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Landmarks of World Literature
Tolstoy: Anna Karenina
Professor ThorIby offers a close reading of this classic novel and explores the subtle psychology in Tolstoy's characterisation. He avoids complex terminology and assumes a readership studying the text in English translation.
128 pages, Paperback
First published November 26, 1987
255 people are currently reading
2079 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Thorlby
12 books8 followersTony Thorlby was the first Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Sussex. He was educated at Tonbridge School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he read Modern Languages and was taught by the great Germanist, Erich Heller. He then went to Yale where in 1953 he was awarded a PhD for a thesis on ‘Fatality in Four Novels of the Nineteenth Century’. He learned Russian during his National Service in the famous Joint Services School of Linguists, where Michael Frayn and Alan Bennett, as well as George Craig and Peter France, were also enrolled. D.M. Thomas, who was a contemporary, has written: “On my course the obvious leader—older, sophisticated, handsome, with a PhD,—a kind of admired Steerforth—was one A. K. Thorlby, later a distinguished academic. One felt he was on easy terms with the tutors and I envied him his air of insouciant superiority.”
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews
May 3, 2014
Yes, it's a "classic" and I realize that its supposed to be against some unwritten code to openly admit to hating a classic. But to my credibility, this was my second attempt at not hating it. I read it once as a teen and hated it then, so I thought maybe as an adult, experience and wisdom would let me read it through different eyes. Nope. Still hate it. It is just such typical Tolstoy: "Oh how I want what I shouldn't touch, but to hell with the consequences because I just cant help myself." To immediately after: "Gasp! We are doomed to hell; we shouldn't have done that! My life is ruined because I couldn't control my sexual desires so now I should just lay my head on this railroad track..." blah blah, blah. Honestly, I have never understood the hype over Tolstoy. I understand the era that wrought the double standard for women and premarital sex, but personally I just think this story was so repetitive, and dragged on and on and on like only Tolstoy could do. I'm convinced he had a serious ego problem and just liked to hear himself ramble on. This was the second book of his I tried, and the second attempt at this particular one...and well I guess this time was a "shame on me" scenario.
January 17, 2018
As we all know, the strongest feeling is love. Love can manipulate and make you do things without any hesitation. Unfortunately, love also can cause problems and despair. Anna Karenina is a story about the tragic love of a woman who already had a husband and a son, but fell in love with another man. By that, she made herself rejected by society, which caused her to fall into a deep depression and finally commit a suicide. There are a lot of themes in the story, like love and jealousy, when Anna falls in love with Vronsky and couldn’t do anything about it. This led to a divorce between Anna and her husband, Alexei Karenin. However, Alexei didn’t accept her request, despite her affair with Vronsky. After not a long period of time, Anna started feeling jealous towards Vronskiy because he was going out to the society, while Anna couldn’t do that because she became a reject in the society when everybody got to know that she was cheating on Alexei while they were married. Tolstoy also made a major theme about the consequences of doing sinful things, by that illustrating the treatment of the society towards Anna as her punishment. This story can teach us that marring at the early age is not always a good decision. Based on the story, Anna regretted that she has married Sergei when she was young because all those years she was tolerated Alexei, even though he was busy all the time and barely spend any time taking care of his son and wife. I think every person can and will enjoy this story, who at least once fell in love and was feeling jealous. The way how Leo Tolstoy described and explained the feelings of Anna is brilliant. People who were jealous of someone can connect and perfectly understand Anna’s depression, what was she feeling, and why she did what she did. It is also a good sermon about what will happen if you will cheat on somebody with whom you are together like Anna cheated on her husband. The punishment will be the disrespect from the people who are surrounding you and a bad attitude towards you, same as the society has done with Anna. Nevertheless, the story contains complicated vocabulary, meanings, small details which will play a big role later in the novel, therefore you should pay a lot of your attention to everything in the novel. Overall, I really liked the way Tolstoy showed us the feelings which Anna was suffering throughout the novel. I also enjoyed the way Tolstoy connected the love story of Levin and Kitty, who started unsuccessfully but ended up happily in contradistinction to Anna and Vronsky. I even liked the way Tolstoy came up with the choice of Anna’s suicide when she jumped under the train. We can infer that she committed specifically that kind of a suicide because earlier in the novel she was a witness to an accident when a worker fell under the train. However, I think it would be much interesting if Tolstoy provided us with more amount of the thoughts and feelings of Vronskiy. As Tolstoy didn’t really do that, Vronskiy was a secretive character in the novel. I think it is a masterpiece of Russian literature and I very enjoyed reading it. I advise you to read it as well!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2013
This is a novel about power of woman and thinking of society in Russia in the 19.th century. The novel describes destiny of three families: Anne´s family, her brother´s family and Levin´s family. Every one of those families is diferrent, but with interesting opinion on life.
July 3, 2025
1100 pagina’s, dit lezen vraagt iets van je, maar het is het waard. Al was het maar om kennis te nemen van de Russische aristocratie eind 19e eeuw. Tolstoj is ook een meester in levensechte karakterbeschrijvingen en waarachtige levensoverwegingen. Het verhaal heeft twee hoofdlijnen die beide boeien tot het eind. De politieke beschrijvingen en de discussies eromheen waren soms lastiger te volgen, maar gelukkig was dat niet direct nodig voor de essentie van dit verhaal.
May 4, 2020
Let me start by saying I went to this book blind. The only things I knew were that this is a russian classic from 19th century and it's a tragedy. And I gotta say I was shocked! In a good way. This book talks about topics I've never thought a book from this time would, such as infidelity, mental ilness, drugs addiction (I'm talking about Anna and morfium) and suicide. I read a shorter version and I don't know how I would feel about the original but I enjoyed this! And I'm definitely gonna read more classics.
November 6, 2015
One of the only books I couldn't finish. I've read some pretty boring books that I managed to enjoy in the end but good gravy this book is just ..
I felt literal relief when I finally gave myself permission to give up.
Did I mention it was the second time I tried to read it? Zzzzz
I felt literal relief when I finally gave myself permission to give up.
Did I mention it was the second time I tried to read it? Zzzzz
August 15, 2013
LEVIN IS THE MAN.
July 22, 2021
"if goodness has a cause , then it's no longer goodness; if it has a consequence then it is also not goodness. consequently, goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect."
May 11, 2025
"Pero a partir de hoy mi vida, toda mi vida, independientemente de lo que pueda pasar, no será ya irrazonable, no carecerá de sentido como hasta ahora, sino que en todos y en cada uno de sus momentos poseerá el sentido indudable del bien, que yo soy dueño de infundir en ella"
February 18, 2017
I understand that the translation is better now. Truthfully, when I read it years ago, I would have given it a 3. But I would have based it on the story itself (maybe 3.5). I'm going to read it again because it is deemed as one of the greatest of the classics by academics and writers that I respect. That's why I'm giving a rating of 5.0. When I read it I wasn't qualified enough to evaluate Anna Karenina. I hope to read it again and do a better job this time.
December 12, 2019
Loved it..
May 31, 2024
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started listening to the audio book. But having heard it described as one of the best works of literature, my hopes were high. And while I would agree it is a great work...I would say for it's time.
The main reason for this is the lack of show don't tell, a cardinal sin in the modern writing landscape. To me this text is an excellent example of why this technique is so important in writing. I personally find the 'telling' parts very distracting and disruptive to the story.
The story itself covers many important themes which are still relevant today. These include: Female rights and role of women in society, female sexually and how it's viewed, Russian high society as a whole, social normals of the time, how masculinity was seen, death and of course religion and mortality. Mental health is also explored in part but due to the time in which it was written this limited.
My advice to anyone thinking of reading it is take notes, lots of notes. You'll need them as there are so many characters and places. And don't be afraid to dive into other books along the way. In fact it might be helpful to have a couple of lighter books (both physically and emotionally) on the go at the same time.
The pacing is slow and while it works really well in my opinion. This maybe challenging for others.
A word of warning obviously this book was written a long time ago as such it's views on women are lacking. And the moral code the characters use doesn't match our own. While this is fine as a historical book, it might be destressing for women who have been emotionally abusive relationships.
As for the narration, it worked well. The narrator was able to give each character a distinctive voice. This definitely helped with identity and remembering characters. The narration was clear and at a good speed.
The main reason for this is the lack of show don't tell, a cardinal sin in the modern writing landscape. To me this text is an excellent example of why this technique is so important in writing. I personally find the 'telling' parts very distracting and disruptive to the story.
The story itself covers many important themes which are still relevant today. These include: Female rights and role of women in society, female sexually and how it's viewed, Russian high society as a whole, social normals of the time, how masculinity was seen, death and of course religion and mortality. Mental health is also explored in part but due to the time in which it was written this limited.
My advice to anyone thinking of reading it is take notes, lots of notes. You'll need them as there are so many characters and places. And don't be afraid to dive into other books along the way. In fact it might be helpful to have a couple of lighter books (both physically and emotionally) on the go at the same time.
The pacing is slow and while it works really well in my opinion. This maybe challenging for others.
A word of warning obviously this book was written a long time ago as such it's views on women are lacking. And the moral code the characters use doesn't match our own. While this is fine as a historical book, it might be destressing for women who have been emotionally abusive relationships.
As for the narration, it worked well. The narrator was able to give each character a distinctive voice. This definitely helped with identity and remembering characters. The narration was clear and at a good speed.
February 16, 2021
Reviewing a book like this is difficult because there is the whole historical context to take into consideration. The book is heavy on philosophical and religious rumination (something I am sometimes guilty of). And Tolstoy's style doesn't foll0w a lot of the modern "do's" of good novel writing.
But, when yo get down to it, I think what impressed me most this time I read the novel was the matrix of juxtapositions Tolstoy creates - Dolly versus Anna (on the theme of adultery), Karenin versus Alexandrovich (on bureaucracy), Levin versus Oblonsky (on socially acceptable male conduct), the city versus the country (the natural versus the artificial - and how the characters are react and change in each environment), Levin and Anna (Levin's bouts jealousy and their resolution versus hers). The consistency and depth of the characters is fantastic...even if we have to read about "modern" ideas for Russian farming in between.
But, when yo get down to it, I think what impressed me most this time I read the novel was the matrix of juxtapositions Tolstoy creates - Dolly versus Anna (on the theme of adultery), Karenin versus Alexandrovich (on bureaucracy), Levin versus Oblonsky (on socially acceptable male conduct), the city versus the country (the natural versus the artificial - and how the characters are react and change in each environment), Levin and Anna (Levin's bouts jealousy and their resolution versus hers). The consistency and depth of the characters is fantastic...even if we have to read about "modern" ideas for Russian farming in between.
June 11, 2013
Russian literature is not my favorite, so this rating might be biased. I didn't mind the ending (which is not normal for Russian media)-it was actually a nice ending. I mean the end ending, not the part when Anna's role in the story ends.
There are some things to like in this book. I enjoyed Levin's "conversion". I thought Tolstoy's description of the feelings accompanying communion with God was just exquisitely done. There were a lot of good insights into human nature altogether.
I found the juxtaposition of Anna's and Kitty/Levin's stories significant. But overall I couldn't tell what the book was really supposed to be about. I guess I like to walk away with some coherent theme. A lot of it was just like-Uh...OK. And there was a lot of discussion of Russian farming, politics that went on a little long.
There are some things to like in this book. I enjoyed Levin's "conversion". I thought Tolstoy's description of the feelings accompanying communion with God was just exquisitely done. There were a lot of good insights into human nature altogether.
I found the juxtaposition of Anna's and Kitty/Levin's stories significant. But overall I couldn't tell what the book was really supposed to be about. I guess I like to walk away with some coherent theme. A lot of it was just like-Uh...OK. And there was a lot of discussion of Russian farming, politics that went on a little long.
June 24, 2013
First read it back in my teen years, didn't get much out of it. Re-reading it now, in my early 20s, I was amazed how captivating such a long and notoriously detailed book can be. The parallel of the three families, the development of relationships between the spouses, gives an insightful idea of what love and family life can and cannot be. Yes, a lot has changed in society since the late 19th century, but the core feelings are pretty much the same. I wouldn't want to claim that I understand Anna, but the pride, sensitivity, wisdom, insight and intuition of this woman together with her neurotic inclinations and hysteric outbursts did resonate with my own feelings and got under my skin. Wouldn't recommend reading the book if you are slightly down yourself.
January 29, 2022
I'm in love with this book! The characters are described very well- you can really understand their thoughts and emotions. A love Vronsky and Levin. They're both very different but I love them. Of course Anna is also one of my favorite characters. Her personality is very interesting. She is beautiful inside and out.
You know- Tolstoy is genius.
You know- Tolstoy is genius.
November 17, 2018
If you only read one book make it this.
May 14, 2025
This book was such a long roller coaster of emotions and self discovery for the characters who inhabit this wonderful Russian world. There are many themes in this book but a few significant themes that seemed reoccurring was: religious pressure in the Russian society, the views on adultery heavily influenced by religion, a somewhat opposing party of traditionalist views, family life, farm life, and lastly, a guilty conscience. Now some people may say that there are more significant themes, I can't argue on that. However, these are the themes where I felt most comparable in my own life which created an avenue of more sentiment and self reflection.
1. Upholding religion in the Russian society
Religion is one of the things that Tolstoy struggled with throughout his life. His struggles are presented in the character, Levin. On the other hand, if we take a look at Karenins outlook on religion it seems almost artificial. Instead of revering God, it felt as though he was afraid of what society might think of him, not God. His monologue's about religion and how they intertwined with his life mostly regarded his reputation more than anything else. Which is why I see Levins journey to find faith more endearing than Karenins because at least he was being genuine in his findings. And lets be honest, it was so difficult to like Karenin.
2. Adultery vs. Religion
Anna always knew that what she was doing wrong. In some ways Anna always cared about the state of herself and her son more than Vronsky could ever care about the sin that he was inflicting with Anna. This leads us to the next point...
3. Opposing traditionalist views
Most of Anna and Vronsky's group after they started a new life encouraged this adultery. However, I believe that this could almost be one of the first reasons for their downfall. Whilst they got support from the more seedy people in society, they were never fully accepted back into the more noble heights of society. Anna felt this disdain from former society folks and felt a strange feeling of wrong.
4. Family life
Family is one of the biggest highlights in this book, with Oblonsky going to Anna for help after his own affair. Dolly, who was struggling with their children and mentally battling her inferiority towards Oblonsky's mistresses. Kitty finding solace in her father more than her mother when Anna swept Vronsky away. Levin finding his own happiness in the new life that him and Kitty were creating. Anna struggling to stay away from her first and only son.
5. Farm life
Probably the fattest and most difficult chunks of the book was to read Levin Farm!! Oh my god I was wishing for him to stop talking about bushels and having complicated arguments about farming to all his well-off friends. But there were many moments when I saw a glimpse into his mind. First of all, he so easily changes his mind. One minute he's thinking that maybe being a peasant would be great, the next minute he sees Kitty and thinks, yeah never mind I'm supposed to be with that girl. I was literally hoping he would get a grip. Levin's thoughts were always all over the place, not fully consistent and prone to change with the wind.
6. Guilty Conscience
Anna always cared so much and carried herself with a certain degree of calm affluence and thought. That's why I could never fully dislike her character because in the beginning of the book she appeared to be attractive and sure of herself in a genuine way. However, after her relationship with Vronsky was official it seemed that every movement of her's was betraying a sense of unease and discomfort expressed by Dolly. Her need to be beautiful and always attractive to Vronsky was eating away at her mentally. The ongoing battle of divorce and possible discussions of future children were mentally eating away at her. She never had a moment of peace, this only increased when she started making baseless assumptions that Vronsky must be having affair with other women. Her delusions and hysteria only drove Vronsky away, making her even more mad.
Overall this book was very special to me, here are some of my personal thoughts:
1. Kitty is such an underrated character, if any 17-year-old girl reads this book they will fall right into the same similar territory that Kitty had to deal with.
2. This book should just be renamed "Constantine Levin: Days of Farming" because this book is mostly about this man farming LOL.
3. I believe that the reason why Vronsky started to have a hatred towards Anna is because she had become painfully attainable and artificial. Because of her constant need for validation and attention he started to become agitated and I can't blame him for that I would be #hatemypartner as well. However, what he never understood is how much she sacrificed to be with him, a comfortable life, a son, assurance, basically a life of ease.
Theres so much more I forgot but I might come back to add some things.
In any case this was an amazing book and although it might be hard to sit through it is completely worth it.
1. Upholding religion in the Russian society
Religion is one of the things that Tolstoy struggled with throughout his life. His struggles are presented in the character, Levin. On the other hand, if we take a look at Karenins outlook on religion it seems almost artificial. Instead of revering God, it felt as though he was afraid of what society might think of him, not God. His monologue's about religion and how they intertwined with his life mostly regarded his reputation more than anything else. Which is why I see Levins journey to find faith more endearing than Karenins because at least he was being genuine in his findings. And lets be honest, it was so difficult to like Karenin.
2. Adultery vs. Religion
Anna always knew that what she was doing wrong. In some ways Anna always cared about the state of herself and her son more than Vronsky could ever care about the sin that he was inflicting with Anna. This leads us to the next point...
3. Opposing traditionalist views
Most of Anna and Vronsky's group after they started a new life encouraged this adultery. However, I believe that this could almost be one of the first reasons for their downfall. Whilst they got support from the more seedy people in society, they were never fully accepted back into the more noble heights of society. Anna felt this disdain from former society folks and felt a strange feeling of wrong.
4. Family life
Family is one of the biggest highlights in this book, with Oblonsky going to Anna for help after his own affair. Dolly, who was struggling with their children and mentally battling her inferiority towards Oblonsky's mistresses. Kitty finding solace in her father more than her mother when Anna swept Vronsky away. Levin finding his own happiness in the new life that him and Kitty were creating. Anna struggling to stay away from her first and only son.
5. Farm life
Probably the fattest and most difficult chunks of the book was to read Levin Farm!! Oh my god I was wishing for him to stop talking about bushels and having complicated arguments about farming to all his well-off friends. But there were many moments when I saw a glimpse into his mind. First of all, he so easily changes his mind. One minute he's thinking that maybe being a peasant would be great, the next minute he sees Kitty and thinks, yeah never mind I'm supposed to be with that girl. I was literally hoping he would get a grip. Levin's thoughts were always all over the place, not fully consistent and prone to change with the wind.
6. Guilty Conscience
Anna always cared so much and carried herself with a certain degree of calm affluence and thought. That's why I could never fully dislike her character because in the beginning of the book she appeared to be attractive and sure of herself in a genuine way. However, after her relationship with Vronsky was official it seemed that every movement of her's was betraying a sense of unease and discomfort expressed by Dolly. Her need to be beautiful and always attractive to Vronsky was eating away at her mentally. The ongoing battle of divorce and possible discussions of future children were mentally eating away at her. She never had a moment of peace, this only increased when she started making baseless assumptions that Vronsky must be having affair with other women. Her delusions and hysteria only drove Vronsky away, making her even more mad.
Overall this book was very special to me, here are some of my personal thoughts:
1. Kitty is such an underrated character, if any 17-year-old girl reads this book they will fall right into the same similar territory that Kitty had to deal with.
2. This book should just be renamed "Constantine Levin: Days of Farming" because this book is mostly about this man farming LOL.
3. I believe that the reason why Vronsky started to have a hatred towards Anna is because she had become painfully attainable and artificial. Because of her constant need for validation and attention he started to become agitated and I can't blame him for that I would be #hatemypartner as well. However, what he never understood is how much she sacrificed to be with him, a comfortable life, a son, assurance, basically a life of ease.
Theres so much more I forgot but I might come back to add some things.
In any case this was an amazing book and although it might be hard to sit through it is completely worth it.
June 11, 2021
If you want me to discuss themes, I'd probably have to read the print version, but for my first walk through a Tolstoy novel, listening to it was the way to go for me. Frequently I marveled at the basic plot, centering on Anna's affair and eventual divorce, but also the amount of discussion about personal faith. It was interesting to hear about the classes in Russia, the duties and expectations.
There were times I also thought--"What a soap opera!"
Better than I expected, yet I fear that I would get impatient with the print copy--it is a big time commitment.
There were times I also thought--"What a soap opera!"
Better than I expected, yet I fear that I would get impatient with the print copy--it is a big time commitment.
November 7, 2022
I decided to read Anna Karenina over my maternity leave, because when else would I have enough time? (This was before I realized that unfortunately maternity leave is not in fact a three-month paid vacation, but more of a full time job seven days a week, plus chronic sleep deprivation and no lunch break.) Anyway, minus the parts with Anna, this was a very good book. Tolstoy really knows his stuff.
October 28, 2025
BELLO MA... BISOGNA ESSERE PRONTI
Sicuramente un capolavoro, su questo nulla da dire. Forse non ero pronta a cimentarmi in una lettura impegnativa come questa e infatti molte volte sono rimasta bloccata! Nonostante ciò non mi sono arresa e devo dire che da metà romanzo in poi la lettura è stata molto più scorrevole e chiara. Come tutti i grandi classici credo sia un obbligo leggerlo ma per goderselo appieno suggerisco di leggere prima altri romanzi!!
Sicuramente un capolavoro, su questo nulla da dire. Forse non ero pronta a cimentarmi in una lettura impegnativa come questa e infatti molte volte sono rimasta bloccata! Nonostante ciò non mi sono arresa e devo dire che da metà romanzo in poi la lettura è stata molto più scorrevole e chiara. Come tutti i grandi classici credo sia un obbligo leggerlo ma per goderselo appieno suggerisco di leggere prima altri romanzi!!
September 2, 2022
Fiiiiiiiiinalmente terminé. Me pareció un buen libro, creí que los últimos capítulos eran relleno inútil, pero hoy que terminé me queda la impresión que a sido una introspección del autor. Buen libro, de los que Hay que tomarse el tiempo para leerlos, eterno, pero no me arrepiento de haberlo leído. Puedo decir Anna Karenina ✅️
October 7, 2022
Todos sabemos da capacidade da descrição minuciosa e assertiva de Tostoy, entretanto me surpreendi com essa leitura. Tostoy entra na mente de cada personagem, só a descrição da corrida de cavalo do Vronski valeu por todo o livro. Há certas partes que são tão entediante quanto a vida real e isso é fascinante.
March 27, 2025
Un libro hermoso, trágico e increíble desde la primera página a la última, tratando temas tan diversos de una forma tan clara, profunda y real que es de los mejores clásicos para leer sobre filosofía, amor, política, religión y con unos personajes con los que se conecta fácilmente de una forma u otra.
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December 25, 2021How I wish there will be different destiny or ending for Anna Karenina ,buy if Anna and Vronsky both wanna to live under th is society, the ending is inevitable and very reasonable, however I still astonishing the way Anna choose
June 2, 2023
Ein interessantes Buch über Liebe, Ehe und Eifersucht. Tolstoi zeigt ganz unverblümt mehrere Beziehungen mit ihren Problemen auf, ohne dabei aber eine der beiden Parteien höher zu stellen. Dadurch betrachtet man alles sehr neutral und kann sich seine eigene Meinung zu den Situationen machen.
September 3, 2019
Magnifico
February 13, 2021
pretty good
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January 7, 2022Timeless picture of human passions and where they can lead. When reading I was under the skies of Russian countryside.
March 16, 2022
Modernissimo
Displaying 1 - 30 of 64 reviews