Page 1660 - ANNA KARENINA

Anna Karenina

detail of his meeting and conversation with the author of
the article.
‘Didn’t I offend him in some way?’ Sergey Ivanovitch
wondered.

And remembering that when they met he had
corrected the young man about something he had said that
betrayed ignorance, Sergey Ivanovitch found the clue to
explain the article.
This article was followed by a deadly silence about the
book both in the press and in conversation, and Sergey
Ivanovitch saw that his six years’ task, toiled at with such
love and labor, had gone, leaving no trace.
Sergey Ivanovitch’s position was still more difficult
from the fact that, since he had finished his book, he had
had no more literary work to do, such as had hitherto
occupied the greater part of his time.
Sergey Ivanovitch was clever, cultivated, healthy, and
energetic, and he did not know what use to make of his
energy. Conversations in drawing rooms, in meetings,
assemblies, and committees—everywhere where talk was
possible—took up part of his time. But being used for
years to town life, he did not waste all his energies in talk,
as his less experienced younger brother did, when he was

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