From the Bookshelf of The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910…

Anna Karenina

Leo Tolstoy

Start date: March 6, 2022

Finish date: June 11, 2022

Discussion: Leo Tolstoy Collection

Discussion leader: Gem

Why we're reading this: Group Read 03/06/22 - 06/11/22

[close] Group Read 03/06/22 - 06/11/22

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 30 topics — 532 comments total

Leo Tolstoy Collection

Anna Karenina - Reading Schedule
By Gem , Moderator · 17 posts · 117 views

last updated Jul 25, 2022 06:33AM

Anna Karenina - Week 01 / Part 1, Chapters I - XIV
By Gem , Moderator · 27 posts · 42 views

last updated Jul 24, 2022 05:29AM

showing 5 of 5 topics view all »

What Members Thought

Jan 23, 2013 Mira rated it it was amazing

Shelves: unforgettable, favourites, russian-literature

It just occurred to me that Anna Karenina has been on my read-shelf since 2010 without a single word to its credit. Now, that’s a shame for someone who loves Tolstoy and his works as much as I do, and regards this novel one of their favorites of all time. To make up for the neglect, I'll start by saying that I just love this book. Anna Karenina is one of those books I seem to have developed a special bond with. The faraway look on Anna’s face, the snowflakes that instantly appear and scatter bef It just occurred to me that Anna Karenina has been on my read-shelf since 2010 without a single word to its credit. Now, that’s a shame for someone who loves Tolstoy and his works as much as I do, and regards this novel one of their favorites of all time. To make up for the neglect, I'll start by saying that I just love this book. Anna Karenina is one of those books I seem to have developed a special bond with. The faraway look on Anna’s face, the snowflakes that instantly appear and scatter before my eyes whenever I delve into its pages, the paragraphs that I know by heart. So much beauty, reality, and emotions in one classic book.

To be honest, Anna is not a character I admire so much. She’s probably as pampered as any other member of the Russian upper-class, and proves even more so when she defies her own beliefs as well as society to follow a whim. I know that Anna Karenina is loved by many for making a great love story -and while that’s not the case with me- I can see why it is considered so. Tolstoy’s wonderful portrayal of her feelings, of her position in society, of Anna’s need for freedom and love within her roaming soul; I do not think anything equal to the way he weaves the reader’s sympathy and passion into all these details, that for most part it was hard for me not to sympathize and get engrossed even more than I was. But the story doesn't end with the same forgiveness and compassion. By the end, there is a powerful reminder- not through moralizing or preaching but simply through results.

"Lord, forgive me all!” those last muttered words, mixed with regret, fear and knowledge of her own foolishness convey the emptiness of the many years Anna spent with her much older, and colder husband. But even those words do not justify Anna’s choices, not even in Tolstoy’s eyes, and it was the narration of Karenin’s reaction (view spoiler) that gave me this impression. No matter how much I thought the man repulsive, the narration still suggested a sense of righteousness and morality that I could not argue with. This is one of the parts that I mark as unforgettable in the novel- a sharp agonizing inner conflict, personal hurt and anger, all getting tangled with Karenin’s deeply entrenched religious beliefs; a conflict that suddenly left me on the two sides at the same time.

Anna’s story occupies half the novel, whereas the other half takes us into Levin’s life. What can I say about Levin other than he’s probably my favorite literary character? We have a beautifully flawed, endearingly anxious character in Levin. What makes him -not interesting- but rather understandable and approachable, is the transparency of his features, the simplicity of his emotions and the impulsiveness of his actions. Tolstoy subtly parallels his own life and beliefs and injects them into Levin’s :compassion for the laboring class, morals steady and unwavering, disdain towards urban comforts, faith lost for many years then found, and most importantly the passionate tone in his voice that makes him stand as the most honest and deserving in the story. The life that Tolstoy managed to insert into his characters and the detailed, honest portray of family lives, are probably the main reason why I keep going back to the book to reread my favorite quotes.

“Little as there was of affectation and conventionality in Kitty's general character, yet Levin was astonished at what was revealed to him now that every veil had fallen and the very kernel of her soul shone through her eyes. And in this simplicity, this nakedness of soul, she whom he loved was more apparent than ever.”

What could be as simple yet as beautiful as these lines?
...more

1 like · Like · see review

Apr 04, 2011 awayspa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

There is nothing I can say that will pay proper tribute to this work's massive value ...more

Like · see review

Nov 10, 2011 Jay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1ls, 2rmn, caufen, ru, omnipresent-narrator, z2013, 0hemin, 3trade, brokn-marriage-vows

I finished!!!
As the back part says, Tolstoy is inviting us to watch, not judge.
and tonight my brain will be like "they see me rollin they hatin"
I loved the last part when he describes Anna's thoughts, it was so stressful, my hands were sweating! ...more

Like · see review