Summary
Analysis
Levin is still dejected and embarrassed over Kitty’s rejection of him, but he continues to keep up his work on the farm. He receives a letter saying that his brother Nikolai is ill, and Levin persuades Nikolai to go to a foreign spa.
Although Levin is despondent and ashamed at the failed outcome of his proposal to Kitty, he continues to take charge of his normal life and duties.
Meanwhile, spring has returned to the farm, with sticky new buds on the birches and baby animals. Levin begins writing a book on farming, praising the “known, immutable character of the worker.”