Page 1102 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

to be better), but from his being shamefully and
repulsively unhappy. He knew that for this, for the very
fact that his heart was torn with grief, they would be
merciless to him. He felt that men would crush him as

dogs strangle a torn dog yelping with pain. He knew that
his sole means of security against people was to hide his
wounds from them, and instinctively he tried to do this for
two days, but now he felt incapable of keeping up the
unequal struggle.
His despair was even intensified by the consciousness
that he was utterly alone in his sorrow. In all Petersburg
there was not a human being to whom he could express
what he was feeling, who would feel for him, not as a
high official, not as a member of society, but simply as a
suffering man; indeed he had not such a one in the whole
world.
Alexey Alexandrovitch grew up an orphan. There were
two brothers. They did not remember their father, and
their mother died when Alexey Alexandrovitch was ten
years old. The property was a small one. Their uncle,
Karenin, a government official of high standing, at one
time a favorite of the late Tsar, had brought them up.
On completing his high school and university courses
with medals, Alexey Alexandrovitch had, with his uncle’s

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