Classics of Russian Literature | Vengeance Is Mine, Saith the Lord (Lecture 19)

Lecture 19: After the publication of War and Peace, with fame and controversy raging over his head, Tolstoy turned to the creation of another manuscript, written between 1873 and 1877. It deals, in a way, with the opposite of healthy family life, the theme of adultery. First, in the case of the Oblonsky household, Tolstoy deals with it lightly, ironically, using the title protagonist, Anna Karenina, to bring the family back together. Then, Anna’s own adultery, with Count Vronsky, brings a more savage tone, appropriate to the biblical reference (Epistle to the Romans, 12:19) quoted in part as the title of this lecture: “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, and I shall requite.” Tolstoy pulls off something few writers can achieve. He writes a comic parody that makes fun of his own tragic center of the novel: Steve Oblonsky’s comically related adultery in contrast to the tragedy of Anna Karenina’s. He also manages to present a woman as seen through the eyes of other women: Kitty and Dolly, both of the Shcherbatsky family. I know of no other male writer who ever successfully managed that psychological leap.

Suggested Reading:
Lev Tolstoy, Anna Karenina, translated by Louise and Aylmer Maude, with an introduction by W. Gareth Jones.
Edward Wasiolek, Tolstoy’s Major Fiction.