Anna Karenina

Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin has seen nothing striking or improper in the fact that his wife was sitting with Vronsky at a table apart, in eager conversation about something. But he noticed that "to the rest of the party this appeared something striking and improper, and for that reason it seemed to him too to be improper." This is perfect Karenin - he doesn't have his own emotional response to his wife's behavior. He only reacts when he realizes society is noticing. His concern isn't about Anna's feelings or his own jealousy - it's about propriety and appearances. He decides he must speak to his wife about it. On reaching home, Karenin goes to his study as usual, seats himself in his low chair, opens a book on the Papacy at the place where he'd laid the paper-knife, and reads till one o'clock. This detail is so telling - his wife has been publicly flirting with another man, and he comes home and reads about the Papacy until one in the morning, methodically preparing his response. He's not passionate or hurt - he's bureaucratic about his own marriage crisis. Eventually, he prepares to confront Anna. He stands waiting, compressing his crossed fingers, and one joint cracks. "A woman's step was heard mounting the stairs. Alexey Alexandrovitch, ready for his speech, stood compressing his crossed fingers, waiting to see if the crack would not come again. One joint cracked." Even in this moment of marital confrontation, Tolstoy focuses on the absurd physical detail of Karenin's finger joints cracking. "Already, from the sound of light steps on the stairs, he was aware that she was close, and though he was satisfied with his speech, he felt frightened of the explanation confronting him." Karenin has prepared a speech - he's satisfied with it as a composition - but he's frightened of actually having to deliver it, of the human confrontation. This chapter is brilliant because it shows Karenin's fundamental inability to deal with real emotion. He can notice social impropriety, prepare a speech, read about the Papacy, crack his knuckles - but the actual human moment terrifies him. His marriage is in crisis, but he approaches it like a bureaucratic problem requiring a properly worded memo. The tragedy is that Anna is married to a man incapable of genuine emotional engagement.