Agafea Mihalovna

Family: Levin household · Role: housekeeper and former nurse · First appears: PART ONE · Chapter 26

In chapter 26, Agafea Mihalovna, Levin’s old nurse and housekeeper, served as housekeeper in Levin’s home. In chapter 27, she told Levin that Prohor had spent the money meant for a horse on drink and beaten his wife until she was nearly killed. By chapter 46, Levin sometimes discussed physics, agriculture, and philosophy with her.

Early in June, in chapter 71, Agafea Mihalovna fell while carrying a jar of pickled mushrooms to the cellar and sprained her wrist. In chapter 72, Sergey Ivanovitch referred to the district doctor being called for her, while in chapter 100 Nikolay joked with her and asked after the old servants.

In chapter 138, Kitty took over arranging the household, including the stores that had been under Agafea Mihalovna’s charge, hurting her feelings. By chapter 140, Kitty had won her affection. In chapter 226, Agafea Mihalovna cried over the baby Mitya’s screams, insisting, “He knows me, he knows me.”

Relationship record

Life events

• Agafea Mihalovna informs Levin that Prohor squandered money drinking and nearly killed his wife by beating her.(PART ONE · Chapter 27)
  • With: Levin Prohor
  • “He heard Agafea Mihalovna talking of how Prohor had forgotten his duty to God, and with the money Levin had given him to buy a horse, had been drinking without stopping, and had beaten his wife till he’d half killed her.”
• Agafea Mihalovna fell while carrying pickled mushrooms and sprained her wrist.(PART THREE · Chapter 2 · 📍 cellar)
  • “Early in June it happened that Agafea Mihalovna, the old nurse and housekeeper, in carrying to the cellar a jar of mushrooms she had just pickled, slipped, fell, and sprained her wrist.”

PART ONE · Chapter 26

• employer: Levin “The snow of the little quadrangle before the house was lit up by a light in the bedroom windows of his old nurse, Agafea Mihalovna, who performed the duties of housekeeper in his house.”
• with Levin (She is Levin's old nurse and housekeeper.) “The snow of the little quadrangle before the house was lit up by a light in the bedroom windows of his old nurse, Agafea Mihalovna, who performed the duties of housekeeper in his house.”

PART ONE · Chapter 27

• employer: Levin (Agafea Mihalovna serves Levin tea and addresses him as sir.) “When he had gone into the little drawing-room, where he always had tea, and had settled himself in his armchair with a book, and Agafea Mihalovna had brought him tea, and with her usual, ‘Well, I’ll stay a while, sir,’ had taken a chair in the window, he felt that, however strange it might be, he had not parted from his daydreams, and that he could not live without them.”