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A character in Anna Karenina

Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin

Anna's husband, a powerful and correct St Petersburg official who cannot bear scenes and is lost when his marriage breaks.

What they want

He wants his home and reputation to go on as before, and later he wants to be good, with no idea how.

The book

Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy, 1877

A woman leaves her husband for a cavalry officer, and a landowner in the country tries to work out what life is for.

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Who they are in the book

Spoiler-free

Karenin is a minister's man, devoted to his work and to appearances. He is not a villain. He is a man who has never had to deal with feeling, and he fails at it.

How Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin Is Portrayed

Appearance, manner, and tone — as the book sketches them, in our words.

  • At the stationIn Part One, Chapter 30, he meets Anna's train in St Petersburg, and she notices how his ears stick out.
  • In the carriageIn Part Two, Chapter 29, he hears Anna's confession on the drive home from the steeplechase and says nothing.
  • Keeping up appearancesIn Part Three, Chapters 13 and 14, he writes to Anna that their life must go on as before, for the sake of their son and his position.
  • At the bedsideIn Part Four, Chapter 17, when Anna seems to be dying after the birth, he forgives her and Vronsky and weeps.
  • Lidia IvanovnaIn Part Five, Countess Lidia Ivanovna takes charge of his household and his son, and of his religion.
  • The clairvoyantIn Part Seven, Chapters 21 and 22, he consults the Frenchman Landau at Lidia Ivanovna's house and then refuses the divorce.

Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin quotes

Lines spoken by or about Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin, each verified verbatim against the text and located in the book.

I love him, I am his mistress; I can't bear you; I'm afraid of you, and I hate you.... You can do what you like to me.
— Anna, to Karenin · Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, Part Two, Chapter 29, translated by Constance Garnett
Their ending, and the commentary — spoilers aheadHow the book leaves them, what happened after, and what the record says. Open when you're ready.

Karenin never grants the divorce. After Anna's death he takes her daughter by Vronsky into his house.

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