Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

published

November 5th 2002 (first published 1876) by Signet Classics

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binding

960 pages

isbn

0451528611 (isbn13: 9780451528612)

description

Tolstoy's tumultuous tale of passion and self-discovery marks a turning point in the author's career. His compelling, emotional saga recounts the effe...more

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Matt rated it:

(review of isbn 0143035002)

08/22/08

Ethan Hawke recommended this book in Entertainment Weekly. When the man who helped create "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" says something, I listen.

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

So begins "Anna Karenina." This is a Russian novel, by Leo Tolstoy no less, so any brief summary is impossible. Instead, I will summarize the summary.

There is the Oblonsky family: Stiva, the cheating husband and Doll...more Ethan Hawke recommended this book in Entertainment Weekly. When the man who helped create "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset" says something, I listen.

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

So begins "Anna Karenina." This is a Russian novel, by Leo Tolstoy no less, so any brief summary is impossible. Instead, I will summarize the summary.

There is the Oblonsky family: Stiva, the cheating husband and Dolly the long-suffering wife (apparently Russians were really keen on American nicknames back in the day). Dolly's sister, Kitty, has two suitors: Levin, a farmer, and Vronsky, a dashing cavalryman. Kitty chooses Vronsky over Levin, breaking Levin's heart, but Vronsky soon falls for Anna, who is married to a bureaucrat named Alexei.

Vronsky and Anna's first meeting is described:

"In that brief glance Vronsky had time to notice the restrained animation that played over her face and fluttered between her shining eyes and the barely noticeable smile that curved her red lips. It was as if a surplus of something so overflowed her being that it expressed itself beyond her will, now in the brightness of her glance, now in her smile."

Eventually, Levin wins Kitty and they get married. The book then follows their relationship as it parallels that of Vronsky and Anna. Four million pages later, the story ends. The mirror-twinning is simplistic, as is the moralizing (no Dostoyevsky-like depths of psychological insight here). Clearly, Levin and Kitty represent the right way to do things, while Vronsky and Anna represent the shortest route to the eternal fires of hell. Still, you don't go to Tolstoy for his insight. You go to him for his scope and breadth of imagination. There are dozens of characters, locations, and plots, all going at once. You have to love the guy, and his books, for ambition alone. Someone once said, "If the world could write, it would write like Tolstoy." And it's true. He creates and populates a world on the page. His characters are all a bit one note (Levin = noble peasant; Kitty = purity and goodness; Alexei = boring civil servant; Anna = whore; Vronsky = pimp); however, despite additional dimensions, they are fully realized. In other words, the most complex one-note characters I've come across.

I cannot recommend the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation highly enough. I'd always been afraid of Tolstoy on the basis of density alone. But this translation in the bee's knees. It's clean and literate and - I've been told - really captures the essence of Tolstoy's work. The prose can be quite beautiful. Sometimes you forget you're reading a Russian novel (then Tolstoy reminds you by having Levin engage in a 4,000 page discussion of community property and peasant rights with his brother Sergei; apparently this meant something to 19th Century Russians). There are vivid descriptions of life on Levin's farm, train rides across the steppes, and lavish balls. I especially liked a passage in which a smitten Levin divides all the women in the world into two types: the first type constituted all those women with imperfections and shortcomings; the second type was Kitty. Really - isn't that how each of us falls in love?

The first part of the book sets up the relationships. The next three million pages are devoted to following each couple. Kitty/Levin take the high road; Stiva and Dotty attempt to reach that lofty plain; Anna and Vronsky descend into the pits of despair and guilt and utter ruin. I will not spoil their fate, but it is truly Russian. We all have to pay for our sins.

My gripes. First, there is a lot of foreign languages bandied about. Tolstoy liked to show off. The Russian has been translated to English; however, the French, German, and Klingon phrases are not translated, so you have to keep looking down at the footnotes. This isn't as big a deal as it is in "War and Peace," but it can be distracting. Also, we come to the controversial end of the book. Now, the title is "Anna Karenina," so you might expect the book to end with her storyline. WRONG. You simple fool. It does not end there. No, you have to slog through approximately 12 billion pages of Tolstoy's characters ruminating on the war with Turkey. Then there's Levin's religious rebirth, as he discovers the meaning of life (yes, his meaning is as banal as you'd expect). Some people might think this section of the book is a good reminder of all the wonderful ideas that Tolstoy had; indeed, that he was more concerned with those ideas than his story, and that the tragic love of Anna the Whore and Vronsky the Pimp was but the tree upon which to hang his ideas.

I don't agree. I think the end is a didactic, pedagogic, vaguely misogynistic load of crap. It's like a 19th C. version of "The Purpose Driven Life" has been appended, rather haphazardly, to the end of an otherwise great novel. If I wanted a lecture from a long-dead Russian author, I would've built a time machine, gone back in time, and asked for one.
...less

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Lucy rated it:

09/16/08

Read in September, 2008

At the conclusion of Karenina's 800 plus pages, I add my name to Tolstoy's long list of admirers. What a thinker! Like a talented photographer, Tolstoy has an eye for realism and his writing inside the heads of his characters is perfection. For a book where nothing really happens (besides wealthy people hanging out in various places...and a few people dying) to still manage to have such a fascinating effect on readers takes a certain kind of genius. So many times, while reading, I thought to my...more At the conclusion of Karenina's 800 plus pages, I add my name to Tolstoy's long list of admirers. What a thinker! Like a talented photographer, Tolstoy has an eye for realism and his writing inside the heads of his characters is perfection. For a book where nothing really happens (besides wealthy people hanging out in various places...and a few people dying) to still manage to have such a fascinating effect on readers takes a certain kind of genius. So many times, while reading, I thought to myself, "Nothing is happening. How did Tolstoy get away with writing this and why are we all convinced it's one of the greatest novels of all time?" Continued reading converted me, as it has the masses, but it reminds me of an old movie, where the story stands alone, without being propped up by special effects and dramatic music. It's good - naked.

These are my take-away overall impressions. But, there were some very frustrating moments that happened along the way. Sometimes, my eyes blurred as I waited for Levin, a wealthy land-owner who has no understanding or appreciation for insincerity and falseness (characteristics that run rampant among his aristocratic peers), to finish his conversation with the peasants or friends about farm management. The amount of time Tolstoy dedicated on a Russian painter living in Italy, and his opinion about art and technique and style seemed wholly unnecessary to me. Almost like Tolstoy introduced the portrait, knowing he'd need it later in the story for contrast, but couldn't simply write leave it at that. Instead, he had to include whatever obscure experience or knowledge he had about art too...throw it into another character. I felt, a bit, like I was being taken on a ride.

Obviously, I am a modern reader, and need my greatest-novels-of-all-time written modernly! Imagine, me...little reader from nowhere, thinking, "This Russian guy needs an editor!"

I include the critical thoughts along the way, because I don't think I'm alone in thinking Anna Karenina is, perhaps,a little bloated. However, bloated or not, this is an incredible, incredible book. Embarrassingly incredible. Like, how in the world does Tolstoy see the ridiculous inside everyone's head? How does he know how insecure a man like Levin is - a man, who from the outside, appears to have everything? How does he understand how a woman can be instantly irritated and irrational from something that her lover has said, or...more frequently, has not said?

It's not only the realism that makes this book famously good. It's the artful way he makes his case against falseness. Through one of his dual protagonists, Levin, he cleanly paints his case with soft, muted colors - conversations, thoughts, and actions - that reflect,ultimately, a very likable character. Levin does the right thing, usually thinks the right thing - so his thoughts are beautiful, enjoyable thoughts. If Levin hates falseness - well...I will hate falseness too!

Then, on a canvas located directly beside the pretty picture, he paints Anna, with dramatic boldness - including the vividness but also the awful, the disturbing, and chaotic result of a woman, who, every bit as passionately, hates falseness too. Whereas Levin is ultimately rewarded for his inability to accept hypocrisy, Anna, a woman we know isn't really bad, but who makes choices that aren't sympathetic either, is punished for it.

It may seem bizarre to review a book named Anna Karenina and only now mention her. I was surprised that this isn't more her book. Her story, along side Vronsky's, is certainly the most intense and tragic, but the novel's overall point isn't limited to her infidelity, or about her choice to leave her husband and child (which is what I thought it was going to be about. Even my husband, when he saw I was reading this said, "Oh. Reading the adultery book, huh?").

In fact, it's about a group of Russia's aritocratic upperclass, and their motivations and justifications about the way they live their lives. Their stories are all tangled together and each of their decisions and actions create shock waves throughout the group. Tolstoy shows how, even within a privileged group such as this, where access to information, money, justice etc., supposedly is the same, how differently they think and choose to behave. There's the brilliance. I read a quote from another famous author who said that if the world could speak on it's own, it would sound like Tolstoy. Exactly.

Thousands of reviews have been written about this book, and I certainly have nothing new to add, but, if you have hours and hours of spare time or a penchant for 19th century Russian socioeconomic exposés or simply enjoy the thoughts of a great mind - read this book....less

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Steve rated it:

01/19/08

Read in January, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

While reading this novel, I often found myself somewhat bored with the content even though I recognized the exceptional character study that was being constructed. However, in the course of the final 200 or so pages, all of the previous development became coherent, proving that the end does in fact justify the means. When taken as a whole, the society that Tolstoy presents his reader is built on a foundation of false propriety and empty, largely meaningless, relationships. Individually, each ...more While reading this novel, I often found myself somewhat bored with the content even though I recognized the exceptional character study that was being constructed. However, in the course of the final 200 or so pages, all of the previous development became coherent, proving that the end does in fact justify the means. When taken as a whole, the society that Tolstoy presents his reader is built on a foundation of false propriety and empty, largely meaningless, relationships. Individually, each of the characters has a different view of life. Some of them, like Oblonsky, live for carnal delights and social promotion. Likewise, Karenin, Anna's cuckolded husband, becomes wrapped up in a form of "holier than thou" Christianity, which ironically leads him into an affair of his own and an inability to forgive his cheating wife.
Levin, with whom I (and perhaps Tolstoy) most identified, and who is probably the true protagonist of the novel, sees through all of the social moors, distancing himself from high society and politics while attempting to live honestly as a rural landowner and champion of the peasants. He is a learned man, constantly studying philosophy and science, who prides himself on his reason. The book that he writes, about a new system of agriculture that should maximize yields by giving the laborers a share of the profit, is evidence of his reason triumphing over the social conditioning of the aristocracy. He marries Kitty, his dream girl, and even has a son. However, he finds himself extremely unhappy, like a man who has "exchanged his warm fur coat for a muslin garment and realizes that he is as good as naked and must inevitably parish." Although he has always lived selflessly, and thus happily, his intellect will not save him from this fate. He must either find a reason behind life or die.

Anna, the antagonist and foil to Levin's character, runs the gamut of human emotions. Anna is often fleetingly happy, yet even in moments of bliss, her suffering seems to shine through. This is because her character is selfish, always choosing to provide for herself without much thought about the fate of others. She chooses Vronsky over Karenin and her son, then even takes her own life to spite Vronsky without much thought about the other repercussions. In the beginning she is saving Dolly's marriage with her reasoning, but by the end, that same reasoning has led her to the conclusion that "the struggle for existence and hate are the only things that hold men together...that we are all created in order to suffer, and that we all know this and try to invent means for deceiving ourselves." Anna's insight in these moments right before her suicide is depressingly honest. Her morbid views of both societal and individual motives are erudite in a novel where nearly all of the other characters never even consider the meaning of their lives. This point of view reminds me of "The Death of Ivan Ilyich," in which Tolstoy volubly explores death, and thus the meaning of life.

After toiling through most of the novel unsatisfactorily, the grand edifice that Tolstoy had constructed, which illustrates humanity in all of its disturbing and doomed glory, is suddenly apparent. Each character's ruminations on the meaning of life and of death are our own or those of someone we know. Of particular note is the final juxtaposition of Levin and Anna. Both take their own path to arrive in a position of utter misery - Anna eventually isolates herself by means of her egocentric decisions and jealousy, while Levin struggles to justify life with no rational reason for existence. Anna finishes her downward spiral with a typically self-absorbed suicide and Levin embraces Christianity, defying his own rationale. Both decisions left me feeling cheated, as if each had taken the easy way out. In typical Russian fashion, the answer that Tolstoy seems to suggest is that there isn't one...only death will save us. ...less

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Shiloah rated it:

08/15/08

bookshelves: finished

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Shiloah by: I found it by accident

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I must confess that during the times when Leo Tolstoy got immensely detailed about farming, agriculture, and the first half of Levin's spiritual quest, I found it hard to stay focused. I think part of this was because I didn't realize the importance of this part of the book. I disciplined myself to read and to comprehend what he was telling us. I learned so much from it. I learned about farming, about the lifestyles. I always had a curiosity about how one lived with servants, wardrobe, and every...more I must confess that during the times when Leo Tolstoy got immensely detailed about farming, agriculture, and the first half of Levin's spiritual quest, I found it hard to stay focused. I think part of this was because I didn't realize the importance of this part of the book. I disciplined myself to read and to comprehend what he was telling us. I learned so much from it. I learned about farming, about the lifestyles. I always had a curiosity about how one lived with servants, wardrobe, and everyday life in those times. Tolstoy wrote great details and really brought me there. I was able to visualize what was happening while it happened.

About Anna- I have many mixed feelings about her. Sometimes I could relate to her and more often than not I couldn't. I feel that part of her problem was boredom. She did not have hobbies or many close friends or acquaintances to keep her busy or focused. When she moved in with and was living with Vronsky I was frustrated with their lack of close communication- so much could have been resolved. I also feel that her taking the Morphia (Morphine) so often clouded her mind and judgment. She refused to face her feelings (except her feelings of jealousy and resentment towards Vronsky), the many problems that she created for herself with her inappropriate choices, and anything that might cause her to feel the natural feelings of her real situation such as guilt or shame.

Vronsky ended up feeling smothered a little by her and started to resent this and her jealous feelings. He detached himself somewhat, but he didn't leave her physically. Their relationship was getting cold when she committed suicide- she took the coward's way out. She didn't think of her two children. She basically left her son with her husband and never even tried to make a connection or fall in love with her daughter. I felt so sad for her baby and had she had a connection with her, it may have helped her reason to herself that suicide isn't the answer. But, she took no part in caring for and rearing her daughter, so it isn't a surprise that she felt disconnected and indifferent towards her.

I had a harder time feeling sorry for her when she mentioned that she learned how to "not have any more babies" meaning abortion. I felt that she lacked a conscience and any kind of direction in her life.

I have felt some of the feelings that Levin and Anna felt I was surprised and amazed at how accurately Tolstoy described them. I also began to understand better why I felt as I did, and how situations turned out the way they did for me. The striking difference in my situations and theirs is that I have the truth. I know Heavenly Father. I know where I'm going and where I've been. I understand that life has a purpose. I always turned to Heavenly Father when I felt things getting to be too much for me to handle and have always been helped- always. Anna was not a believer. She must have been a truly confused and miserable person.

It was also interesting reading about Levin's great spiritual awakening. I got a view of what a good person, who is an unbeliever, feels and thinks. The confusion and the great lengths they go through in this quest to find out what the purpose of life is seems to be a depressing one. (One of the reason's Levin was depressed often.) I feel sorry for those who do not have the truth and do not seek it. Levin did and the book ended with a happy note.

I'm still processing so much of the book. It truly changed my life and Leo Tolstoy is a genius of a writer!...less

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Shauna rated it:

03/02/08

Read in February, 2008

This was an amazing book. Shakespearean in its ability to create living, breathing characters who walk off the page. I never doubted for a moment that Levin, and Anna, and surprisingly, Oblonsky were people that I might bump into on the streets of Moscow back in 1850 or whenever the book was written.
But, really, the reason the characters seem so real is that they are not restricted to their time. Their concerns and feelings represent the human dilemma and it is easy for me to empathize with...more This was an amazing book. Shakespearean in its ability to create living, breathing characters who walk off the page. I never doubted for a moment that Levin, and Anna, and surprisingly, Oblonsky were people that I might bump into on the streets of Moscow back in 1850 or whenever the book was written.
But, really, the reason the characters seem so real is that they are not restricted to their time. Their concerns and feelings represent the human dilemma and it is easy for me to empathize with them - even though I am product of our mad, technological times. After all, huge changes are occurring in Tolstoy's Russia, fighting as it is with the adoption of a materialistic, perhaps nihilistic view of life. Perhaps this struggle is not so different from our own.
I understand many things about the book, the relationship that evolves between Levin and Kitty - wonderful, by the way - which is the experience I have had when the illusions of romance drop away and you begin to know the person as they really are and to realize that they have a whole world locked away in them that you can seldom touch. When you love, you carry a sense of that (as does Kitty - natural creature that she is) but often it cannot be expressed in words. Tolstoy has caught that well, I think.
I can understand Oblonksy and I think the characterization is so concise and brilliant. People like that (or are they personnae?) do exist - I've met them and I envy the easy way in which they sail, untroubled, through life.
But Anna... I remain puzzled and annoyed by her. I don't know if anyone can enlighten me. What exactly is missing for her? She finds her passion, her love and it is not enough, it cannot fulfil. Is it simply too isolating? She finds some intellectual fulfillment when time hangs heavy on her. Is it because she has a spiritual, our soul level (like Levin) that cannot ultimately be realized through erotic love? Is it because she cannot hold the fascination of a man who desires to be of the world as much as, or more than, he desires her? Is that why she resorts to opium? Is it really because of the societal strictures (misogyny even?) and the inability of her and Vronsky to forge a life together that is accepted by others? Would she have been happy, say, if she had met Vronsky instead of "the other Alexei", had married Vronsky in order to have his children? Is it because she has been disloyal to Sergei, her former and, other, great passion? Is that what causes her to propel herself to destruction?
I can't resolve it in my mind and have spent some hours looking about for answers since I finished the book. Perhaps there is no easy solution and perhaps it is an amalgam of the issues (and more?) that I have listed above.
Finally, I was glad that the novel ended with Levin's realization (I guess one can't call it a discovery since he is fully understanding what was already in his soul) that perfection is not possible. One can strive to be a good soul and it is the striving that becomes the purpose and satisfaction of life. We'll still have to display all our warts.
Is that what Anna failed to see?...less

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Teresa rated it:

08/13/08

Read in August, 2008

*update*

ohmygoodness that took forever. that was a commitment. i think that was the longest book i've ever read. whew.

so well obviously it was a lot to ingest so i'm sure my feelings will be developing and changing in the days to come. right now i feel satisfied and content with the book, but not amorous or breathless. i really enjoyed section eight because it gave you a happy ending, but one that felt very rational and possible. i am very much for endings that try their hardest to...more *update*

ohmygoodness that took forever. that was a commitment. i think that was the longest book i've ever read. whew.

so well obviously it was a lot to ingest so i'm sure my feelings will be developing and changing in the days to come. right now i feel satisfied and content with the book, but not amorous or breathless. i really enjoyed section eight because it gave you a happy ending, but one that felt very rational and possible. i am very much for endings that try their hardest to reflect real life. to me that is satisfaction, honesty and comedy.

poor tolstoy/levin; he's so serious and agonized. i really felt his spirit lift when he went into nature odes. like the setting of Levin's final emotional release was so pared down and rich.

now what was really cool was the counterpoint between Levin and Anna. on one level they work together as foils. but on a second level they are kindred spirits both managing discontent. this synchronizes with something i learned in training today. we're supposed to emphasize to the kids both their similarities to one another and also their uniqueness. i overall got this feeling from tolstoy that he is a very empathetic person who wants to display human nature without bias but in all its complexity as a kind of appreciator.

i much liked how Levin was perceived by others. sometimes he was seen as a good man, a brooding man, a difficult man, a saintly man. the whole book you felt he was trying on different modes of existence, like he was forming. or maybe he was the same all along but people judged him based on their own tastes. he never seemed natural in any setting except when alone in nature or with kitty. i like how levin felt simultaneously like an emotional construction zone and the sanest person in the book. he was so plagued by acute frustration and confusion. he was really pitiful. it's weird to feel pity and admiration simultaneously.

i think what i've written so far explains the book pretty well. overall the book gives you a weird feeling towards making judgements. i used to think it was something easy "sex in the city - i love it; fast food - evil; etc." but tolstoy really challenges the way we habitually understand things that is in a one-dimensional way. tolstoy shows you everyone from so many different angles that a character's presence becomes more and more something that just exists. there are no archetypes blowing messages out of megaphones; i think tolstoy would consider archetypes lowbrow. as i read i was playing the judgement-making game, but over time i had to stop doing it. it wasn't necessary in the world of this book. this was a new feeling for me.

right now i feel a little mixed up and pushed around. but also i think i just ingested too many words :P

p.s. i felt like tolstoy was conflicted in his feelings towards anna and levin. i think this is why i don't know how to feel. see how i don't feel right if i can't easily peg a character down?

well i am not sure whether to give three or four stars. three stars because i don't feel post-read euphoria like i like. four stars because tolstoy really put it all out there. four stars for respect....less

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Jen rated it:

(review of isbn 0143035002)

02/24/08

Read in February, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

Anna Karenina is clearly a complex book (as most 800+ page books are), and since I finished it fewer than 12 hours ago, I certainly do not have it all figured out. And while I'm sure that many great critical books have been written on it that can offer more insight than I, this is what I take away from the book: while it may seem that we have a great number of choices in life, all of these choices really boil down to one: Will our decisions ultimately benefit the self or the soul?

...more Anna Karenina is clearly a complex book (as most 800+ page books are), and since I finished it fewer than 12 hours ago, I certainly do not have it all figured out. And while I'm sure that many great critical books have been written on it that can offer more insight than I, this is what I take away from the book: while it may seem that we have a great number of choices in life, all of these choices really boil down to one: Will our decisions ultimately benefit the self or the soul?

At the end of the novel, Levin, in the midst of a spiritual crisis, realizes that he will ultimately be happy if he acts from the soul, from the part of him that wishes to get along with others, to serve others, and to increase the happiness of others. At the same time, he accepts the realities of his life. He knows that living from the soul will not miraculously transform his life into one of complete bliss and spiritual ecstasy. Rather, his day-to-day existence will not change much, but because his understanding of his place in the world has changed, he can now approach every action and interaction with a purpose, the lack of which, until this point, has been the main cause of his suffering.

Anna, however, seems to live for the self. While it is unclear exactly how we are meant to understand her demise, it does seem that she has brought it on herself (especially when considering the structural juxtaposition of her death with Levin's spiritual epiphany). Anna's decisions throughout the novel have been almost entirely motivated by selfish desires. And toward the end of the novel, when she really begins to have a breakdown, it does appear as though she has brought the suffering on herself. She is afraid that Vronsky has stopped loving her, that he is involved with other women, but ultimately, she makes the choice to believe this without having any evidence beyond that which resides in her imagination. And because she cannot see any other way out of this suffering, she decides that the only thing she can do is make Vronsky suffer as well. So she ends her own life, ending her suffering while at the same time causing a great deal of suffering for others. I don't think that her death was her destiny or her punishment, but rather her choice.

While I feel conflicted about not presenting a feminist reading of Anna (and yes, I do admit that social mores of time and place had a great deal to do with Anna's suffering and with the apparent decline of Anna and Vronsky's happiness), in many ways, Anna Karenina is more Levin's book than Anna's, and I just cannot ignore Part Eight of the novel. Levin also considers suicide, but chooses not to kill himself because he has discovered a greater meaning for his life: "my life now, my whole life, regardless of all that may happen to me, every minute of it, is not only not meaningless, as it was before, but has the unquestionable meaning of the good which it is in my power to put into it!"

I'd like to reread this novel someday, but since it has taken me about 6 months to complete the first reading, the second one probably won't be for a while . . . ...less

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Dustin rated it:

(review of isbn 1593081774)

02/04/08

Here is a meaty piece of vellum. I think Tolstoy accomplished something great in his ability to display character evolution throughout the novel. Let me try to describe how he did it. Let's take Anna, the title character for example. She began in a relatively happy marriage and ended running away to Italy with another man and despising her former husband. If we are to chart from the beginning her capability of infidelity on a timeline-like graph, such as this:
fidelity (-|-------------------)...more Here is a meaty piece of vellum. I think Tolstoy accomplished something great in his ability to display character evolution throughout the novel. Let me try to describe how he did it. Let's take Anna, the title character for example. She began in a relatively happy marriage and ended running away to Italy with another man and despising her former husband. If we are to chart from the beginning her capability of infidelity on a timeline-like graph, such as this:
fidelity (-|-------------------) infidelity
where the vertical line within the parentheses represents Anna's maximum inclination towards infidelity at any given time. As more and more happens as the novel progresses and Anna draws bolder and bolder as to her adulterous convictions, the vertical line extends to the right, representing the maximum inclination. Most of the time, she is not at the maximum, but superficially level-headed about her marriage throughout the book, but then something will happen that will push her maximum just a bit farther, increasing her maximum capability. For example, a man flirts with her and she flirts back; the graph would evolve to something like this:
(-----|---------------)
It is like a tide, and Anna is making towards high tide throughout the novel. Every wave that comes onto the beach goes just a bit farther, extending the maximum until eventually it is straight high tide. Towards the end of the novel when Anna's graph looks something like this:
(-----------------|---)
she is still for the most part acting normal superficially, to her husband's face, pretending nothing is going on whereas, in reality, she could at any moment suddenly engage in a completely adulterous act with no warning whatsoever and to her husband it would be totally shocking and unexpected. But as the reader has seen, the tide has been going out steadily the whole time and many little events occurred to push her to the breaking point where she was still hiding it all from him and with the smallest spark could totally leave him.
This is the brilliance of the book, that it explains the subtle complex of events and thoughts that push a person farther and farther away from one frame of mind and into another without it being noticeable to those close to him or her. I think this is exactly the way real life is and oftentimes is the explanation of seemingly random, rash acts.

On the whole i would say that the book is a bit too superficial and plot-driven for me to consider it a great book and it is very demanding lengthwise, yet rarely lulls into boring description. This book is like a much more comprehensive, matured, and developed Austen novel. If Austen is good at creating relational tense situations, Tolstoy takes those situations and lets the reader know and fully understand all the characters involved in the situations. ...less

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Terry rated it:

(review of isbn 0142000272)

06/20/08

Read in June, 2008

recommended to Terry by: Rich Moran

In the beginning, reading Anna Karenin can feel a little like visiting Paris for the first time. You’ve heard a lot about the place before you go. Much of what you see from the bus you recognize from pictures and movies and books. You can’t help but think of the great writers and artists who have been here before you. You expect to like it. You want to like it. But you don’t want to feel like you have to like it. You worry a little that you won’t. But after a few days, you settle ...more In the beginning, reading Anna Karenin can feel a little like visiting Paris for the first time. You’ve heard a lot about the place before you go. Much of what you see from the bus you recognize from pictures and movies and books. You can’t help but think of the great writers and artists who have been here before you. You expect to like it. You want to like it. But you don’t want to feel like you have to like it. You worry a little that you won’t. But after a few days, you settle in, and you feel the immensity of the place opening up all around you. You keep having this experience of turning a corner and finding something beautiful that you hadn’t been told to expect or catching sight of something familiar from a surprising angle. You start to trust the abundance of the place, and your anxieties that someone else will have eaten everything up before your arrival relax. (Maybe that simile reveals more about me than I’d like.)

My favorite discovery was the three or four chapters (out of the book’s 239) devoted to, of all things, scythe mowing—chapters that become a celebratory meditation on physical labor. When I read those chapters, I felt temporarily cured of the need to have something “happen” and became as absorbed in the reading as the mowers are absorbed in their work. Of course, the book is about Anna and Vronsky and Levin and Kitty and Dolly and poor, stupid Stepan Arkadyich. It’s about their love and courtship and friendship and pride and shame and jealousy and betrayal and forgiveness and about the instable variety of happiness and unhappiness. But it’s also about mowing the grass and arguing politics and hunting and working as a bureaucrat and raising children and dealing politely with tedious company. To put it more accurately, it’s about the way that the human mind—or, as Tolstoy sometimes says, the human soul—engages each of these experiences and tries to understand itself, the world around it, and the other souls that inhabit that world. This book is not afraid to take up any part of human life because it believes that human beings are infinitely interesting and infinitely worthy of compassion. And, what I found stirring, the book’s fearlessness extends to matters of religion. Tolstoy takes his characters seriously enough to acknowledge that they have spiritual lives that are as nuanced and mysterious as their intellectual lives and their romantic lives. I knew to expect this dimension of the book, but I could not have known how encouraging it would be to dwell in it for so long.

In the end, this is a book about life, written by a man who is profoundly in love with life. Reading it makes me want to live.

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Danielle rated it:

08/14/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in August, 2008

Well, upon beginning this book I was pleasantly surprised to find that Tolstoy's style was very different than Dostoevsky's, which is more what I had been expecting (sorry to ignorantly group all Russian authors together). That alone made this a pleasurable reading experience after my bitter disappointment with The Brothers Karamazov. However, I did have my dislikes with this book, and considering the investment of time involved...more Well, upon beginning this book I was pleasantly surprised to find that Tolstoy's style was very different than Dostoevsky's, which is more what I had been expecting (sorry to ignorantly group all Russian authors together). That alone made this a pleasurable reading experience after my bitter disappointment with The Brothers Karamazov. However, I did have my dislikes with this book, and considering the investment of time involved in reading it, I would weigh these heavily.
First of all, there were many chapter-long tangents. According to Tolstoy, the book must be taken as a whole to be appreciated, and every tangent has its purpose, but I often felt like he was using his characters as a vehicle to express his political and social ideas (or his own undecidedness on a subject), and it got tiresome since much of the discussion wasn't particularly relevant to me now. I don't so much have a problem with a STORY being used to send a message, but I disliked having to read a characters thoughts (usually Levin, whom Tolstoy apparently based on himself) for paragraphs on end without any purpose in moving the story forward.
Second complaint: I couldn't help feeling Tolstoy's judgment of Anna and her position, even as he tried to point out repeatedly that her sin was no worse than what pretty much everyone else was doing. As much as he SEEMED like he was trying to say society's treatment of her was unfair, it really felt like he thought she got what she deserved. Probably her general craziness at the end of the book contributed to this perception. This irked me because...well, she wasn't exactly wanton in her infidelity and subsequent separation, she was more a victim of circumstance, yet she spent the rest of her life suffering for it.
Third, I think the minor characters in the book were supposed to serve a purpose of paralleling or contrasting the plights of the major characters, but I felt like their stories took up too much time and were uninteresting.
Finally, I disliked the attitude everyone in the book seemed to share of superiority to the masses. It was like they didn't see the peasants as people, and any time they hung out with them, or admired their way of life, it was in such a condescending way, and painted the peasants as being so one dimensional. I really don't think Tolstoy was trying to depict this attitude as being wrong, I think it seemed like this in the book because that's how he felt about them, too. That got annoying fast.
Well, those complaints aside, it was definitely an interesting story and gave me some things to think about. It did take an effort to get through it all, but overall I would say it was worth it.
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Lee rated it:

(review of isbn 0142000272)

02/09/08

Read in January, 2008

I think I was more awed/amazed by W&P, maybe because I read it first? No need to really talk about the book's greatness, or the lingering images, evolving, fully evoked characters, consistent themes. Greatness is a given, form and content-wise. The point-of-view is so bad-assedly steady it can even smoothly present the interior monolgue (ie, thoughts) of a dog out hunting snipe. As with W&P, commonplace stretches give way to scenes so alive you're reminded why you read -- that is, you co...more I think I was more awed/amazed by W&P, maybe because I read it first? No need to really talk about the book's greatness, or the lingering images, evolving, fully evoked characters, consistent themes. Greatness is a given, form and content-wise. The point-of-view is so bad-assedly steady it can even smoothly present the interior monolgue (ie, thoughts) of a dog out hunting snipe. As with W&P, commonplace stretches give way to scenes so alive you're reminded why you read -- that is, you co-create/imagine worlds in ways that are only really possible with really good prose. But it's clear that I'm sort of glad now to move on to other books (maybe because I've read 2100 consecutive pages of Tolstoy since Nov 1?). Since finishing Anna K, I've been reading Vlad Nab's essay about it in his essays on Russian Lit -- Nabokov mentions something about how Tolstoy represents or mimics or simulates in narrative form the passing of time in a way that makes you feel like the characters age on the page. Part of that has to do with the length, but also with how things smoothly revolve among the characters, so when one returns after an absence you anticipate or more so sense their evolution while attention was elsewhere. Something also to think about is how important societal pressures were for fiction in terms of putting pressure on characters and charging all interactions with importance. What pressure-cooking dramatic constraints exist now? Part of what's amazing about this book is that it couldn't be written today, right? Even if Anna K. thought she were a man and wanted to have hot tranny action with Vronsky, she'd divorce her husband, get the sex change, and move to the appropriate section of a major city: no problem. So what are comparable societal constraints now? That is, in the good old contemporary USA (the story still sadly applies in lots of countries). For most westerners, other than traditional legal constraints (against murder, etc), nothing comparable exists. The only thing I can think of is the violation of the rules of some cruel subculture (which Russian aristrocracy certainly was). But how could you write about a society of extreme fashionistas without Zoolandering it? Almost every American situation I can think of involving orthodox Trekkies or Red Sox Nation citizenry would pretty much require ironic representation since the situations could pretty much always be resolved by simply relinquishing membership and/or running/hiding. Anna had choices, too, I guess. Hmm. Maybe Brokeback Mountain was sort of a modern retelling? Or maybe I can find some intelligent talk about all this at some online archive of Oprah's book club?...less

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Davide rated it:

11/06/07

Read in January, 2008

recommends it for: anyone thats in for a big long read

Anna Karenina is your typical Russian novel: long, descriptive, beautiful, and full of love between social classes. The story starts off with Stepan Arkadyich telling his wife he has been cheating on her. This brings great distress to his wife, and so Stepan Arkadyich's sister Anna Karenina comes to help them out. While there, she attends a ball where she meets Count Vronksy who is trying to marry Kitty. At first she finds him boring and uninteresting and finds that her other suitor, Konstatin L...more Anna Karenina is your typical Russian novel: long, descriptive, beautiful, and full of love between social classes. The story starts off with Stepan Arkadyich telling his wife he has been cheating on her. This brings great distress to his wife, and so Stepan Arkadyich's sister Anna Karenina comes to help them out. While there, she attends a ball where she meets Count Vronksy who is trying to marry Kitty. At first she finds him boring and uninteresting and finds that her other suitor, Konstatin Levin is a much more suitable match. As the story goes on, Anna begins an affair with Vronsky and Levin is turned down by Kitty. Throughout most of the book, it shows Levin's life in the country while still contemplating about Kitty, and then showing Anna's affair with Vronsky which almost all the higher people in society know about, except her husband. One afternoon, Anna tells Vronsky she is pregnant. This puts the book in a whole new direction, from blossoming love to anger and an air of unsure. After this, Anna tells her husband, and he vows to keep everything the same, even though they basically hate each other at this point. Finally, Levin proposes again to Kitty and she accepts. This puts Levin at ease, but most of the other characters are in distress. Anna, who has basically become a scapegoat for the husband and Vronsky, see's no other way out. She being pregnant, goes to the Moscow train station and jumps in front of a commuter train. This leads to her funeral which brings together Levin, Kitty, Vronsky, and Stepan Arkadyich.
That is the basic plot of the novel. Tolstoy has an interesting way of writing, which I absolutely adore. He describes things in beautiful detail, and describes almost anything, but not in a drone-Herman-Melville way. When you read Tolstoy, you fall in love with the writing (or I did at least) and you really feel like you are in Russia in the 1880's. You can almost taste the white fish and vodka dinner at the club in St. Petersburg. You can see the snow exactly as he describes it. One of my favorite quotes of description is the following:
"But though she had the look of a butterfly that clings momentarily to a blade of grass and is about to flutter up, unfolding its iridescent wings, a terrible despair pained her heart"
It's that kind of writing that really provides great imagery for the reader and really makes you feel like you're ready to read an 800+ page book.

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Veronica rated it:

07/11/08

Read in July, 2008

Anna Karenina is your typical Russian novel: long, descriptive, beautiful, and full of love between social classes. The story starts off with Stepan Arkadyich telling his wife he has been cheating on her. This brings great distress to his wife, and so Stepan Arkadyich's sister Anna Karenina comes to help them out. While there, she attends a ball where she meets Count Vronksy who is trying to marry Kitty. At first she finds him boring and uninteresting and finds that her other suitor, Konstatin ...more Anna Karenina is your typical Russian novel: long, descriptive, beautiful, and full of love between social classes. The story starts off with Stepan Arkadyich telling his wife he has been cheating on her. This brings great distress to his wife, and so Stepan Arkadyich's sister Anna Karenina comes to help them out. While there, she attends a ball where she meets Count Vronksy who is trying to marry Kitty. At first she finds him boring and uninteresting and finds that her other suitor, Konstatin Levin is a much more suitable match. As the story goes on, Anna begins an affair with Vronsky and Levin is turned down by Kitty. Throughout most of the book, it shows Levin's life in the country while still contemplating about Kitty, and then showing Anna's affair with Vronsky which almost all the higher people in society know about, except her husband. One afternoon, Anna tells Vronsky she is pregnant. This puts the book in a whole new direction, from blossoming love to anger and an air of unsure. After this, Anna tells her husband, and he vows to keep everything the same, even though they basically hate each other at this point. Finally, Levin proposes again to Kitty and she accepts. This puts Levin at ease, but most of the other characters are in distress. Anna, who has basically become a scapegoat for the husband and Vronsky, see's no other way out. She being pregnant, goes to the Moscow train station and jumps in front of a commuter train. This leads to her funeral which brings together Levin, Kitty, Vronsky, and Stepan Arkadyich.
That is the basic plot of the novel. Tolstoy has an interesting way of writing, which I absolutely adore. He describes things in beautiful detail, and describes almost anything, but not in a drone-Herman-Melville way. When you read Tolstoy, you fall in love with the writing (or I did at least) and you really feel like you are in Russia in the 1880's. You can almost taste the white fish and vodka dinner at the club in St. Petersburg. You can see the snow exactly as he describes it. One of my favorite quotes of description is the following:
"But though she had the look of a butterfly that clings momentarily to a blade of grass and is about to flutter up, unfolding its iridescent wings, a terrible despair pained her heart"
It's that kind of writing that really provides great imagery for the reader and really makes you feel like you're ready to read an 800+ page book....less

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Mt. Philo rated it:

(review of isbn 067978330X)

08/14/08

Read in May, 2008

It is hard to say if Anna Karenina is the greatest novel ever written. So much of the language is lost in translation. The Russian prose must be a wonder while readers of the English version are left with the gravity of the plot in considering the novel. Anna commits the unthinkable deed of cuckolding her wealthy, socially prominent husband in falling for Vronsky, a man whose charm is so strong it crushes the spirit of the novel’s other prominent female character, Kitty. The ensuing action cre...more It is hard to say if Anna Karenina is the greatest novel ever written. So much of the language is lost in translation. The Russian prose must be a wonder while readers of the English version are left with the gravity of the plot in considering the novel. Anna commits the unthinkable deed of cuckolding her wealthy, socially prominent husband in falling for Vronsky, a man whose charm is so strong it crushes the spirit of the novel’s other prominent female character, Kitty. The ensuing action creates a wondrous account of Russian high society as Tolstoy carefully blends a mix of characters to create his picture of love, a concept even more difficult to define than the greatest novel.

Just as everyday life sometimes lacks excitement so does this book. It is, after all, a daily account of the social circles of Russia’s elite. At times the prose comes alive to produce the breathtaking moments of Levin mowing his fields or Vronsky racing horses. The power of the novel is the subtle undercurrents. It lies not only in Kitty’s lesson on love, Levin’s exploration of scholarship, and Alexandrovich’s whimsical decision to deny divorce but also in the balls and political conversations. Character interaction is the basis of the novel and where its greatest lessons lie. The social commentary flows through Levin when he ponders a new class system for his farm and pours over Kitty when she learns of her own peculiar position in marriage. It doesn’t always make for the most interesting action but it creates layers of wisdom that requires thoughtful study. Passing over it once just to read a classic, like a person who climbs Everest because it is there, does Anna Karenina an injustice.

Tolstoy writes a novel of the mind. It is like the conception of marriage Tolstoy creates. At times it takes commitment to continue reading and other times it is pure bliss. Some claim to “put the book down for another” only to return to it later. Others take up another book all together and forget the pages of this classic. Those that venture through carefully are rewarded for life. It is a novel of the ages, one with which to grow old even if other books catch the eye over the years. Anna Karenina will be there in the end if it is treated right.

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lkt rated it:

(review of isbn 1593080271)

08/08/07

bookshelves: also_a_good_movie, deeply_altered_my_thoughtpatterns

Read in June, 2007