# XXII explained — Anna Karenina

> Chapter companion for Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

## What happens

Stepan Arkadyevitch (Stiva) visits Countess Lidia Ivanovna's home, where he witnesses a strange, mystical scene involving Karenin and the Frenchman Landau, who appears to be in a trance. Disconcerted and bored, Stiva nearly falls asleep. Landau, speaking as if channeling a spirit, demands the last person who arrived (Stiva) leave. Stiva flees, feeling he has escaped a 'plague-stricken house.' He tries to recover at the theater and a restaurant. Returning to his brother's house, he finds a note from Betsy and encounters the drunken Pyotr Oblonsky being carried in.

## Themes in this chapter

### Hypocrisy and Social Pretense

The entire scene at Lidia Ivanovna's is a performance of piety and mystical connection, which Stiva finds absurd and disingenuous. The chapter critiques the hollow, performative nature of this religious circle.

### Isolation and Misunderstanding

Stiva feels completely alienated and unable to comprehend the rituals and beliefs of Lidia Ivanovna's circle, highlighting a profound social and intellectual disconnect within Petersburg society.

## Character check-ins

### Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky

Disoriented and bored during the mystical séance at Lidia Ivanovna's; feels a 'peculiar heaviness' and is ultimately expelled by Landau's pronouncement. Flees to familiar social haunts to recover his spirits.

### Countess Lidia Ivanovna

Hosts the gathering where Landau goes into a trance. She is deeply invested in the mystical proceedings, excited by Landau's state, and instructs Karenin to take his hand.

### Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin

Present at Lidia Ivanovna's, participating in the strange ritual. He obeys Lidia Ivanovna's instruction to take Landau's hand during the trance.

### Monsieur Landau

The French mystic who falls into a trance (or pretends to). He speaks as if channeling, demanding the last person who arrived (Stiva) to leave, which directly impacts Anna's divorce prospects.

## Key lines

> “Que la personne qui est arrivée la dernière, celle qui demande, qu’elle sorte! Qu’elle sorte!”

“The person who arrived last, the one who is asking, let her leave! Let her leave!”

_Landau's trance pronouncement, interpreted as a divine command against granting Anna's divorce, which leads Karenin to refuse it._

> Stepan Arkadyevitch felt that his head was getting worse and worse.

Stiva felt his confusion and discomfort growing.

_Reflects his increasing disorientation and rejection of the mystical atmosphere._

> He ran out into the street as though from a plague-stricken house.

He fled as if escaping a place of disease and contagion.

_A powerful metaphor for Stiva's visceral rejection of the hypocrisy and strangeness he witnessed._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_karenina_se/chapters/part-vii-xxii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_karenina_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/anna_karenina_se/chapters