# Anna Karenina — Character guide

> Key figures in Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

- [Count Alexey Kirillovitch Vronsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/alexey_kirillovitch_vronsky.md): Vronsky moves through drawing rooms and barracks with the easy confidence of a man who has never been refused anything, keeping his own apartment, his horses, and his bachelor freedoms carefully intact. What begins as a 
- [Anna Arkadyevna Karenina](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/anna_arkadyevna_karenina.md): Anna is the wife of a rising statesman and the mother of a son she adores, moving through salons with a charm that makes strangers confide in her within minutes. Yet her marriage is a performance of duty without warmth, 
- [Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/alexey_alexandrovitch_karenin.md): Karenin moves through committees, reports, and correct opinions with a precision that has carried him to the top of Petersburg bureaucracy. Confronted with his wife's confession, he reaches first for the language of duty
- [Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/konstantin_dmitrievitch_levin.md): Levin divides his time between his estate, his farming, and his restless attempts to think his way into a belief he can live by. He loves Kitty Shcherbatskaya with a directness that terrifies him, and he measures himself
- [Kitty Shcherbatskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/ekaterina_alexandrovna_shcherbatskaya.md): Kitty enters the novel as a debutante with two suitors and a mother who is managing both, and leaves Moscow humiliated by a refusal she did not see coming. At a German spa she falls under the spell of the devout Varenka 
- [Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/stepan_arkadyevitch_oblonsky.md): Stiva has just been caught with the governess, and his wife Dolly has locked herself in her room, but he still greets each day with the same genial appetite for dinners, positions, and pretty women. He is genuinely fond 
- [Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/darya_alexandrovna_oblonskaya.md): Dolly lives at the center of Moscow's Oblonsky household, managing children, debts, and a husband whose affairs she has learned to absorb. Her letter urging Levin to bring a sidesaddle to Kitty shows how instinctively sh
- [Nikolay Dmitrievitch Levin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/nikolay_dmitrievitch_levin.md): Konstantin Levin's consumptive, nihilist brother, whose tragic life deeply affects Levin.
- [Sergey Ivanovitch Koznishev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/sergey_ivanovitch_koznishev.md): Levin's intellectual half-brother, a well-known author and philosopher.
- [Seryozha Karenin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/sergey_alexeyevitch_karenin.md): The young son of Anna and Alexey Alexandrovitch Karenin.
- [Vassenka Veslovsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/vassenka_veslovsky.md): A cheerful, somewhat tactless young nobleman who visits Levin's estate and flirts with Kitty.
- [Countess Lidia Ivanovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/lidia_ivanovna.md): A pious society lady who becomes Karenin's close confidante and advisor after his separation from Anna.
- [Mihailov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/mihailov.md): A talented but socially awkward painter in Italy whom Vronsky and Anna commission for a portrait.
- [Princess Betsy Tverskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/betsy_tverskaya.md): A fashionable and morally lax society hostess, cousin to Vronsky and friend to Anna.
- [Mademoiselle Varenka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/varenka.md): The gentle, self-sacrificing companion of Madame Stahl, whom Kitty befriends at a German spa.
- [Nikolay Ivanovitch Sviazhsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/nikolay_ivanovitch_sviazhsky.md): A progressive neighboring landowner and district marshal whose views Levin debates.
- [Prince Yashvin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/yashvin.md): A fellow officer and gambler, Vronsky's closest friend in the regiment.
- [Agafea Mihalovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/agafea_mihalovna.md): The elderly, devoted housekeeper on Levin's country estate.
- [Marya Nikolaevna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/marya_nikolaevna.md): The devoted but coarse common-law wife of Levin's dying brother, Nikolay.
- [Madame Stahl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/madame_stahl.md): A mysterious, invalid Russian lady at the German spa, revered for her piety.
- [Petritsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/petritsky.md): A fellow officer and roommate of Vronsky's in the barracks.
- [Countess Nordston](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/countess_nordston.md): A sharp-tongued society friend of the Shcherbatskys who mocks Levin's first proposal to Kitty.
- [Princess Myakaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/princess_myakaya.md): A blunt and outspoken society lady known for her 'sharp tongue'.
- [Turovtsin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/turovtsin.md): A good-natured, quiet gentleman often present in Oblonsky's and Betsy's social circles.
- [Mademoiselle Linon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/mademoiselle_linon.md): The elderly former governess of the Shcherbatsky sisters.
- [Matvey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/matvey.md): Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky's loyal valet.
- [Lizaveta Petrovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/lizaveta_petrovna.md): The midwife who attends Kitty during her childbirth.
- [Korney](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/korney.md): Levin's elderly butler at his country estate.
- [Ryabinin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/ryabinin.md): A shrewd merchant who buys timber from Stepan Oblonsky and later from Levin.
- [Ivan Parmenov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/ivan_parmenov.md): A peasant on Levin's estate who represents Levin's idealized view of peasant life.
- [Frou-Frou](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/frou_frou.md): Vronsky's beloved mare, which he rides in the fateful steeplechase.
- [Laska](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/laska.md): Levin's skilled and beloved hunting dog.
- [Mitya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/mitya.md): The infant son of Levin and Kitty.
- [Annushka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/annushka.md): Anna Karenina's personal maid.
- [Princess Shcherbatskaya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/princess_shcherbatskaya.md): Kitty and Dolly's mother, a traditional society matron concerned with her daughters' marriages.
- [Prince Shcherbatsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/prince_shcherbatsky.md): Kitty and Dolly's father, an old-fashioned aristocrat skeptical of modern suitors like Vronsky.
- [Marya Philimonovna](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/marya_philimonovna.md): The old nurse in the Oblonsky household who helps care for Dolly's children.
- [Vassily Lukitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/vassily_lukitch.md): Seryozha Karenin's French tutor.
- [Kapitonitch](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/kapitonitch.md): The kindly old hall-porter at the Karenin residence, devoted to Anna and Seryozha.
- [Golenishtchev](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/golenishtchev.md): An old school friend of Vronsky's, a liberal intellectual living in Italy.
- [Monsieur Landau](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/landau.md): A French mystic and 'clairvoyant' who influences Countess Lidia Ivanovna and Karenin.
- [Professor Katavasov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/katavasov.md): A scientist and friend of Sergey Koznishev who visits Levin's estate.
- [Metrov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/metrov.md): A professor whose lecture on biology Levin attends with Katavasov.
- [Prince Serpuhovskoy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/serpuhovskoy.md): A successful army comrade of Vronsky's who encourages him to pursue a military career.
- [Mihail Vassilievitch Sludin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/mihail_vasilievitch_sludin.md): A conservative landowner and candidate during the provincial elections Levin attends.
- [Nevyedovsky](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/nevyedovsky.md): The young, successful candidate elected as provincial marshal with Sviazhsky's support.
- [Mihail Stepanovitch Snetkov](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/snetkov.md): The old provincial marshal of nobility whom Levin and his allies oppose in the elections.
- [Tanya](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/tanya.md): The eldest daughter of Stepan and Dolly Oblonsky.
- [Grisha](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters/grisha.md): A young son of Stepan and Dolly Oblonsky.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/anna_karenina_se/characters