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The Book of Anna

Carmen Boullosa
Chapters (53)
  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. An Explanation of What This Book Is About
  4. Part One: Anna’s Sergei and Anya’s City: St. Petersburg, Saturday, January 8, 1905
  5. 1. On the Heels of Clementine, the Anarchist
  6. 2. Claudia and Sergei
  7. 3. Clementine Defends Herself
  8. 4. To the Concert
  9. 5. The Tsar’s Letter
  10. 6. In the Theater
  11. 7. What Giorgi, the Karenins’ Coachman, Did
  12. 8. Intermission at the Concert
  13. 9. Near the Port
  14. 10. More Specifics about Sergei
  15. 11. Kapitonich, Hall Porter at the Karenin Palace
  16. 12. Claudia and Sergei at Table
  17. 13. Aleksandra and Volodin Go to the Haven
  18. 14. Our Moment of Greatness
  19. 15. With Father Gapon
  20. 16. Clementine, in Pursuit of the Night
  21. 17. In the Karenin Palace Kitchen
  22. 18. We’ll Give Our Lives!
  23. 19. The Karenins Take Dinner
  24. Part Two: Bloody Sunday: Sunday, January 9, 1905
  25. 20. Anya Karenina without Aleksandra
  26. 21. The Karenins’ Reply to the Tsar
  27. 22. Piotr
  28. 23. The Three Women
  29. 24. Claudia’s Impatience
  30. 25. Unexpected Guests at the Karenin Palace
  31. 26. What on Earth Was the Tsar Thinking?
  32. 27. Back in the Karenin Palace Kitchen
  33. 28. The Reverend’s Beard
  34. Part Three: Karenina’s Portrait: Three months later
  35. 29. Karenina’s Portrait
  36. 30. About Clementine
  37. 31. The Critics Examine the Portrait
  38. 32. Vladimir
  39. 33. The Reason for the Proposed Purchase
  40. 34. The Portrait Departs
  41. 35. Between the Dream and the Battleship Potemkin
  42. 36. Claudia’s Regrets
  43. 37. In Claudia’s Hands
  44. Part Four: The Book of Anna: No date or place
  45. 38. An Opium-Infused Fairy Tale: The Book of Anna by Anna Karenina
  46. Part Five: Finale: St. Petersburg, June 1905
  47. 39. After Reading
  48. 40. The Plot
  49. 41. The Boxes
  50. 42. Anya Karenina
  51. 43. The Wind
  52. Funder Acknowledgments
  53. The Publisher’s Circle of Coffee House Press

Cover

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THE BOOK OF ANNA

Title Page

THE BOOK OF ANNA

(Karenina’s Novel)

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Carmen Boullosa

Translated by Samantha Schnee

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“Tell me the truth: why does the woman in your short story kill herself?”

“Oh! You’d have to ask her.”

“And you can’t do that?”

“That’s as impossible as asking a question of an image in a dream.”

—FELISBERTO HERNÁNDEZ

On the road to redemption,

light doesn’t cease throbbing.

I believe in love because I’m never satisfied.

It’s my wild heart

that arrives in the nick of time.

—GUSTAVO CERATI

Any woman who spent her whole life with Tolstoy certainly deserves a good measure of sympathy.

—SUSAN JACOBY

Her occupations are, firstly, writing…. She is writing a children’s book and does not speak of it to anyone, but she read it to me and I showed the manuscript to Vorkuyev…. You know, the publisher…. He is an expert, and says it is a remarkable work.

…

She rose and took up a book bound in morocco-leather.

“Let me have it, Anna Arkadyevna,” said Vorkuyev, pointing to the book. “It is well worth it.”

“Oh no, it is so unfinished!”

—LEO TOLSTOY,
Anna Karenina (Part 7, Chapters IX–X)
Translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, 1918

An Explanation of What This Book Is About

An Explanation of What This Book Is About

In his novel Anna Karenina, Tolstoy tells us that his lead character authored a book of the highest quality. Vorkuyev, a publisher, tells her he wants to print it. (“Let me have it, Anna Arkadyevna…. It is well worth it.”) But Anna considers it a draft. (“Oh no, it is so unfinished!”)

After this passage, Tolstoy never mentions Anna’s book again.

What he doesn’t tell us is that Karenina continues to work on her manuscript. The few mornings she’s in the right state of mind, she begins making minor corrections. Then it becomes her companion at all hours, even in her opium-filled nights. Eventually she rewrites it from beginning to end.

Anna left two books, then: the one her contemporaries knew about, and the one that was with her to the end. The night before her fall she was still rewriting it.

This is the story of how Karenina’s revised version—presented here for the first time—was rescued from oblivion, in 1905, in St. Petersburg, at the dawn of the Russian Revolution.

Part One: Anna’s Sergei and Anya’s City: St. Petersburg, Saturday, January 8, 1905

PART ONE

ANNA’S SERGEI AND ANYA’S CITY

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St. Petersburg, Saturday, January 8, 1905

1. On the Heels of Clementine, the Anarchist

1. On the Heels of Clementine, the Anarchist