Literary notes about Levin (AI summary)
In literature, Levin functions both as the name of a nuanced character and as a word charged with vivid, sometimes elemental imagery. In Tolstoy’s narrative, Levin is a multifaceted figure whose life unfolds through simple rural activities like tending an orchard ([1]) and through introspective moments under starlit skies ([2]), embodying the tension between personal passion and societal duty. His actions—ranging from expressions of tender affection ([3]) to the reflective and sometimes gloomy monologues that convey his inner struggles ([4], [5])—allow the reader to see him as both an everyman and a repository of complex emotional depth. Elsewhere, the term takes on a poetic quality, evoking a forceful, almost elemental presence as in the vivid depiction of a flaming levin in epic verse ([6]).
- Here this year I’ve planted an orchard.” “Yes, yes,” said Levin, “that’s perfectly true.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Rousing himself, Levin got up from the haycock, and looking at the stars, he saw that the night was over.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - Levin kissed her smiling lips with timid care, gave her his arm, and with a new strange sense of closeness, walked out of the church.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - The night spent by Levin on the haycock did not pass without result for him.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - All the ordinary conditions of life, without which one can form no conception of anything, had ceased to exist for Levin.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - From Ráma's bow two arrows flew And cleft that massive spear in two, [pg 232] Dire as the flaming levin sent From out the cloudy firmament.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki