Coincidentally Levin’s brother, who seems to add no purpose to the plot, is also in this spa, dying of tuberculosis. Kitty has been in a spa in Germany, recovering from a broken heart and idolising a saintly girl who looks after the invalids. He has also been writing in lots of notebooks about how tortured and pointless his life is without love. Levin has been scything grass with the peasants in the countryside and having lengthy conversations with a variety of people with very long names about new methods of farming and social justice. There is of course – of course! – much more filler than this. But then – it turns out that Anna was just delirious, and really she does hate Karenin, because he’s been too nice to her – and Vronsky has tried (and failed) to shoot himself, and now Karenin has said she can have a divorce, if that will make her happy – all he wants is for her to be happy – but no, that’s still not good enough, and Anna has just gone off with Vronsky abroad, without divorcing Karenin, humiliating him in the process and also leaving her children behind. Karenin resolves never to divorce Anna, and thinks they can give things another go. Then, horror! Anna is pregnant with Vronsky’s baby and nearly dies after the birth she calls for Karenin, and over her almost-deathbed, they are reconciled amidst lots of tears and forgiveness, and Vronsky and Karenin are united over their love and concern for Anna. Everyone is distraught by this and tries to talk Karenin out of it, but he sees no other way. Even so, she continues the affair and summons Vronsky to the house while she thinks Karenin will be out unfortunately he isn’t, and so Karenin launches divorce proceedings. She can’t bear his presence, but at the same time, the thought of losing her position in society and potentially being ostracised from her son are prices she’s not sure will be worth paying for the reward of having Vronsky. This isn’t good enough for Anna, though she is tortured by Karenin’s generosity and hates him for it. He might be worthy and dull, and completely incapable of expressing himself, but he’s a complex man, with a good heart, and he’s got the courage of his convictions. He is angry and for a time wants to hurt Anna, but he can’t really bring himself to damage her reputation or make her miserable, despite the fact that she makes it perfectly obvious that she hates him. It was at this point that I started to like Karenin the best out of everyone he’s a decent man, with a sense of honour and justice, sincerely wishing to do what he thinks is right and spare others humiliation and pain. Anna tells Karenin that she hates him and loves Vronsky Karenin is understandably a little put out by this, but because he is a religious man and respects the conventions of society, he allows the affair to continue under the condition that Anna won’t see Vronsky in his own house a perfectly reasonable and fair request. Everyone’s unhappy apart from Kitty and Levin, who, 500 pages in, have finally decided to actually tell each other that they love each other rather than hiding away in their respective homes and pining over the hopelessness of life. I’m half way through, and everyone’s all over the shop, tears springing from every orifice.
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