Ten of the best ice-skating episodes in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best ice-skating episodes in literature.

One ice-skating episode on the list:

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Levin goes to the skating ground in the hope of finding Kitty. He is a bundle of nerves and watches as "All the skaters, it seemed, with perfect self-possession, skated towards her, skated by her, even spoke to her." But then . . . "Put on skates, and let us skate together," says the lovely Kitty. "They set off side by side, going faster and faster, and the more rapidly they moved the more tightly she grasped his hand." Ecstasy!

Read about the other nine entries on the list.

Anna Karenina also appears on James Gray's list of best books, Marie Arana's list of the best books about love, Ha Jin's most important books list, Tom Perrotta's ten favorite books list, Claire Messud's list of her five most important books, Alexander McCall Smith's list of his five most important books, Mohsin Hamid's list of his ten favorite books, Louis Begley's list of favorite novels about cheating lovers, and among the top ten works of literature according to Peter Carey and Norman Mailer. John Mullan put it on his list of ten of the best births in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue