BooksBarbecue
Back The Book of Anna Save as PDF
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

The note is elegantly written (it doesn’t mention money, for that you have to read between the lines), and Sergei almost likes it: it’s so dignified, and it gives the tsar an option to decline. It may be that the portrait is poor quality, truly unworthy, without any artistic or financial value, a mere topic of gossip, in which case it wouldn’t be worth removing from storage. With any luck, Sergei thinks, it will remain facing the wall where Claudia says it lives like a punished child.

Both husband and wife sign the letter. Beneath her signature, off to one side, Claudia adds a little note in looser script, “Not a day passed that my dear papa didn’t remember the emperor fondly, always with tremendous respect and admiration,” and she signs the initials of her maiden name, imitating the signature of her father, the ambassador. More fawning—or diplomacy.

Disregarding what day of the week it is—she fears that Sergei will change his mind again—Claudia gives instructions to one of the footmen (Piotr): he should deliver the reply immediately to the offices of the tsar, to the attention of “the Tsar’s Desk,” the subject “Portrait of Anna Karenina, painted by Mikhailov” That way, Sergei’s anxiety will ease.

22. Piotr

22. Piotr

The Karenins’ footman, Piotr, is dressed in his Sunday best to attend the divine liturgy. I’ll take advantage of this errand to go to the cathedral, to go and chew the fat with his friends, the only opportunity he has all week, since his mistress keeps him so busy all the time that he spends his life running from one thing to the next. He wants to deliver the letter as soon as possible, to get rid of it and go to the church carefree. So he begins to run, without paying much attention to anything. First he’ll go to the tsar’s office—he likes the idea of delivering it to the Winter Palace—then to Sergei’s undersecretary.

Piotr likes to sing. Despite the fact that he doesn’t have a single drop of vodka in his veins (he usually doesn’t, Claudia keeps a careful eye on him), he begins to sing at the top of his lungs as he’s running, a song he made up, or so he thinks, using a popular tune, changing the words as he goes:

I bear a message for the Winter

a message, a message.

I bear a message for the Winter

a message, a message.

Suddenly a chorus of voices joins in, mostly children, and his improvised song becomes a refrain—usually he would change the words as he goes along.

I bear a message for the Winter

a message, a message!