Editing Anna Karenina (section)

===Part 1===
[[File:Greta Garbo Anna Karenina 4.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Greta Garbo]] in a publicity still for ''[[Anna Karenina (1935 film)|Anna Karenina]]'', [[MGM]]'s influential 1935 production of Tolstoy's novel.<ref>Cinematic Adaptations of Anna Karenina. Irina Makoveeva (University of Pittsburgh).[https://www.pitt.edu/~slavic/sisc/SISC2/docs/makoveeva.pdf]</ref>]]
Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky ("Stiva"), a [[Moscow]] [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocrat]] and civil servant, has been unfaithful to his wife, Princess Darya Alexandrovna ("Dolly"). Dolly has discovered his affair with the family's governess, and the household and family are in turmoil. Stiva informs the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from [[Saint Petersburg]] in a bid to calm the situation.

Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin ("Kostya"), arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly's youngest sister, Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ("Kitty"). Kostya is a passionate, restless, but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army cavalry officer.

Whilst at the railway station to meet his sister Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky who is there to meet his mother, the Countess Vronskaya. Anna and Vronskaya have travelled and talked together in the same carriage. As the family members are reunited and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a moving train carriage and is killed. Anna interprets this as an "evil omen".

At the Oblonsky home, Anna talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva's affair and convinces her that Stiva still loves her despite the infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna's speeches and decides to forgive Stiva.

Kitty, who comes to visit Dolly and Anna, is just eighteen. In her first season as a [[debutante]], she is expected to make an excellent match with a man of her own social standing. Vronsky has been paying her considerable attention, and she expects to dance with him at a ball that evening. Kitty is very struck by Anna's beauty and personality and becomes infatuated with her just as much as with Vronsky. When Kostya proposes to Kitty at her home, she clumsily turns him down, as she is in love with Vronsky and believes that he will propose to her; she was encouraged to do so by her mother, the Princess Shcherbatskaya, who believes Vronsky would be a better match (in contrast to Kitty's father, who favours Kostya).

At the ball Kitty expects to hear something definitive from Vronsky, but he dances with Anna instead, choosing her as a partner over a shocked and heartbroken Kitty. Kitty realises that Vronsky has fallen in love with Anna and has no intention of marrying her, despite his overt flirtations. Vronsky has regarded his interactions with Kitty merely as a source of amusement and assumes that Kitty has acted for the same reasons. Anna, shaken by her emotional and physical response to Vronsky, returns at once to St. Petersburg. Vronsky travels on the same train. During the overnight journey, the two meet and Vronsky confesses his love. Anna refuses him, although she is affected by his attentions.

Kostya, crushed by Kitty's refusal, returns to his estate, abandoning any hope of marriage. Anna returns to her husband, Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and her son, Seryozha, in St. Petersburg.