Anna Karenina Volume VIII of 8

Anna Karenina (8 volumes) #8

by Leo Tolstoy

A magnificent story, that amalgamates the classical sensuality and rebelliousness against the prevailing customs, is presented here. This novel is a unique example of social realism that portrays the inevitable tragedy of a wilful woman, Anna Karenina, who transgresses the conventions of society and follows her own lead.

Genres: Fiction, Russian Literature, Romance

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1877

About the author

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лев Николаевич Толстой; most appropriately used Liev Tolstoy; commonly Leo Tolstoy in Anglophone countries) was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist fiction. Many consider Tolstoy to have been one of the world's greatest novelists. Tolstoy is equally known for his complicated and paradoxical persona and for his extreme moralistic and ascetic views, which he adopted after a moral crisis and spiritual awakening in the 1870s, after which he also became noted as a moral thinker and social reformer.

His literal interpretation of the ethical teachings of Jesus, centering on the Sermon on the Mount, caused him in later life to become a fervent Christian anarchist and anarcho-pacifist. His ideas on nonviolent resistance, expressed in such works as The Kingdom of God Is Within You, were to have a profound impact on such pivotal twentieth-century figures as Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.

See also:
French → Léon Tolstoï
Spanish → León Tolstói

Reviews

[Güliz Bayram]

Baş karakter Anna değil, Levin karakteri için kullanılmış popüler bir karakter bana göre Anna.. Tüm kitap boyunca beni kendine hayran bıraktı Levin, sadece kitabın sonundaki uyanışa gerek yoktu, o da Tolstoy un kendi içsel fırtınalarından kurtuluş yoludur belki kimbilir..

[Amelia Georgiewska]

If I could use all the adjectives to describe this book, they wouldn’t be enough. No song, no painting, no picture could be as powerful as the immense vocabulary in this literary masterpiece.
A web full of love, tragedy, Russian aristocracy, lovers and affairs, the death and birth of relationships, even the impact of religion are the main topics in this book which are very significant to the characters. But the main story line in this book is the representation of Russian society and the portrayal of women in it.
A beautiful society wife’s love fades for her husband as she is determined to live independently, by her own rules and terms, even if it means sacrificing everything to get the love she deserves. A tragic tale of forbidden love and happiness. The emotions this book bestowed upon me were so powerful, they made the book alive.
However, this book is so much more than the total agony of forbidden love. There are so many important issues in this book, and without them, it wouldn’t be the masterpiece it is. The concept of both a divorce and a successful marriage and  the way they are looked upon from the church and the society, religious awakenings, death and its power over people, and such simple and easy word when put between these other words, yet  it’s such a complicated and heart aching act called love.
Falling in love with another is a great muse for writers. It is all so different, new, and pure. What made the love story of Anna Karenina and Count Alexis KirilichVronsky so vigorous was that it was forbidden. Deceiving a husband and the thought of divorce was something so distant, so unfamiliar to the Russian custom. The religious beliefs inflicted upon the Russian society disapproved of a divorced woman, yet alone a divorced woman of high society. Even so, another factor that impacts the look upon divorce is the church itself. The disapproval of the separation between a husband and a wife. Alexis Alexandrovich Karenin finds himself at a crossroads when he starts to consider divorce as an option. What kind of man would he be in the eyes of God, better yet of the society he belongs in?
There is more than one story in this book which is affected by the religious beliefs of the church. Constantine Levin’s religious awakening is a reflection of the author’s personal point of view. In fact, this character was based on Leo Tolstoy’s personality and his journey of self-discovery. I think that this character resembles mirrored reflection of the author. The narrator in the book elaborates more when it comes to Levin’s personal opinion. Both the narrator and Leo Tolstoy try to project the thoughts and internal monologue that Levin uses in the book. By sharing the significance of Levin’s point of view, they slowly unravel the complexity of the character himself.
I find Levin’s character far more complex than the other characters in the book.  He is introduced as a socially awkward and difficult man to comprehend, but ends up a loved and happily married man. His perspective of the world around him is rather different from all the other characters. He is desperately seeking for proof of Kitty’s love towards him or the existence of God. His personality and it’s stability in the book increases as he stops questioning his own decisions. At the beginning he is struggling to find the right place in the society, and even being disapproved by his true love Catherine Alexandrovna Scherbatskaya, also known as Kitty. He goes to such lengths questioning his life, his work, even his happiness. He knows where his heart truly lies and as the story in the book develops he eventually marries Kitty, making him the happiest man in the society which he became a part of. This tremendous change in the character was affected by the religious awakening in Levin himself. He begins to to pray and acknowledge God. However, his conversion to an Orthodox Christian does not change his feelings, does not make him happy. For a long time he had been searching for the meaning of his life.  He found in when he uncovered the depth of religion, and is tranquil with both his mind and soul.
Apart from Levin’s suffering, the book untangles the knot of Moscow’s greatest love affair by the unexpected suicide of the main character. At first, Anna struggles with depression and hallucinations formed by the guilt she had for leaving her child and her husband, and her discovery of the purest form of love that she greatly shared with Vronsky. Purposefully running into a train, her cold corpse lay on the rails, showing no signs of life. All the people on the station were in shock, but Vronsky denied the idea that the love of his life lay dead on the cold black rails filled with gravel. Her suicide impacts Vronsky’s behavior tremendously that he starts to drown in his own depression, realizing that their daughter, Annie looked like Anna more than Anna herself. Eventually, he separates with his offspring, by giving Annie to none other than Karenin. Even after Anna’s heart stopped beating, his heart never stopped beating for her.
If I had a chance to ask Leo Tolstoy one question it would be where he got the inspiration to create these remarkable characters and were such versions of them alive? Their portrayal was better than any painted portrait in the world.  His beginning revelations were just enough for a reader to grasp the book and never let go of it. Never in my life, have I been obliged to write such a review. A review worthy of the book. Tolstoy said: “If you look for perfection, you’ll never be content”. My search for perfection has stopped after I found it in this book.

[Omg]

Fell in love with this novel

[Joan]

It is well, it is well, with my soul. - Yes the last book is a surprisingly around religion and I loved Levin's interpretation and so glad he has found peace and joy in the end.