An excerpt from the original text.(complete · 1834 words)
he prince communicated his good humor to his own family and his
friends, and even to the German landlord in whose rooms the
Shtcherbatskys were staying.
On coming back with Kitty from the springs, the prince, who had asked
the colonel, and Marya Yevgenyevna, and Varenka all to come and have
coffee with them, gave orders for a table and chairs to be taken into
the garden under the chestnut tree, and lunch to be laid there. The
landlord and the servants, too, grew brisker under the influence of his
good spirits. They knew his open-handedness; and half an hour later the
invalid doctor from Hamburg, who lived on the top floor, looked
enviously out of the window at the merry party of healthy Russians
assembled under the chestnut tree. In the trembling circles of shadow
cast by the leaves, at a table, covered with a white cloth, and set
with coffeepot, bread-and-butter, cheese, and cold game, sat the
princess in a high cap with lilac ribbons, distributing cups and
bread-and-butter. At the other end sat the prince, eating heartily, and
talking loudly and merrily. The prince had spread out near him his
purchases, carved boxes, and knick-knacks, paper-knives of all sorts,
of which he bought a heap at every watering-place, and bestowed them
upon everyone, including Lieschen, the servant girl, and the landlord,
with whom he jested in his comically bad German, assuring him that it
was not the water had cured Kitty, but his splendid cookery, especially
his plum soup. The princess laughed at her husband for his Russian
ways, but she was more lively and good-humored than she had been all
the while she had been at the waters. The colonel smiled, as he always
did, at the prince’s jokes, but as far as regards Europe, of which he
believed himself to be making a careful study, he took the princess’s
side. The simple-hearted Marya Yevgenyevna simply roared with laughter
at everything absurd the prince said, and his jokes made Varenka
helpless with feeble but infectious laughter, which was something Kitty
had never seen before.
Kitty was glad of all this, but she could not be light-hearted. She
could not solve the problem her father had unconsciously set her by his
good-humored view of her friends, and of the life that had so attracted
her. To this doubt there was joined the change in her relations with
the Petrovs, which had been so conspicuously and unpleasantly marked
that morning. Everyone was good-humored, but Kitty could not feel
good-humored, and this increased her distress. She felt a feeling such
as she had known in childhood, when she had been shut in her room as a
punishment, and had heard her sisters’ merry laughter outside.
“Well, but what did you buy this mass of things for?” said the
princess, smiling, and handing her husband a cup of coffee.
“One goes for a walk, one looks in a shop, and they ask you to buy.
‘Erlaucht, Durchlaucht?’ Directly they say ‘Durchlaucht,’ I can’t
hold out. I lose ten thalers.”
“It’s simply from boredom,” said the princess.
“Of course it is. Such boredom, my dear, that one doesn’t know what to
do with oneself.”
“How can you be bored, prince? There’s so much that’s interesting now
in Germany,” said Marya Yevgenyevna.
“But I know everything that’s interesting: the plum soup I know, and
the pea sausages I know. I know everything.”
“No, you may say what you like, prince, there’s the interest of their
institutions,” said the colonel.
“But what is there interesting about it? They’re all as pleased as
brass halfpence. They’ve conquered everybody, and why am I to be
pleased at that? I haven’t conquered anyone; and I’m obliged to take
off my own boots, yes, and put them away too; in the morning, get up
and dress at once, and go to the dining-room to drink bad tea! How
different it is at home! You get up in no haste, you get cross, grumble
a little, and come round again. You’ve time to think things over, and
no hurry.”
“But time’s money, you forget that,” said the colonel.
“Time, indeed, that depends! Why, there’s time one would give a month
of for sixpence, and time you wouldn’t give half an hour of for any
money. Isn’t that so, Katinka? What is it? why are you so depressed?”
“I’m not depressed.”
“Where are you off to? Stay a little longer,” he said to Varenka.
“I must be going home,” said Varenka, getting up, and again she went
off into a giggle. When she had recovered, she said good-bye, and went
into the house to get her hat.
Kitty followed her. Even Varenka struck her as different. She was not
worse, but different from what she had fancied her before.
“Oh, dear! it’s a long while since I’ve laughed so much!” said Varenka,
gathering up her parasol and her bag. “How nice he is, your father!”
Kitty did not speak.
“When shall I see you again?” asked Varenka.
“Mamma meant to go and see the Petrovs. Won’t you be there?” said
Kitty, to try Varenka.
“Yes,” answered Varenka. “They’re getting ready to go away, so I
promised to help them pack.”
“Well, I’ll come too, then.”
“No, why should you?”
“Why not? why not? why not?” said Kitty, opening her eyes wide, and
clutching at Varenka’s parasol, so as not to let her go. “No, wait a
minute; why not?”
“Oh, nothing; your father has come, and besides, they will feel awkward
at your helping.”
“No, tell me why you don’t want me to be often at the Petrovs’. You
don’t want me to—why not?”
“I didn’t say that,” said Varenka quietly.
“No, please tell me!”
“Tell you everything?” asked Varenka.
“Everything, everything!” Kitty assented.
“Well, there’s really nothing of any consequence; only that Mihail
Alexeyevitch” (that was the artist’s name) “had meant to leave earlier,
and now he doesn’t want to go away,” said Varenka, smiling.
“Well, well!” Kitty urged impatiently, looking darkly at Varenka.
“Well, and for some reason Anna Pavlovna told him that he didn’t want
to go because you are here. Of course, that was nonsense; but there was
a dispute over it—over you. You know how irritable these sick people
are.”
Kitty, scowling more than ever, kept silent, and Varenka went on
speaking alone, trying to soften or soothe her, and seeing a storm
coming—she did not know whether of tears or of words.
“So you’d better not go.... You understand; you won’t be offended?...”
“And it serves me right! And it serves me right!” Kitty cried quickly,
snatching the parasol out of Varenka’s hand, and looking past her
friend’s face.
Varenka felt inclined to smile, looking at her childish fury, but she
was afraid of wounding her.
“How does it serve you right? I don’t understand,” she said.
“It serves me right, because it was all sham; because it was all done
on purpose, and not from the heart. What business had I to interfere
with outsiders? And so it’s come about that I’m a cause of quarrel, and
that I’ve done what nobody asked me to do. Because it was all a sham! a
sham! a sham!...”
“A sham! with what object?” said Varenka gently.
“Oh, it’s so idiotic! so hateful! There was no need whatever for me....
Nothing but sham!” she said, opening and shutting the parasol.
“But with what object?”
“To seem better to people, to myself, to God; to deceive everyone. No!
now I won’t descend to that. I’ll be bad; but anyway not a liar, a
cheat.”
“But who is a cheat?” said Varenka reproachfully. “You speak as if....”
But Kitty was in one of her gusts of fury, and she would not let her
finish.
“I don’t talk about you, not about you at all. You’re perfection. Yes,
yes, I know you’re all perfection; but what am I to do if I’m bad? This
would never have been if I weren’t bad. So let me be what I am. I won’t
be a sham. What have I to do with Anna Pavlovna? Let them go their way,
and me go mine. I can’t be different.... And yet it’s not that, it’s
not that.”
“What is not that?” asked Varenka in bewilderment.
“Everything. I can’t act except from the heart, and you act from
principle. I liked you simply, but you most likely only wanted to save
me, to improve me.”
“You are unjust,” said Varenka.
“But I’m not speaking of other people, I’m speaking of myself.”
“Kitty,” they heard her mother’s voice, “come here, show papa your
necklace.”
Kitty, with a haughty air, without making peace with her friend, took
the necklace in a little box from the table and went to her mother.
“What’s the matter? Why are you so red?” her mother and father said to
her with one voice.
“Nothing,” she answered. “I’ll be back directly,” and she ran back.
“She’s still here,” she thought. “What am I to say to her? Oh, dear!
what have I done, what have I said? Why was I rude to her? What am I to
do? What am I to say to her?” thought Kitty, and she stopped in the
doorway.
Varenka in her hat and with the parasol in her hands was sitting at the
table examining the spring which Kitty had broken. She lifted her head.
“Varenka, forgive me, do forgive me,” whispered Kitty, going up to her.
“I don’t remember what I said. I....”
“I really didn’t mean to hurt you,” said Varenka, smiling.
Peace was made. But with her father’s coming all the world in which she
had been living was transformed for Kitty. She did not give up
everything she had learned, but she became aware that she had deceived
herself in supposing she could be what she wanted to be. Her eyes were,
it seemed, opened; she felt all the difficulty of maintaining herself
without hypocrisy and self-conceit on the pinnacle to which she had
wished to mount. Moreover, she became aware of all the dreariness of
the world of sorrow, of sick and dying people, in which she had been
living. The efforts she had made to like it seemed to her intolerable,
and she felt a longing to get back quickly into the fresh air, to
Russia, to Ergushovo, where, as she knew from letters, her sister Dolly
had already gone with her children.
But her affection for Varenka did not wane. As she said good-bye, Kitty
begged her to come to them in Russia.
“I’ll come when you get married,” said Varenka.
“I shall never marry.”
“Well, then, I shall never come.”
“Well, then, I shall be married simply for that. Mind now, remember
your promise,” said Kitty.
The doctor’s prediction was fulfilled. Kitty returned home to Russia
cured. She was not so gay and thoughtless as before, but she was
serene. Her Moscow troubles had become a memory to her.
PART THREE
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Let's Analyse the Pattern
Using physical exhaustion to temporarily override emotional pain and mental rumination.
Why This Matters
Connect literature to life
This chapter teaches how to identify when we're using activity to avoid processing difficult emotions.
Practice This Today
This week, notice when you suddenly feel compelled to clean, work extra hours, or stay busy during emotional stress—that's your mind seeking productive exhaustion.
Now let's explore the literary elements.
Key Quotes & Analysis
"The longer Levin mowed, the oftener he felt those moments of unconsciousness in which it seemed not his hands that swung the scythe, but the scythe mowing of itself."
Context: Levin loses himself in the rhythm of cutting hay
This describes the meditative state that comes from repetitive physical work. Levin finds temporary escape from his tormented thoughts through complete absorption in the task.
In Today's Words:
When you're so focused on a physical task that your brain finally shuts up and your body just takes over.
"He felt like a man who after a delicious meal finds that his appetite is gone and he cannot eat."
Context: Describing Levin's inability to find pleasure in anything
This metaphor captures how depression robs you of the ability to enjoy things that should bring satisfaction. Even when relief comes, it feels hollow.
In Today's Words:
Like when you're so burned out that even your favorite things feel pointless and you can't remember why you used to care.
"The peasants accepted him as one of themselves, and did not press him to talk."
Context: The workers letting Levin work in peace without forcing conversation
Shows the peasants' intuitive understanding of human nature. They recognize someone in pain and give him space to heal through work.
In Today's Words:
Sometimes the best thing people can do is just let you be sad without trying to fix you or make you talk about it.
Thematic Threads
Class
In This Chapter
Levin observes the peasants' natural contentment while he suffers from educated overthinking
Development
Building on earlier contrasts between aristocratic anxiety and working-class acceptance
In Your Life:
You might notice how people with physically demanding jobs sometimes seem more grounded than those who work with their minds all day
Identity
In This Chapter
Levin feels fundamentally broken and disconnected from his authentic self
Development
Deepening his earlier crisis about who he really is versus who he thinks he should be
In Your Life:
You might recognize this feeling of being lost in your own life, especially after major disappointments
Social Expectations
In This Chapter
His educated background makes simple acceptance of life's rhythms feel impossible
Development
Continuing exploration of how social conditioning can trap us in unhelpful thought patterns
In Your Life:
You might struggle with overthinking problems that others seem to handle naturally
Personal Growth
In This Chapter
Levin intuitively seeks physical work as emotional medicine, showing unconscious wisdom
Development
First glimpse of his capacity for self-healing and practical problem-solving
In Your Life:
You might find yourself naturally gravitating toward physical activity when emotionally overwhelmed
Human Relationships
In This Chapter
Depression isolates Levin even when surrounded by people, making connection feel impossible
Development
Exploring how internal storms can create external isolation
In Your Life:
You might feel completely alone even in a crowded room when dealing with personal pain
You now have the context. Time to form your own thoughts.
Discussion Questions
- 1
Why does Levin throw himself into physical farm work, and what does he hope to achieve?
analysis • surface - 2
What's the difference between how the peasants work and how Levin works, and why does this matter?
analysis • medium - 3
When have you seen someone use physical activity or exhaustion to deal with emotional pain? What did you notice about whether it worked?
application • medium - 4
If you were Levin's friend, how would you help him find a better long-term strategy than working himself to exhaustion?
application • deep - 5
What does this chapter reveal about the relationship between our minds and bodies when we're struggling emotionally?
reflection • deep
Critical Thinking Exercise
Design Your Emergency Toolkit
Create a personal emergency plan for when emotional pain becomes overwhelming. List three physical activities you could do immediately, three people you could reach out to, and three longer-term strategies for addressing root causes. Consider what resources you actually have access to and what would realistically work in your life.
Consider:
- •Think about activities that are available to you regardless of time, weather, or money
- •Consider the difference between temporary relief and lasting solutions
- •Remember that healthy coping strategies should help, not harm, your body and relationships
Journaling Prompt
Write about a time when you used physical activity to cope with stress or sadness. What worked? What didn't? How could you build healthier versions of this strategy into your regular routine?
Coming Up Next...
Chapter 70
While Levin battles his demons in the countryside, we return to Moscow's glittering social world where other hearts are about to collide. A chance encounter at a ball will set new romantic complications in motion.
