All 33 Uses of
irony
in
Anna Karenina
- He read, too, that Count Beist was rumored to have left for Wiesbaden, and that one need have no more gray hair, and of the sale of a light carriage, and of a young person seeking a situation; but these items of information did not give him, as usual, a quiet, ironical gratification.†
Part 1 (definition 1)
- He was standing with his elbows on the back of a chair, and on his face was a look of ironical attention.†
Part 1 (definition 1)
- Perhaps it's our strong point, really, the faculty of seeing our own shortcomings; but we overdo it, we comfort ourselves with irony which we always have on the tip of our tongues.†
Part 1 (definition 1)
- Anna said, with tender irony.†
Part 1 (definition 1)
- "I have!" said Anna suddenly, and, unexpectedly after her tears, a sly, ironical smile curved her lips.†
Part 1 (definition 1)
- ...in a tone of ironical submission to destiny.
Part 1 (definition 1) *ironical = when what is happens is very different than what might be expected
- "Well, I'm listening to what's to come," she said, calmly and ironically; "and indeed I listen with interest, for I should like to understand what's the matter."†
Part 2 (definition 1)
- "What's to be done, according to you?" she asked with the same frivolous irony.†
Part 2 (definition 1)
- She merely smiled with a pretense of irony when he finished, and made no reply, because she had not heard what he said.†
Part 2 (definition 1)
- Kitty asked apprehensively, catching the gleam of irony that kindled in the prince's eyes at the mention of Madame Stahl.
Part 2 (definition 1)irony = when what happens is very different than what might be expected
- The prince went up to her, and Kitty detected that disconcerting gleam of irony in his eyes.†
Part 2 (definition 1)
- "That's our aristocracy, prince!" the Moscow colonel said with ironical intention.†
Part 2 (definition 1)
- "It's splendid as exercise, only you'll hardly be able to stand it," said Sergey Ivanovitch, without a shade of irony.†
Part 3 (definition 1)
- The unfathomable eyes gazed ironically and insolently at him.†
Part 3 (definition 1)
- Sviazhsky looked with smiling eyes at Levin, and even made a faint gesture of irony to him; but Levin did not think the landowner's words absurd, he understood them better than he did Sviazhsky.†
Part 3 (definition 1)
- "Italian bookkeeping," said the gentleman of the gray whiskers ironically.†
Part 3 (definition 1)
- He felt this especially when he talked to the cleverest of the peasants, Ryezunov, and detected the gleam in Ryezunov's eyes which showed so plainly both ironical amusement at Levin, and the firm conviction that, if any one were to be taken in, it would not be he, Ryezunov.†
Part 3 (definition 1)
- "That, anyway," said Nikolay Levin, with an ironical smile, his eyes flashing malignantly, "has the charm of—what's one to call it?†
Part 3 (definition 1)
- The ironical light died away in her eyes, but a different smile, a consciousness of something, he did not know what, and of quiet melancholy, came over her face.†
Part 4 (definition 1)
- Bowing her head, she greeted Alexey Alexandrovitch with an ironical smile.†
Part 4 (definition 1)
- And he saw this by the suppressed, malicious, and ironical smile with which Betsy glanced at him after this phrase.†
Part 4 (definition 1)
- Stepan Arkadyevitch stood in a comically solemn pose beside his wife, took the holy picture, and telling Levin to bow down to the ground, he blessed him with his kindly, ironical smile, and kissed him three times; Darya Alexandrovna did the same, and immediately was in a hurry to get off, and again plunged into the intricate question of the destinations of the various carriages.†
Part 5 (definition 1)
- Though they were divorced and lived apart, yet whenever the husband met the wife, he invariably behaved to her with the same malignant irony, the cause of which was incomprehensible.†
Part 5 (definition 1)
- Passing through rows of ironical eyes, he was drawn as naturally to her loving glance as a plant to the sun.†
Part 5 (definition 1)
- "Oh, of course, there's no reason whatever," he said, frowning.
"That's just what I say," she said, willfully refusing to see the irony of his tone, and quietly turning back her long, perfumed glove.
Part 5 (definition 2) *irony = saying one thing while meaning the opposite
- "You came in late, I think, and have missed the best song," Anna said to Vronsky, glancing ironically, he thought, at him.†
Part 5 (definition 1)
- Kitty asked, with an ironical and loving smile.†
Part 6 (definition 1)
- "Oh, we all know you can do without sleep, and keep other people up too," Dolly said to her husband, with that faint note of irony in her voice which she almost always had now with her husband.†
Part 6 (definition 1)
- Laska stopped, looking ironically at the horses and inquiringly at Levin.†
Part 6 (definition 1)
- He smiled ironically, looking at the raven horse, and was already deciding in his own mind that this smart trotter in the char-a-banc was only good for promenade, and wouldn't do thirty miles straight off in the heat.†
Part 6 (definition 1)
- Levin walked into the room, received a white ball, and followed his brother, Sergey Ivanovitch, to the table where Sviazhsky was standing with a significant and ironical face, holding his beard in his fist and sniffing at it.†
Part 6 (definition 1)
- I see you're smiling ironically, but you're wrong.†
Part 7 (definition 1)
- "No, papa, he's very nice, and Kostya's very fond of him," Kitty said, with a deprecating smile, noticing the irony on her father's face.†
Part 8 (definition 1)