Even then he did not finish it. The next year he wrote: "The end of winter and the opening of spring are my busiest months for work. I must finish the novel of which I have grown so tired." But when he once took hold of it the spirit of it quickly seized him again, and much of it was written, as any one can see, with almost breathless haste.
Polevoï, in his illustrated "History of Russian Literature," says of this story: "Count Tolstoï dwells with especial fondness on the sharp contrast between the frivolity, the tinsel brightness, the tumult and vanity, of the worldly life, and the sweet, holy calm enjoyed by those who, possessing the soil, live amid the beauties of Nature and the pleasures of the family."
This contrast will strike the attention of every reader. It is the outgrowth of Count Tolstoï's own life; his dual nature is portrayed in the contrasting careers of Levin and Vronsky. The interweaving of two stories is done with a masterly hand. One may take them separately or together; each strand of the twisted rope follows its own course, and yet each without the other would be evidently incomplete.
As one reads, one forgets that it is fiction. It seems like a transcript of real life, and one is constantly impressed by the vast accumulation of pictures, each illustrating and explaining the vital elements of the épopée. At times one is startled by the vivifying flashes of genius. The death of Anna is dimly suggested by the tragic occurrence of the brakeman's death in the Moscow railway station. A still more suggestive intimation of the approaching tragedy is found in the death of Vronsky's horse during the officers' handicap race at Peterhof. If one may so speak, the atmosphere of the story is electrified with fate. In this respect it is like a Greek drama. There is never a false touch.
Count Tolstoï's brother-in-law says there is no doubt that Levin is the portrait of the novelist himself, but represented as being "extremely simple in order to bring him into still greater contrast with the representatives of high life in Moscow and St. Petersburg." He also
