NovelGuide: Anna Karenina: Novel Summary: Part 7 section 29-Part 8 section 9

Part 7 section 29-Part 8 section 9

Part 7 section 29: Anna leaves Dolly's feeling even worse that she did when she left home. She looks at all of the people and billboards on her way home. She sees a funny billboard and wants to tell someone about it, but realizes she has no one to tell. She arrives home and there is a note from Vronsky saying he cannot return before ten. She then knows that she must go and talk to him at his mother's, and that she has never hated anyone like she hates him. She does not realize that his note is in response to her telegram and that he did not receive her desperate note yet. She decides to go to the railway station and then to Vronsky's mothers if she does not find him there. She packs what she will need for a few days, as she knows that she will not return.

Part 7 section 30: On her way to the station Anna looks closely at her relations with Vronsky, something she has always avoided doing. She realizes that he was in love with her, but be was more proud of having gotten her. She thinks that her love for him grows greater while his love for her dwindles. She realizes that if she does get a divorce and marry Vronsky things will not change. Kitty will still look at her like she did that afternoon, and she will not have her son. She buys a ticket so that she can go to Vronsky's mother's house.

Part 7 section 31: She gets on the train and everything and everyone irritates her. The train stops at the station and she tries to avoid everyone. She asks if there is a note from Count Vronsky, and she gets one saying that he is sorry that her note did not catch him, but that he cannot be home before ten. She is getting desperate, and she remembers the man who had been run over by the train on the day that she had met Vronsky, and she knows what she must do. She wants to punish him and escape from everybody. She waits for the middle of the truck and jumps under, dropping to her knees. At the last minute she realizes horrorstruck what she is doing and wonders where she is and why she is doing it. She tries to throw herself back but is struck on the head and dragged down.

Part 8 section 1: Nearly two months have passed and Koznyshev is preparing to go to his brother's farm. He has just finished the book that he has been working on for six years, but no one is talking about it and he feels that he had wasted his time. The Slavonic issue is very popular in Russia, and there are many balls and dinners for the Slavs. Koznyshev is glad to devote himself to this movement. Katavasov accompanies him to Levin's.

Part 8 section 2: At the station Koznyshev and Katavasov run into many Volunteers who are on their way to fight for Turkey. He learns that Vronsky is also going to fight by that train. He also runs into Oblonsky at the station who tells him that his wife is at Levin's and to tell her that he got the post.

Part 8 section 3: Koznyshev and Katavasov get on the train. Katavasov does not know any Volunteers or of the bad reputation of them, so he goes to meet some of them, and is not impressed by them.

Part 8 section 4: Koznyshev walks by Vronsky's compartment and sees his mother there. She is traveling part of the way with him. She tells him how devastated Vronsky was over what happened with Anna. When news came that a woman had been run over at the station, he rode there quickly and saw her. He came back like a corpse and would not speak and hardly ate for weeks. She says that Anna deserved to end that way. She also tells him that Karenin has taken their little girl to raise. She tells Koznyshev that this Serbian war is a godsend because now Vronsky has something to do. She asks Koznyshev to find Vronsky and talk to him.

Part 8 section 5: Koznyshev walks along the train and sees Vronsky. He tells him that it is good that he is going and that more good men like him need to go to raise the reputation of the Volunteers. While they are talking Vronsky catches sight of the rails and thinks about Anna's corpse as he has seen it at the station. He tries to remember her as she was when they first met, but he can only think of her saying that he would repent. He talks to Koznyshev about the war some more, and they return to their carriages.

Part 8 section 6: Koznyshev and Katavasov arrive at Levin's, and Kitty sends a note out to Levin who is in the field to say that they have visitors. Having arranged for her guests, Kitty goes to feed her son, Mitya.

Part 8 section 7: Kitty thinks about her husband and how he has been tormented lately by his lack of faith. She is not really concerned about it, but is concerned about him. She does not understand how he cannot believe. She thinks of how good he is and about how just a few weeks ago he suggested that she give Dolly her portion of her estate since she and Oblonsky are so in debt.

Part 8 section 8: Since his brother's illness, Levin has been preoccupied in thinking about life and death. He reads many books trying to find the answer, but they do not help. He thinks about how all of the good people he knows are believers. He also remembers that when Kitty was giving birth he prayed and believed, but that that moment has passed.

Part 8 section 9: Levin has convinced himself that he can get no answers from books or philosophers. All that spring he has been preoccupied by these thoughts and has even been near suicide when wondering why he lives.