midnight
Some novels have attained a wide circulation by means of one scene . In recollecting `` Anna Karenina , '' powerful scenes crowd into the memory -- introspective and analytic as it is , it is filled with dramatic climaxes . The sheer force of some of these scenes is almost terrifying . The first meeting of Anna and Vronsky at the railway station , the midnight interview in the storm on the way back to Petersburg , the awful dialogue between them after she has fallen -LRB- omitted from the first American translation -RRB- , the fearful excitement of the horse race , the sickness of Anna , Karenin 's forgiveness , the humiliation of Vronsky , the latter 's attempt at suicide , the steadily increasing scenes of jealousy with the shadow of death coming nearer , the clairvoyant power of the author in describing the death of Anna , and the departure of Vronsky , where the railway station reminds him with intrusive agony of the contrast between his first and last view of the woman he loved . No one but Tolstoi would ever have given his tragic character a toothache at that particular time ; but the toothache , added to the heartache , gives the last touch of reality . No reader has ever forgotten Vronsky , as he stands for the last time by the train , his heart torn by the vulture of Memory , and his face twisted by the steady pain in his tooth . Every character in the book , major and minor , is a living human being .