50 Fun Facts About Anna Karenina

What did Tolstoy himself call Anna Karenina?

He came to hate it while finishing the final instalments, yet finished it anyway.

In which year was Anna Karenina first published in book form?

It had been serialised from 1875 to 1877 in a periodical, all but the last part.

In which periodical was Anna Karenina serialised between 1875 and 1877?

All but the last part appeared there.

How does the novel's famous first sentence begin?

A 1997 bestseller turned it into the 'Anna Karenina principle' to explain why so few animals were domesticated.

What is the novel's epigraph, taken from Romans 12:19?

Romans is itself quoting Deuteronomy 32:35.

Into how many parts is Anna Karenina divided?

There are 239 chapters in all.

What is Anna's lover Vronsky's profession?

Their affair scandalises St Petersburg society and drives them to flee to Italy.

What is the occupation of Anna's husband, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin?

He is twenty years older than Anna.

Which recurring motif provides the setting for several major plot points, including Anna's first sight of Vronsky and her death?

On the day they meet, a railway worker is crushed by a train carriage; Anna dies the same way, in conscious symmetry.

Anna's brother opens the novel in trouble with his wife over an affair with whom?

Anna comes from St Petersburg to Moscow to patch things up and persuades his wife to forgive him.

Which character is Anna's brother?

He is a Moscow civil servant and man about town, 34 years old.

Which shy country landowner provides the novel's parallel love story with Kitty Shcherbatskaya?

He has to propose twice before Kitty accepts, and his views match Tolstoy's own throughout the book.

Why does Kitty first refuse Levin's proposal?

Her mother favours Vronsky, her father Levin; at the ball Vronsky dances with Anna instead and Kitty is heartbroken.

What is the name of Vronsky's mare, whose back he breaks by riding her too hard in the steeplechase?

Anna had just told him she was pregnant, and Karenin, watching her reaction at the races, decides her behaviour is improper.

Where does Kitty go to recover after Vronsky's rejection ruins her health?

There she meets the pious Varenka and Madame Stahl, whom her father exposes as faking illness.

What does Karenin threaten to take from Anna if she continues her affair?

He also consults a lawyer about divorce, but the evidence he gathers is deemed insufficient proof.

What does Vronsky do after Karenin forgives him at Anna's sickbed following the birth of her daughter?

He survives; when Anna hears he is to be posted to Tashkent she becomes desperate, and they flee to Italy together.

What is the name of Anna and Vronsky's daughter?

Anna nearly dies giving birth to her; Karenin grows attached to the child.

Under Russian law of the period, who could request a divorce?

It required the guilty party to confess or to be caught in the act.

What hobby does Vronsky take up in Italy, without realising he lacks talent?

His conversation about art is 'extremely pretentious', and he grows bored while Anna is happy to be alone with him.

What does Countess Lidia Ivanovna advise Karenin to tell his young son about his mother?

Anna nonetheless visits the boy uninvited on his ninth birthday and is discovered by Karenin.

Which drug does Anna become addicted to, first taking it to help her sleep at Vronsky's estate?

Her jealousy and paranoia about Vronsky's fidelity deepen alongside the addiction.

How does Anna die?

She jumps from ground level at the end of a platform, echoing the railway worker killed the day she met Vronsky.

Obiralovka, the suburban station where Anna dies, was renamed what in 1939?

The name means, roughly, 'railway town'; the town was later absorbed into Balashikha in 2015.

Where does the suicidal Vronsky go to fight in Part 8?

He joins Russian volunteers in what became the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78; the magazine's editor refused this pan-Slavist final part.

What conclusion does Levin reach after talking to a peasant at the end of the novel?

He no longer questions the Christian faith taught to him in childhood, ending his suicidal despair.

Of what illness does Levin's brother Nikolai die, nursed by Kitty?

Kitty proves far more capable at the deathbed than Levin, and his love for her grows.

Which guest's open flirting with the pregnant Kitty makes Levin so jealous he asks him to leave?

The visitor promptly moves to Anna and Vronsky's neighbouring estate.

What did William Faulkner reply when asked to name the three greatest novels?

Thomas Mann called it 'that very greatest novel of society' and Nabokov 'one of the greatest love stories in world literature'.

Which fellow Russian novelist published the 1877 essay 'Anna Karenina as a Fact of Special Importance'?

It was later included in his A Writer's Diary.

Who produced the 1901 English translation that, in its Kent–Berberova revision, is still recommended by scholars?

Masha Gessen wrote that Garnett's Tolstoy is 'a monocled British gentleman'; the Pevear–Volokhonsky version speaks conversational American English.

Which translating couple, friends of Tolstoy who lived in Russia for years, published a version in 1918?

They kept the feminine ending 'Karenina'; Nabokov argued English should drop it except for stage performers.

Why do some translators, such as Garnett and Edmonds, drop the final 'a' and call the book Anna Karenin?

Nabokov explained that Russian surnames ending in a consonant add an 'a' for a woman.

Which actress played Anna in both a 1927 silent version titled Love and the 1935 MGM sound film?

The 1927 film had two endings, a happy one for American audiences; the 1935 film took a prize at Venice.

Who played Anna in Julien Duvivier's 1948 British film, with Ralph Richardson as Karenin?

Alexander Korda produced it; the steeplechase was shot in Monterey, California, and the film lost £457,313.

Which 1997 film starring Sophie Marceau was the only international version shot entirely in Russia?

Sean Bean played Vronsky and Alfred Molina Levin; Mel Gibson's Icon Productions put up the $20 million budget.

Who wrote the screenplay for Joe Wright's 2012 film starring Keira Knightley?

Jude Law was Karenin and Aaron Taylor-Johnson Vronsky; it was Knightley's third film with Wright.

What stylistic choice by Joe Wright divided critics of the 2012 film?

Critics praised the cast but felt style trumped substance; the film grossed about $69 million.

Which Oscar did the 2012 Anna Karenina win?

Jacqueline Durran took both the Academy Award and the BAFTA; the film had four Oscar nominations in all.

Which prize did the 1935 Garbo version win at the Venice Film Festival?

Graham Greene wrote that Garbo's personality 'makes' the film; Basil Rathbone played Karenin.

Who popularised the 'Anna Karenina principle' in his 1997 book Guns, Germs and Steel?

He used it to explain failed animal domestication: a deficiency in any one factor is enough to doom the whole endeavour.

Which sister of Kitty is married to Anna's brother?

Dolly is 33 and Kitty 18 at the start of the novel.

Who is Princess Betsy Tverskaya?

Countess Lidia Ivanovna leads the rival, pious circle around Karenin that shuns Betsy's set.

Which half-brother of Levin is a celebrated writer whose latest book flops in Part 8?

He throws himself into Pan-Slavism as Russia backs the Serbian revolt.

What is Levin's housekeeper Agafya Mikhailovna's former role?

She is one of the few servants given a full name and character in the book.

Where does Vronsky lavish money on building a hospital, to the astonishment of a visiting relative?

Kitty's sister cannot keep pace with Anna's dresses either, and contrasts the luxury with the Levins' simple home.

What was Tolstoy's state of mind as he finished the final instalments?

He finished it unwillingly.

According to the Pevear–Volokhonsky footnotes, whose outspoken views does Levin voice throughout the novel?

Levin's spelling as 'Lyovin' reflects the Russian pronunciation, close to Tolstoy's own first name Lev.

Beyond film and television, into which media has the novel been adapted?

The first film version, from 1911, has not survived.

What divorce evidence does Karenin extract from Anna, only for his lawyer to call it insufficient?

Anna's brother and his wife argue against the divorce; Anna's near-death in childbirth then changes Karenin's plans.