III: Dinner explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Isolation and Loneliness

  Anna Akimovna feels lonely as 'the moon in the sky' and seeks love and family to restore her sense of purpose.

• Love and Marriage

  Anna Akimovna desires a conventional marriage and children, contrasting with Lysevitch's view of love as a series of sensual experiences.

• Hypocrisy and Moral Failure

  Lysevitch preaches a life of depravity while enjoying the comforts of Anna Akimovna's hospitality, revealing a moral inconsistency.

Characters to notice

• Anna Akimovna

  Hosts the dinner, feels lonely, and longs for a traditional marriage and family.

• Lysevitch

  A lawyer and guest who passionately discusses literature and advocates for a life of depravity and sensual experience.

• Krylin

  A guest at the dinner, receives money from Anna Akimovna.

• Pimenov

  Rises in Anna Akimovna's imagination, making her feel happy and longing for his love.

Key passages

• “I am lonely, lonely as the moon in the sky, and a waning moon, too; and whatever you may say, I am convinced, I feel that this waning can only be restored by love in its ordinary sense.”

  Anna Akimovna expresses her profound loneliness and belief that only conventional love and marriage can bring her fulfillment.

  Highlights her emotional state and desire for traditional family life.

• “The fin de siècle woman—I mean when she is young, and of course wealthy—must be independent, clever, elegant, intellectual, bold, and a little depraved.”

  Lysevitch describes the ideal modern woman as independent and sophisticated, but also slightly immoral.

  Reflects the decadent ideals of the fin de siècle era.