Emma Watson Pussy
Books:
Anna Karenina
War And Peace
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cant love your wife with
love, however much you may esteem her. And then all at once love
turns up, and youre done for, done for," Stepan Arkadyevitch
said with weary despair.
Levin half smiled.
"Yes, youre done for," resumed Oblonsky. "But whats to be
done?"
"Dont steal rolls."
Stepan Arkadyevitch laughed outright.
"Oh, moralist! But you must understand, there are two women; one
insists only on her rights, and those rights are your love, which
you cant give her; and the other sacrifices everything for you
and asks for nothing. What are you to do? How are you to act?
Theres a fearful tragedy in it."
"If you care for my profession of faith as regards that, Ill
tell you that I dont believe there was any tragedy about it.
And this is why. To my mind, love...both the sorts of love,
which you remember Plato defines in his Banquet, served as the
test of men. Some men only understand one sort, and some only
the other. And those who only know the non-platonic love have no
need to talk of tragedy. In such love there can be no sort of
tragedy. Im much obliged for the gratification, my humble
respects--thats all the tragedy. And in platonic love there
can be no tragedy, because in that love all is clear and pure,
because..."
At that instant Levin recollected his own sins and the inner
conflict he had lived through. And he added unexpectedly:
"But perhaps you are right. Very likely...I dont know, I dont
know."
"Its this, dont you see," said Stepan Arkadyevitch, "youre
very much all of a piece. Thats your strong point and your
failing. You have a character thats all of a piece, and you
want the whole of life to be of a piece too--but thats not how
it is. You despise public official work because you want the
reality to be invariably corresponding all the while with the
aim--and thats not how it is. You want a mans work, too,
always to have a defined aim, and love and family life always to
be undivided--and thats not how it is. All the variety, all the
charm, all the beauty of life is made up of light and shadow."
Levin sighed and made no reply. He was thinking of his own
affairs, and did not hear Oblonsky.
And suddenly both of them felt that though they were friends,
though they had been dining and drinking together, which should
have drawn them closer, yet each was thinking only of his own
affairs, and they had nothing to do with one another. Oblonsky
had more than once experienced this extreme sense of aloofness,
instead of intimacy, coming on after dinner, and he knew what to
do in such cases.
"Bill!" he called, and he went into the next room where he
promptly came across an aide-de-camp of his acquaintance and
dropped into conversation with him about an actress and her
protector. And at once in the conversation with the aide-de-camp
Oblonsky had a sense of relaxation and relief after the
conversation with Levin, which always put him to too great a
mental and spiritual strain.
When the Tatar appeared with a bill for twenty-six roubles and
odd kopecks, besides a tip for himself, Levin, who would another
time have been horrified, like any one from the country, at his
share of fourteen roubles, did not notice it, paid, and set off
homewards to dress and go to the Shtcherbatskys there to decide
his fate.
Chapter 12
The young Princess Kitty Shtcherbatskaya was eighteen. It was
the first winter that she had been out in the world. Her success
in society had been greater than that of either of her elder
sisters, and greater even than her mother had anticipated. To
say nothing of the young men who danced at the Moscow balls being
almost all in love with Kitty, two serious suitors had already
this first winter made their appearance: Levin, and immediately
after his departure, Count Vronsky.
Levins appearance at the beginning of the winter, his frequent
visits, and evident love for Kitty, had led to the first serious
conversations between Kittys parents as to her future, and to
disputes between them. The prince was on Levins side; he said
he wished for nothing better for Kitty. The princess for her
part, going round the question in the manner peculiar to women,
maintained that Kitty was too young, that Levin had done nothing
to prove that he
Anna Karenina page 23 Anna Karenina page 25
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