Leo Tolstoy •
Anna Karenina •

Oddly enough, my favorite scene in Anna Karenina doesn’t involve the title character at all.

Levin, a country aristocrat, gets word that his penniless, estranged brother is dying. He hastens to the man’s bedside, accompanied by his new wife.

The beautiful Kitty, born to a life of wealth and privilege, has probably never done a hand’s turn of work in her 18 years. But on arriving at the sickroom, she assesses the situation and immediately takes charge. “She sent for the doctor, sent to the chemist’s, set the maid . . . to sweep and dust and scrub . . .  She gave [orders] with such gracious insistence that there was no evading her.” She gets the dying man bathed and shaved. She opens the windows to let in fresh air and light and sprinkles the foul-smelling room with aromatic vinegar. She has the bed linens changed, nourishing food procured, and medicines brought.

“The sick man himself, washed and combed, lay in clean sheets on high raised pillows, in a clean night-shirt with a white collar about his astoundingly thin neck, and with a new expression of hope looked fixedly at Kitty.” In no time she has transformed the entire scene, talking cheerfully and soothingly to the dying man all the while.

Levin is left dumbfounded, thinking he didn’t know his new bride at all. Kitty takes quiet satisfaction in being of use. The brother still dies, but his final days are comfortable and dignified. Katya has performed a domestic miracle.

Is it worth wading through 750 pages for one perfect scene? Maybe not. But when you read Anna Karenina yourself, some other scene will grip you and you’ll think, “Why didn’t the Unofficial Book Reviewer write about this?”

Then, my friend, you’ll have to write your own review.