Anna Karenina

At the end of September the timber had been carted for building the cattleyard on the land that had been allotted to the association of peasants, and the butter from the cows was sold and the profits divided. In practice the system worked capitally, or, at least, so it seemed to Levin." His reforms are showing practical results - a peasant association, shared profits, new buildings. "In order to work out the whole subject theoretically and to complete his book, which, in Levin's daydreams, was not merely to effect a revolution in political economy, but to annihilate that science entirely and to lay the foundation of a new science of the relation of the people to the soil, all that was left to do was to make a tour abroad." Levin's ambitions are grand - not just revise political economy but "annihilate that science entirely" and found a completely new discipline. He plans research abroad "and to study on the spot all that had been done in the same direction, and to collect conclusive evidence that all that had been done there was not what was wanted." He'll study European reforms to prove they're wrong for Russia. The chapter shows Levin working on his book. "Only at intervals he listened in the stillness to the click of Agafea Mihalovna's needles, and recollecting what he did not want to remember, he frowned again." He's trying not to think about something - likely Kitty. "At nine o'clock they heard the bell and the faint vibration of a carriage over the mud. 'Well, here's visitors come to us, and you won't be dull,' said Agafea Mihalovna, getting up and going to the door. But Levin overtook her. His work was not going well now, and he was glad of a visitor, whoever it might be." The writing isn't flowing, and he welcomes distraction. The unexpected visitor will interrupt his scholarly isolation - setting up the next chapter's revelation.