Page 1657 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

Chapter 1

Almost two months had passed. The hot summer was
half over, but Sergey Ivanovitch was only just preparing to
leave Moscow.
Sergey Ivanovitch’s life had not been uneventful during
this time. A year ago he had finished his book, the fruit of
six years’ labor, ‘Sketch of a Survey of the Principles and
Forms of Government in Europe and Russia.’ Several
sections of this book and its introduction had appeared in
periodical publications, and other parts had been read by
Sergey Ivanovitch to persons of his circle, so that the
leading ideas of the work could not be completely novel
to the public. But still Sergey Ivanovitch had expected that
on its appearance his book would be sure to make a
serious impression on society, and if it did not cause a
revolution in social science it would, at any rate, make a
great stir in the scientific world.

After the most conscientious revision the book had last
year been published, and had been distributed among the
booksellers.
Though he asked no one about it, reluctantly and with
feigned indifference answered his friends’ inquiries as to
how the book was going, and did not even inquire of the

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