’s
awful that we—old—with a past ... not of love, but of sins ... are
brought all at once so near to a creature pure and innocent; it’s
loathsome, and that’s why one can’t help feeling oneself unworthy.”
“Oh, well, you’ve not many sins on your conscience.”
“Alas! all the same,” said Levin, “when with loathing I go over my
life, I shudder and curse and bitterly regret it.... Yes.”
“What would you have? The world’s made so,” said Stepan Arkadyevitch.
“The one comfort is like that prayer, which I always liked: ‘Forgive me
not according to my unworthiness, but according to Thy
loving-kindness.’ That’s the only way she can forgive me.”
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Let's Analyse the Pattern
The tendency to choose what appears exciting over what provides lasting value, mistaking surface appeal for substance.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to see past charismatic presentation to evaluate someone's actual substance and reliability.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when someone's charm feels too polished—ask yourself what they do when the spotlight isn't on them.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"No, it's impossible, she told herself, recalling the look with which he had gazed at her."
Context: Kitty is convincing herself that Vronsky must be about to propose based on how he looked at her.
This shows how young people can misinterpret attention as commitment. Kitty is reading romantic intention into what might just be casual flirtation. She's so invested in her fantasy that she's seeing what she wants to see rather than what's actually there.
In Today's Words:
There's no way he's not into me - did you see how he looked at me?
"She felt that all eyes were upon her, and that she was being judged."
Context: Kitty feels the pressure of social expectations as she prepares for the ball.
This captures the intense social pressure young women faced to make the right impression and secure a good marriage. Every social event was a performance where mistakes could ruin your reputation and future prospects.
In Today's Words:
Everyone's watching to see if I'll mess this up.
"Tonight everything would be decided."
Context: Kitty believes this ball will determine her romantic future.
Shows how young people can put enormous pressure on single moments, believing that one night or one conversation will change everything. This kind of all-or-nothing thinking often leads to poor decisions and crushing disappointment.
In Today's Words:
This is it - tonight's the night that changes everything.
Thematic Threads
Class Privilege
In This Chapter
Kitty's sheltered upbringing prevents her from recognizing genuine character versus social performance
Development
Building on earlier chapters showing how wealth creates blind spots about real consequences
In Your Life:
When you've never faced real hardship, it's harder to spot who will stand by you when things get difficult
Youth and Inexperience
In This Chapter
Kitty believes her feelings are reliable guides for major life decisions
Development
Introduced here as counterpoint to Anna's more complex emotional situation
In Your Life:
That butterfly-stomach excitement often signals infatuation, not love that will last
Social Expectations
In This Chapter
The ballroom season creates artificial pressure to make romantic choices based on public perception
Development
Continues the theme of how society shapes personal decisions
In Your Life:
Wedding planning, job announcements, and major purchases often become more about impressing others than choosing what's right for you
Appearance versus Reality
In This Chapter
Vronsky's military uniform and social confidence mask his emotional limitations while Levin's awkwardness hides his depth
Development
Central tension being established that will drive the entire novel
In Your Life:
The person who interviews well isn't always the best coworker, and the quiet colleague might be your most reliable ally
Romantic Idealization
In This Chapter
Kitty constructs fairy-tale narratives around Vronsky while dismissing Levin as unromantic
Development
Introduced here to contrast with Anna's more complex understanding of desire
In Your Life:
When you find yourself making excuses for someone's behavior or creating stories about their potential, you're probably idealizing them
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
What two very different feelings is Kitty experiencing as she prepares for the ball, and what's causing each one?
analysis • surface - 2
Why does Kitty dismiss Levin while getting excited about Vronsky, and what does this reveal about how she makes decisions?
analysis • medium - 3
Where do you see people today choosing the 'Vronsky option' over the 'Levin option' in relationships, careers, or major life decisions?
application • medium - 4
If you were Kitty's older sister, what questions would you ask her to help her think more clearly about both men?
application • deep - 5
What does Kitty's excitement teach us about why people often make choices they later regret, even when warning signs are visible?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Create Your Personal 'Sparkle vs. Substance' Detector
Think of a major decision you're facing or recently made. Create two columns: 'What Sparkles' (immediate appeal, excitement, surface attractions) and 'What Sustains' (long-term value, depth, reliability). List everything about each option in the appropriate column. Then ask yourself: Am I being more influenced by the sparkle column or the substance column?
Consider:
- •Notice if you're rationalizing why the sparkly option is actually substantial
- •Pay attention to which column feels harder to fill out - that might reveal your blind spots
- •Consider what this choice will look like in five years, not just five months
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when you chose sparkle over substance, or substance over sparkle. What did you learn from that experience, and how has it changed how you evaluate options now?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 11
The ball begins, and Kitty enters the glittering ballroom with high hopes. But sometimes the most anticipated evenings deliver the most unexpected - and crushing - revelations.
