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Deep Analysis of Anna Karenina Part Four: Aspects of the Novel (Chapters 1-3) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-06 15:54:08
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

How do you feel now that you've read almost half of Anna Karenina?

If you've been enjoying it so far, it's only going to get better as the narrative cranks up and the concerns of the characters reach fever pitch.

In this video, we're focusing on the opening chapters and intense conversations between Anna and Vronsky, and applying some of E. M. Forster's ideas, from Aspects of the Novel, to the story.

  • 0:00 showing you my reading journals (my recommendation)
  • 2:30 what if Anna Karenina was an opera or painting instead of a novel?
  • 5:00 first couple of chapters of Part Four
  • 7:20 Vronsky and Anna
  • 8:00 Aspects of the Novel
  • 10:00 flat characters vs round characters
  • 11:00 in the novel, we can know people perfectly
  • 11:55 why can we never truly, fully know another person?
  • 13:20 loneliness and the comfort of fiction
  • 14:40 the intimacy and empathy of the novel
  • 16:30 what makes a writer a genius?
  • 18:00 a novel is based on evidence +/- X
  • 18:40 a critical reading assignment
  • 21:00 Homo sapiens vs Homo fictus
  • 23:13 “I only know what you’ve told me.”
  • 23:50 Vronsky the “murderer”
  • 25:30 Anna as plucked “faded flower”
  • 26:00 Anna’s jealousy
  • 26:50 would Anna be merciful?
  • 28:30 machinery, fate, and free-will

Questions

1) Who is a round character in Anna Karenina? Who is flat? Why?

2) How would your reaction to Anna Karenina be different if the story were an opera or a painting instead of a novel?

In upcoming Part Four videos, we'll dive into divorce law in 19th Century Russia, look at the psychological principle of "face", and read some poetry in context of the ongoing drama of Anna Karenina.

Happy reading!

Files

Previews only

Deep Analysis of Anna Karenina Part Four: Aspects of the Novel (Chapters 1-3)

0:00 showing you my reading journals 2:30 what if Anna Karenina was an opera or painting instead of a novel? 5:00 first couple of chapters of Part Four 7:20 Vronsky and Anna 8:00 Aspects of the Novel 10:00 flat characters vs round characters 11:00 in the novel, we can know people perfectly 11:55 why can we never truly, fully know another person? 13:20 loneliness and the comfort of fiction 14:40 the intimacy and empathy of the novel 16:30 what makes a writer a genius? 18:00 a novel is based on evidence +/- X 18:40 a critical reading assignment 21:00 Homo sapiens vs Homo fictus 23:13 “I only know what you’ve told me.” 23:50 Vronsky the “murderer” 25:30 Anna as plucked “faded flower” 26:00 Anna’s jealousy 26:50 would Anna be merciful? 28:30 machinery, fate, and free-will

Comments

Alice

Flat characters (so far): Kitty - pretty young simpleton. Why does Levin even love her? How does round, rich, complex Levin’s character mesh with Kitty at all? Perhaps I will find out later. Stepan- oblivious, jovial aristocrat. I sure do like him though. Alexei - repressed manipulative politician - until part 4 where he became much more interesting and round. No longer a villain for me. I don't think Anna is a flat character, but I keep wishing I liked her more than I do. I feel like I should have more compassion for her. She just seems trapped in her position and trapped with her desire for love that nothing in her life can fulfill leading to depression and drama. Sometimes I wish she would get a hold of herself a little more...but I can sympathize with the emotions she experiences...they just seem a bit much all together in one character. If Anna Karenina were a painting, it would be a giant tableau by a 17th century Dutch master. One with a giant mixture of people with different facial expressions and interactions and realistic detail and more and more small details that are revealed as you stare at the painting for a long time. I have thought about the differences between drawing and writing or a great painting and a novel ever since I read Drawing on the Artist Within by Betty Edwards. There is more than I would ever imagine possible communicated through a painting - by brushstroke, by color, by shape, by the perspective of the artist - there is a primordial connection with the visual brain that communicates in a way that the construct of language sometimes makes clumsy. Visual art sometimes communicates a feeling that is destroyed or that becomes impure when it is put into words (kind of like that Nietzsche quote you mentioned in one of the videos “That for which we find words is already dead in our hearts”). In some ways visual art is more vague and symbolic and personalized than a novel. But if you think of making visual art out of the images that each person projects from reading the pages of a novel, would you come up with as many different pieces of art as you would pieces of writing if a selection of people tried to put into words what a painting is communicating? What a cool thought experiment.

hardcoreliterature
>>58668075

I so resonated with many of the things you wrote here, Alice. Primarily, Alexei's changeability over the course of the novel is one of the most stand-out complex renderings of character (for me) in all of literature. And I so wished I liked Anna more, especially as Tolstoy identified with her and so many readers love her. The closest I come to loving her is, in a similar way to how I approach Vronsky, after several rereadings feeling some pity for her. I also eminently "understand" her and don't *quite* blame her for many of her actions. Also - a giant 17th century Dutch tableau - VERY nice choice.

David Wisehart

Anna Karenina might make for a good opera (several have been staged, but I haven’t seen them.) Operas, like novels, give an audience access to the interiority of their characters. Marrying sung thoughts with expressive music, arias can convey deep meaning and feeling. Reading some of the more emotional passages of the book, I can imagine these scenes playing well on the operatic stage, where thoughts and emotions, suppressed by social decorum, can be given full rein.

hardcoreliterature
>>71971433

I absolutely agree with you, David. I've always been a film fan, but films can't give me the same nourishment I get from novels where we can intimately access a person's interior, inhabiting them, seeing the world the way they see it. But opera, for the reason you've pointed out, absolutely does this. I'm reminded of Walter Pater's "All art constantly aspires to the condition of music."