Anna Karenina (1877)

Joy! ANNA has been the ideal summer reading. I've had months of complete immersion in Tolstoy's Moscow and St. Petersburg--an experience I almost never get with contemporary fiction. Which leads me to puzzle: What makes this book work?

Tolstoy follows very few of the "rules" of modern fiction. He takes us on prolonged digressions into rural politics and farming theory and social etiquette. He makes no effort to get every detail to bear weight, that is, keep the plot moving forward. And yet I'm willing to linger with him, perhaps because he's evoking an entire world and I'm both interested in that world and interested in his take on it.

I'm also flabbergasted--and delighted--by how very Christian this book is. Levin has become my favorite character of all time. I love his bumbling, practical-minded, logical perspective, his unwillingness to accept easy or acceptable answers, and his drive to find meaning behind his life. Tolstoy's Christianity is by no means in keeping with church doctrine, but it is very much in keeping with natural order and a deep need for human morals. I find it interesting that Levin's conversion becomes the book's climax, and stands in sharp contrast to Anna's pitiful end.

What heartens me most about ANNA KARENINA is seeing quite clearly that Tolstoy was working out a philosophy through the life of his characters--which is exactly what I like to do when I write. This may not be very hip or publishable these days. But it's certainly worthwhile. ( )

Of all writers, Tolstoy is the greatest. And Anna Karenina the best read anyone can find. There is no other novel which even comes close to this work of art by the greatest of all Russian authors. ( )

"All happy families resemble one another, each un happy family is unhappy in its own way." A fantastic opening line for a book about the complexities of people and relationships and all the ways they are joyful and miserable at the same time.

Anna is an interesting character, not necessarily a good person, but someone with whom I can sympathize due to her position as a woman in that world. In many ways she was trapped by her situation without and easily way out, though perhaps if she had a different temperament, she might have made better peace with it.

Levin was interesting, too, in the way he tries so hard to be good and do good. He's an easily distracted personality, who changes his opinion as he tries to figure out what the truth of the world is. He's moved by his love for Kitty and is astounded by the momentousness of marriage and children, while being heartily confused by politics and the intrigues of city life.

Several times I was fascinated by the way Tolstoy presented the complexities of his characters and their relationships with each other, as well as the hypocrisies of life (which seemed to have been one of the major themes of the book).

This is one of those books that I enjoy in an intellectual way, without much of an emotional connection to the story and characters. There were parts that I plowed through quickly, not wanting to put the book down, and parts that dragged along slowly. It was enjoyable, but didn't quite love it. ( )

I can't believe it took me so long in getting around to read this novel, I couldn't put it down! You can read my review of Anna Karenina over at my blog (major spoilers ahead!): http://www.rulethewaves.net/blog/?p=2360 ( )

Tolstoi tells us the story of three different couples in 19th-century Russia: Stepan Oblonski and his wife Darja, Darja’s sister Kitty and Lewin and finally Anna Karenina, Stepan’s sister, and Alexej Wronski.

At the beginning of the novel Anna and Lewin are both on their way to Moskau.
Anna wants to help her brother Stepan Oblonski to fix his marriage. He betrayed his wife Darja with the nanny and Anna wants to reconcile the couple – with a short-turn success: Darja decides to stay with her husband but neither she nor Stepan will be totally happy again.
Lewin travels to Moskau because he wants to ask Kitty to marry him. But Kitty already fell in love with Alexej Wronski who is courting her, so she turns down Lewin’s offer. She soon regrets it, because on a ball Alexej Wronski falls in love with Anna Karenina who’s married to Alexej Karenin.

What now evolves is a fantastically written novel about relationships and loneliness, about marriage, love and adultery.
Tolstoi’s great talent is the power of observation: He uncovers the inner life of his protagonists to the very core and presents the two-faced morals of society. Moreover Tolstoi shows how everybody is the architect of his own fortune, e.g.: Although Anna and Wronski love each other, they make their lifes a living hell, because they are too jealous and insecure – and they think too much about it. Or when Lewin is married to Kitty, he’s actually looking for things that are not to his taste. He can’t just enjoy his luck, but he has to relativize it.
I really liked how everybody gets his/her chapters in which his/her motives are explained. It gave me a balanced picture of the characters – how they see themselves and how they are seen from the others.
It’s a great piece of literature : Recommendation! ( )