Anna Karenina - Translation - Classics Library (046)

Author: Tolstoy
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. The Oblonskys' household was in complete disarray. The wife learned that her husband was having an affair with his former French governess and declared to him that she could no longer live in the same house with him. This stalemate lasted for three days, during which both the couple and all the family members felt deep pain. Everyone found living together utterly boring, and they felt that people they met by chance in any inn would have better relationships with each other than the members of the Oblonskys' family. The wife stayed out of sight, and the husband did not return for three days. The children ran wild in the house, unattended. The British governess had argued with the housekeeper and wrote a letter to a friend asking her to find a new job. The chef had already left the house the day before, leaving during lunchtime. The assistant cook and the coachman also demanded to quit their jobs. On the third day of the commotion, Stepan Arkadyich Oblonsky, Duke (who called himself Stiva in social circles), woke up at his usual time, which was 8 a.m., but not in his wife's bedroom, but on a goat-skin sofa in his study. He bounced on the spring with his well-maintained plump body, hugged the pillow tightly, burying his face in it as if he wanted to sleep soundly again. But suddenly, he rolled out of bed, sat up on the sofa, and opened his eyes. "Oh, oh, what did I dream about?" He remembered having a dream...