Nabokov's outline of the plot for
'Three days after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch
Oblonski—Steve as he was called in the fashionable world—woke up at his usual hour, that is, at eight o'clock in the
*
In a sentence that he later deleted VN adds: 'It should be noticed that Anna who with wisdom and grace brings on the reconciliation and thus performs a good action, simultaneously performs an evil action by captivating Vronski and breaking up his courtship of Kitty.' Ed.
†
'Dom—Dom—Dom: the tolling bell of the family theme—house, household, home. Tolstoy deliberately gives us on the very first page the key, the clue: the home theme, the family theme.' This sentence is drawn from a page of notes for the start of this section. For a more elaborate statement, see VN's Commentary Note Number 2. Ed.
98
morning, not in his wife's bedroom, but on the morocco upholstered sofa in his study. He turned over his stout, well-cared-for person on the springy sofa, as though he would sink into a long sleep again; he vigorously embraced the pillow on the other side and pressed his cheek against it; but all at once he gave a start, sat up on the sofa, and opened his eyes.
'Yes, yes, how did it go?' he thought, recalling his dream. 'Yes, how did it go? Ah, yes. Alabin was giving a dinner at Darmstadt [in Germany]; no, not Darmstadt, but something American. Yes, but then, Darmstadt was in America. Yes, Alabin was giving a dinner on tables made of glass, and the tables sang,
Steve's dream is the kind of illogical arrangement that is hastily brought about by the dream producer. You must not imagine these tables as merely covered with glass —but made completely of glass. Wine-decanters, of crystal, sing in Italian voices and at the same time these melodious decanters are women—one of those economic combinations that the amateur management of our dreams often employs. It is a pleasant dream, so pleasant in fact, that it is quite out of keeping with reality. He awakes not in the connubial bed but in the exile of his study. This however is not the most interesting point. The interesting point is that Steve's light-hearted, transparent, philandering, epicurean nature is cunningly described by the author through the imagery of a dream. This is the device for introducing Oblonski: a dream introduces him. And another point: this dream with singing little women is going to be very different from the dream about a muttering little man that both Anna and Vronski will see.
We are going to pursue our inquiry as to what impressions
went to form a certain dream that both Vronski and Anna
had in a later part of the book. The most prominent of
these occurs on her arrival in Moscow and her meeting
with Vronski.
'Next day at eleven in the morning, Vronski drove to the
station to meet his mother who was coming from
Petersburg and the first person he came across on the
great flight of steps was Steve Oblonski who was expecting
his sister by the same train. [She was coming to reconcile
Steve and his wife.]
' 'Hallo there,' cried Steve, 'whom are you meeting?'
' 'My mother,' answered Vronski. . . . 'And whom are you
meeting?'
' 'A pretty woman,' said Steve. 'Oh,' said Vronski.
' 'Shamed be who thinks evil of it,' said Steve. 'It's my sister
Anna.'
' 'Ah, that's Karenin's wife,' said Vronski.
' 'Know her?' asked Steve.
The opening pages in Nabokov's teaching copy of
*
The passages quoted by VN in these lectures represent his revision of the Garnett translation of the novel, and his occasional abridgements and paraphrases for oral reading. Ed.
99
' T think I do, or perhaps not, I am not sure.' Vronski spoke heedlessly with a vague recollection of something formal and dull evoked by the name Karenin.
' 'But,' Steve went on, 'my celebrated brother-in-law, you surely must know him?' . . .
' 'Well, by reputation, by sight. I know that he is clever, learned, churchy or something. But you know that is not in my line,'
added Vronski in English. . . .
Nabokov's corrections for the first pages of Garnett's translation of
'Vronski followed the conductor to the car where his mother was, went up the steps and at the entrance of the section he stopped short in the vestibule of the car to make room for a lady who was coming out. With the instinct of a man of the world he at once classified her as belonging to the highest society. He begged her pardon, retreated and was about to proceed on his way when he felt he must glance at her again; not because she was very beautiful, not because of her elegance and subdued grace but because in the expression of her charming face as she passed close by him, there was something peculiarly caressing and soft. As he looked back at her, she too turned her head. Her sparkling eyes that were grey but looked darker because of her thick lashes rested with friendly attention on his face as though she were recognizing him, and then promptly passed away to the passing crowd where she was looking for someone. Vronski had time to notice the suppressed eagerness which played over her face and flitted about her brilliant eyes and the faint smile that curved her red lips. She seemed to be brimming over with something that gleamed against her will in her eyes and her smile. Then deliberately she put out the light in her eyes but it was still there on her lips glimmered against her will in her faintly susceptible smile. . . .'
100
Vronski's mother who had been traveling with this lady, who is Anna, introduces her son. Oblonski appears. Then, as they are all going out, there is a stir. (Rodolfe saw Emma for the first time over a basin of blood. Vronski and Anna meet also over blood.)
'Several men ran by with frightened faces. The station master too ran by in that cap of his which was of such an unusual color [black and red]. Obviously something unusual had happened. ' They learned presently that a station guard either drunk or too much muffled up in the bitter frost, had not heard the train as it started to back out of the station and had been crushed. Anna asks if something could be done for his widow—he had a huge family—Vronski immediately glanced at her and said to his mother he would be back in a minute. We find later that
