Anna Karenina - Part One - Chapter 1 - Happy families are all alike

Aug 25, 2026

Anna Karenina opens with a household in crisis: the Oblonsky family’s domestic peace collapses after a husband’s affair is revealed to his wife. A detailed introduction portrays escalating tensions, mutual avoidance, and a sense that the family’s shared life has lost meaning. In Part One, Chapter 1, the story follows Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch (Stiva) as he wakes and confronts the consequences of his own actions while the emotional rupture with Dolly continues.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryStory & Novel

FormatPDF

Pages1423

Reading Time36 h 31 min

AccessFree to download

Part One

Chapter 1

Anna Karenina By Leo Tolstoy Translated by Constance Garnett Published by Planet eBook. Visit the site to download free eBooks of classic literature, books and novels. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNoncommercial 3.0 United States License. Part One [Free eBooks at](Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com)[ Planet eBook.com](Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com) 3 Chapter 1 Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys’ house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had announced to her husband that she could not go on living in the same house with him. This position of affairs had now lasted three days, and not only the husband and wife themselves, but all the members of their family and household, were painfully conscious of it. Every person in the house felt that there was no sense in their living together, and that the stray people brought together by chance in any inn had more in common with one another than they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife did not leave her own room, the husband had not been at home for three days. The children ran wild all over the house; the English governess quarreled with the housekeeper, and wrote to a friend asking her to look out for a new situation for her; the man-cook had walked off the day before just at dinner time; the kitchen-maid, and the coachman had given warning. Three days after the quarrel, Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky—Stiva, as he was called in the fashionable world—woke up at his usual hour, that is, at eight o’clock 4 Anna Karenina in the morning, not in his wife’s bedroom, but on the leather-covered sofa in his study. He turned over his stout, well-cared-for person on the springy sofa, as though he would sink into a long sleep again; he vigorously embraced the pillow on the other side and buried his face in it; but all at once he jumped up, sat up on the sofa, and opened his eyes. ‘Yes, yes, how was it now?’ he thought, going over his dream. ‘Now, how was it? To be sure! Alabin was giving adinner at Darmstadt; no, not Darmstadt, but something American. Yes, but then, Darmstadt was in America. Yes, Alabin was giving a dinner on glass tables, and the tables sang, Il mio tesoro—not Il mio tesoro though, but something better, and there were some sort of little decanters on the table, and they were women, too,’ he remembered. Stepan Arkadyevitch’s eyes twinkled gaily, and he pondered with a smile. ‘Yes, it was nice, very nice. There was a great deal more that was delightful, only there’s no putting it into words, or even expressing it in one’s thoughts awake.’ And noticing a gleam of light peeping in beside oneof the serge curtains, he cheerfully dropped his feet over the edge of the sofa, and felt about with them for his slippers, a present on his last birthday, worked for him by his wife on gold-colored morocco. And, as he had done every day for the last nine years, he stretched out his hand, without getting up, towards the place where his dressing-gown always hung in his bedroom. And thereupon he suddenly remembered that he was not sleeping in his wife’s room, but in his study, and why: the smile vanished from his face, he knitted [Free eBooks at](Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com)[ Planet eBook.com](Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com) 5 his brows. ‘Ah, ah, ah! Oo!...’ he muttered, recalling everything that had happened. And again every detail of his quarrel with his wife was present to his imagination, all the hopelessness of his position, and worst of all, his own fault. ‘Yes, she won’t forgive me, and she can’t forgive me. And the most awful thing about it is that it’s all my fault—all my fault, though I’m not to blame. That’s the point of the whole situation,’ he reflected. ‘Oh, oh, oh!’ he kept repeating in despair

FAQs

What sets off the conflict in Chapter 1 of Part One?

A wife discovers her husband is carrying on an intrigue with a French girl connected to their household, and she refuses to continue living together.

Who is the focus when Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch (Stiva) wakes up?

Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky, often called Stiva, is shown waking in his study and replaying the events that led to the quarrel.

How does Dolly react after the discovery of the affair?

Dolly is horrified and indignant, and after an unsettling expression from her husband, she rushes out and refuses to see him.

Aug 25, 2026

Uploaded by Olivia Brown