Description

In this episode of Hot Takes on the Classics, Emily Maeda and Tim McIntosh close out their episodes on Eros with Leo Tolstoy’s monumental novel Anna Karenina. They explore how Tolstoy intertwines two contrasting marriage plots—Anna’s tragic affair and Levin’s redemptive union with Kitty—to illuminate the tension between passion, virtue, and meaning in modern love. Along the way, Emily and Tim discuss Tolstoy’s critique of high society, the “woman question” in 19th-century Russia, and why Anna Karenina remains one of the most psychologically profound works ever written.

Episode Outline 

• Opening reading: Anna’s first appearance at the ball and Tolstoy’s breathtaking description of her poise and vitality
• The “marriage plot” tradition in European fiction and why Tolstoy expands it beyond romance into questions of faith and purpose
• The woman question, the man question, and changing gender roles in industrial society
• Levin as Tolstoy’s alter ego: spiritual seeker, social reformer, and bumbling idealist
• The pentagon of love: Oblonsky, Anna, Vronsky, Kitty, and Levin
• The ball scene and its double vision—social spectacle and emotional catastrophe
• Vronsky and Anna’s affair: passion, honor, and the collapse of moral coherence
• Dolly and Oblonsky’s broken marriage as foreshadowing
• Levin and Kitty: humility, healing, and the hard work of real marriage
• Anna’s growing isolation and societal exile—Tolstoy’s critique of hypocrisy
• The double standard between men and women in sin and punishment
• Levin’s moment of transcendence while mowing—finding joy in work, nature, and grace
• The legacy of Tolstoy’s two marriages: tragedy redeemed through meaning
• Reflections on translation and reading Russian literature in English (Constance Garnett’s legacy)

Key Topics & Takeaways

• Two Marriages, Two Fates: Tolstoy contrasts Anna’s passion that destroys with Levin’s love that sanctifies; both reveal human longing for wholeness.
• The “Woman Question”: 19th-century debates about women’s independence evolve into timeless reflections on vocation, family, and social responsibility.
• Society and Hypocrisy: Tolstoy exposes the moral double standard that condemns women for transgression while excusing men like Vronsky.
• The Spiritual Quest: Levin’s awakening joins the physical and the divine—embodied work as revelation of grace.
• Marriage as Redemption: True love in Tolstoy’s vision demands humility, forgiveness, and moral renewal, not mere passion.

Questions & Discussion

• What do Anna’s and Levin’s stories reveal about the possibilities and limits of love?
  Compare how passion leads Anna to isolation while humility brings Levin to peace. What does this suggest about the relationship between love and self-knowledge?
• How does Tolstoy’s “woman question” speak to today’s debates about gender and fulfillment?
  Discuss whether the novel’s concerns about women’s social roles still resonate. How do Anna’s and Kitty’s choices reflect competing visions of freedom?
• What role does society play in Anna’s downfall?
  Consider Tolstoy’s portrait of aristocratic hypocrisy—how do gossip, status, and judgment contribute to tragedy?
• Why does Tolstoy end the novel not with Anna but with Levin?
  Reflect on why the story closes in spiritual serenity rather than despair. How does Levin’s labor and awakening resolve the novel’s central questions?
• How does translation shape our encounter with Tolstoy’s moral vision?
  Does accessibility or fidelity matter more when reading Tolstoy today?

Suggested Reading & Viewing

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy  translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky 
• War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky  
• Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky translated by Constance Garnett
• A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen
• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
• The Odyssey by Homer translated by Emily Wilson
• The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton