From the Bookshelf of Crazy Challenge Connection…
Find A Copy At
Group Discussions About This Book
No group discussions for this book yet.
What Members Thought
It was a hard book for me to read since it reminded me of someone I loved dearly who died 7 months earlier to the same circumstances (suicide by lying on train tracks. She too was young and just gave birth to a baby girl one year earlier.) I had a hard time understanding Anna’s character, but I really enjoyed Tolstoy's writing regarding inner thoughts and his descriptive scenes such as the mowing fields, etc. I loved Levin’s character. I will definitely read it again in the future.
...more
Oct 01, 2010
Bucket
rated it
really liked it
Shelves:
classic,
reviewed,
tragedy,
world-lit,
literary,
1001-read-all-editions,
religion,
love,
generational-epic,
women
Small spoiler alert!!!!
I listened to this on CD and really, really enjoyed the immersive experience. I didn’t fall head over heels for any of the characters (though Levin was the most charming to me) but I felt like Tolstoy switched perspectives often enough to keep things moving and engaging. The comparison between the three couples (Levin/Kitty, Dolly/Oblansky, Anna/Vronsky) was the point of this to me, and was well done. The options available to a women in 19th century Russia were clear - you ...more
I listened to this on CD and really, really enjoyed the immersive experience. I didn’t fall head over heels for any of the characters (though Levin was the most charming to me) but I felt like Tolstoy switched perspectives often enough to keep things moving and engaging. The comparison between the three couples (Levin/Kitty, Dolly/Oblansky, Anna/Vronsky) was the point of this to me, and was well done. The options available to a women in 19th century Russia were clear - you ...more
1½ stars actually. En fin (finally), I finished this one. Long, rambling, and tedious story of love and life in Russia. The novel centered mainly on the illicit love affair of Anna Karenina and Vronsky (and how it ruined her life) and the life of Levin, a man who wants only to figure out how to be good and/or happy with or without religion, and his wife Kitty. Perhaps had I read it over a shorter period of time I would have found it more stimulating (on the other hand, had it been stimulating, I
...more
Starting this one over. Got sidetracked. :-)
I gave this book five stars despite not liking any of the characters. I pitied Anna Karenina's husband but found him rather cold and no prize. Anna herself epitomizes the line in John "Moon" Martin's 1978 song "Bad Case of Loving You" (the late Robert Palmer's 1979 hit cover of which is probably the best known recorded version) that "a pretty face don't make no pretty heart". I alternately pitied her and felt she had it coming. Constance Garret's lively translation of the original Russian (in wh
...more
Dec 24, 2009
Ellen
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
1001-books-you-must-read-before-you,
bbc-100
20.2.1
Apr 12, 2011
Amelia
marked it as to-read
Jan 21, 2013
Vanessa Gayle ⚔️ Fangirl Faction
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
translated
Sep 04, 2013
Tess
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
book-discussion,
classics
