He was continually watching and getting to know people of all sorts, and among them peasants, whom he regarded as good and interesting people, and he was continually observing new points in them, altering his former views of them and forming new ones. With Sergey Ivanovitch it was quite the contrary.
Just as he liked and praised a country life in comparison with the life he did not like, so too he liked the peasantry in contradistinction to the class of men he did not like, and so too he knew the peasantry as something distinct from and opposed to men generally. In his methodical brain there were distinctly formulated certain aspects of peasant life, deduced partly from that life itself, but chiefly from contrast with other modes of life. He never changed his opinion of the peasantry and his sympathetic attitude towards them.
In the discussions that arose between the brothers on their views of the peasantry, Sergey Ivanovitch always got the better of his brother, precisely because Sergey Ivanovitch had definite ideas about the peasant — his character, his qualities, and his tastes.
Konstantin Levin had no definite and unalterable idea on the subject, and so in their arguments Konstantin was readily convicted of contradicting himself. In Sergey Ivanovitch's eyes his younger brother was a capital fellow, with his heart in the right place as he expressed it in French , but with a mind which, though fairly quick, was too much influenced by the impressions of the moment, and consequently filled with contradictions.
With all the condescension of an elder brother he sometimes explained to him the true import of things, but he derived little satisfaction from arguing with him because he got the better of him too easily. Konstantin Levin regarded his brother as a man of immense intellect and culture, as generous in the highest sense of the word, and possessed of a special faculty for working for the public good.
But in the depths of his heart, the older he became, and the more intimately he knew his brother, the more and more frequently the thought struck him that this faculty of working for the public good, of which he felt himself utterly devoid, was possibly not so much a quality as a lack of something — not a lack of good, honest, noble desires and tastes, but a lack of vital force, of what is called heart, of that impulse which drives a man to choose someone out of the innumerable paths of life, and to care only for that one.
The better he knew his brother, the more he noticed that Sergey Ivanovitch, and many other people who worked for the public welfare, were not led by an impulse of the heart to care for the public good, but reasoned from intellectual considerations that it was a right thing to take interest in public affairs, and consequently took interest in them. Levin was confirmed in this generalization by observing that his brother did not take questions affecting the public welfare or the question of the immortality of the soul a bit more to heart than he did chess problems, or the ingenious construction of a new machine.
Besides this, Konstantin Levin was not at his ease with his brother, because in summer in the country Levin was continually busy with work on the land, and the long summer day was not long enough for him to get through all he had to do, while Sergey Ivanovitch was taking a holiday.
But though he was taking a holiday now, that is to say, he was doing no writing, he was so used to intellectual activity that he liked to put into concise and eloquent shape the ideas that occurred to him, and liked to have someone to listen to him. His most usual and natural listener was his brother. And so in spite of the friendliness and directness of their relations, Konstantin felt an awkwardness in leaving him alone.
Sergey Ivanovitch liked to stretch himself on the grass in the sun, and to lie so, basking and chatting lazily. Well acquainted with the hardships of matrimony and motherhood, Dolly is, more than anyone else in the novel, in a position to appreciate what Anna has left behind by leaving with Vronsky.
Anna shows her devotion to Seryozha when she risks everything to sneak back into the Karenin household simply to bring birthday presents to her son. The freethinking Nikolai is largely estranged from his brothers, but over the course of the novel he starts to spend more time with Levin.
Nikolai is representative of liberal social thought among certain Russian intellectuals of the period; his reformed-prostitute girlfriend, Marya Nikolaevna, is living proof of his unconventional, radically democratic viewpoint.
Koznyshev embodies cold intellectualism and is unable to embrace the fullness of life, as we see when he cannot bring himself to propose to Varenka. The practical aristocrat father of Kitty, Dolly, and Natalie. Prince Shcherbatsky favors Levin over Vronsky as a potential husband for Kitty. Princess Shcherbatskaya initially urges Kitty to favor Vronsky over Levin as a suitor. Lydia Ivanovna harbors a secret love for Karenin, and induces him to believe in and rely on psychics. Betsy has a reputation for wild living and moral looseness.
A seemingly devout invalid woman whom the Shcherbatskys meet at a German spa. Madame Stahl appears righteous and pious, but Prince Shcherbatsky and others doubt her motivations. Yashvin has a propensity for losing large sums of money at gambling. A young, pleasant, somewhat dandyish man whom Stiva brings to visit Levin. While in Moscow, Levin stays with his half-brother, Koznyshev , a philosophical writer whose dense conversation sometimes confuses Levin.
When Levin comes home after talking Part 1, Chapter 8. Koznyshev and Levin chat. Koznyshev thinks that zemstvos are very important theoretically, but Levin has been Part 3, Chapter 1. Levin feels awkward in the country Koznyshev sees Levin as good-hearted, but too prone to contradictions; Levin sees Koznyshev as an intellectual Part 3, Chapter 2.
Koznyshev asks Levin to take Part 3, Chapter 3. Koznyshev lectures Levin for withdrawing from the local district affairs, but Levin is more concerned with When Koznyshev points out that the emancipation of the serfs was contrary to self-interest but was still Part 3, Chapter 6.
They finish mowing the meadow. Levin reluctantly returns to his house and boasts to Koznyshev about finishing the meadow. Levin eats a late supper, and Koznyshev gives Levin a letter Koznyshev says that the main disagreement between Levin and himself is that whereas Levin takes personal Part 4, Chapter 7. Along with Karenin, Levin and Kitty will be coming to dinner; Koznyshev will be there as well, and Oblonsky looks forward to political fireworks between him and Part 4, Chapter Karenin, Koznyshev , and another guest continue their discussion of politics.
They also debate the merits of a Study Guide. By Leo Tolstoy. Previous Next. Sergei Ivanovich Koznyshev Koznyshev is Constantine Levin's half-brother and an enthusiastic intellectual.
Setting What's Up With the Epigraph?
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