Anna Karenina Part 7, Chapter 1 Summary
by Leo Tolstoy

The Levins have been in Moscow for three months, but Kitty is no closer to delivery than she was two months ago. The doctor, the nurse, Dolly, Kitty’s mother, and especially Levin are growing impatient and uneasy; Kitty is the only one who feels “perfectly calm and happy.” She already feels an uncanny love for her unborn child; this child is both part of her and independent of her. Everyone she loves is here, and everything around her is so utterly pleasant that she could have wished to live this life always. The only thing which spoils this life for her is that Levin does not act here as he does in the country.

In the country, Levin is serene, friendly, and hospitable; in the city he is always uneasy and on his guard. In the country he is so at home he never feels the need to be somewhere else; in the city he seems to be always in a hurry though he has no place to go and nothing to do. She pities him, but she knows others see him differently. In fact, when she tries to look at him dispassionately, Kitty is struck with jealous fear. He is attractive and exhibits fine breeding; he is rather old-fashioned in his courtesies to women; and he is strikingly handsome. Yet she knows that here in the city he is “not himself.”

It is no wonder Levin is ill at ease in the city, for he is not interested in cards, clubs, or drinking. Going places with Stepan Arkadyevitch would give him no pleasure (nor would it suit Kitty), but staying always with the women must be boring to him. He has tried working on his book; but, as he tells her, “the more he does nothing, the less time he has to do anything.”

The one advantage Kitty has found here is that they rarely quarrel, and certainly there have been no quarrels from jealousy while they have been here, something they had both feared. Only one incident does happen: Kitty’s meeting with Vronsky. Kitty’s godmother has always been fond of her and insists on seeing her. Though Kitty...