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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

Seryozha, my son: I will never deserve your forgiveness. Nothing in my life ever compared to being your mother. I will always love you, wherever I am. I wrote this novel twice. The first I wrote as a moral lesson for children, intending that you be its first reader. Two years later, I rewrote it in one sitting, without any such pretentions. I didn’t write it for you. I wrote it for myself. Nevertheless, I dedicate it to you, hoping that someday you, Seryozha, will have a daughter, and that one day, she’ll be a grown woman, and these pages will speak to her, my granddaughter, when she’s an adult. My love …

The last sentence is unfinished. The signature is incomplete, and unnecessary.

Claudia sits down in Sergei’s comfortable armchair. She chooses the unbound manuscript, Anna’s book, Karenina’s novel….

37. In Claudia’s Hands

37. In Claudia’s Hands

In her hands, Claudia holds the loose leaves of Anna’s book. They’re bound together by a simple, utilitarian ribbon that’s not as nice as the one that fastened the blue box, thick and coarse material, undyed. When she unties it, a calling card printed with Count Vronsky’s name falls out, the typeface elegant and restrained, with a few handwritten lines:

I often fell into a dreamlike state on opium; I stood at the window on summer nights, watching the sea and the city without moving, absorbed by all I saw, from the time the sun rose until night fell … T. de Q.

Part Four: The Book of Anna: No date or place

PART FOUR

THE BOOK OF ANNA

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No date or place

38. An Opium-Infused Fairy Tale: The Book of Anna by Anna Karenina

38. An Opium-Infused Fairy Tale: The Book of Anna by Anna Karenina

Once upon a time, a woodsman and his wife lived deep in the forest with their six-year-old daughter, Anna. Theirs was a hard life, and their daughter was their only joy. It had been a long winter, and there was little food for the table, yet the girl laughed, impervious to hunger, cold, the dark, and her parents’ constant ill humor.

One day before sunrise, the woodsman (who never laughed, just like his wife) leaves the cottage and begins to walk, cutting a gaunt, disagreeable figure, his axe and some rope in his hands. He knows his search is in vain. The birds and the ducks have all flown south; the bears, the snakes, the wildcats, and even the creepy-crawlies are all hidden away, settled down for a long winter’s nap; the fish hide beneath the ice. His memory leads him to a path, and there he glimpses something in the pale light of the moon, which also looks frozen.