Countess Alexandra Character Analysis in Only the Animals

In “Plautus: A Memoir,” Countess Alexandra is Leo Tolstoy’s adult daughter. The two were very close, so Alexandra is distraught when he dies, three years before the story begins. She takes to her bed and pretends to be ill, but she spends her time reading. When Plautus makes it to the Tolstoys’ house, the maid settles her in Alexandra’s room. The two become good friends and Alexandra reads books about feminist theory out loud to Plautus. Eventually, Alexandra gives up her solitude to get married and become a nurse in World War I. A decade later, Alexandra asks her husband to send Plautus to Virginia Woolf to get Plautus out of the war-torn Soviet Union—and as an excuse to smuggle her own prison diary out of the country. She eventually escapes to the United States.

Countess Alexandra Character Timeline in Only the Animals

The timeline below shows where the character Countess Alexandra appears in Only the Animals. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

The Interconnectedness of Humans and Animals Theme Icon

...Tolstoy is already dead. Tolstoy’s wife, however, decides to give Plautus to her daughter, Countess Alexandra, who took to her bed to grieve. A servant comes up with a terrarium so... (full context)

Rather than being dismayed that she ended up with another hermit, Plautus is fascinated. Alexandra’s “female solitude” is so different from Oleg’s. For the first time, Plautus starts to think... (full context)

One day, curious about what Alexandra is so interested in reading, Plautus climbs up onto the bed with her. Alexandra doesn’t... (full context)

Alexandra reads electrifying passages, such as one from Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech to the U.S. House... (full context)

However, Alexandra also tells Plautus that Tolstoy had gone back and forth between engaging and detaching from... (full context)

Fall approaches. Plautus feels herself slowing down and one day, Alexandra puts Plautus in her hibernation box. The tortoise burrows down and falls asleep until March.... (full context)

There’s a war going on, and Alexandra knows she needs to emulate Tolstoy’s devotion to nonviolence, social reform, and service. By the... (full context)

...Tolstoy’s short stories in Russian. When a friend translates it, it turns out to be Alexandra’s prison diary—she’d been imprisoned during the Russian Revolution and asked her husband to smuggle her... (full context)

Alexandra’s husband had no idea the carving would hurt; he thought carving Tolstoy’s words into Plautus’s... (full context)

...to write from an animal’s perspective. She then tells the crowd about Plautus, mentions that Alexandra is now in America, and wonders what stories Plautus could tell about Tolstoy. (She clearly... (full context)

...whenever she gets the chance. She’s fascinated by solitude after spending her life with Oleg, Alexandra, Virginia, and even George—and space, to her, represents a chance to be truly alone. (full context)