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Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) |  | Author: Leo Tolstoy
Creators: Richard Pevear, Larissa Volokhonsky
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Category: Book
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $1.00
as of 11/27/2009 02:02 CST details
You Save: $16.00 (94%)
New (89) Used (391) Collectible (7) from $1.00
Seller: hpb-outlet
Rating:  186 reviews
Sales Rank: 3201
Media: Paperback
Edition: First Printing
Pages: 864
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.6 x 2
ISBN: 0143035002
Dewey Decimal Number: 891.733
EAN: 9780143035008
ASIN: 0143035002
Publication Date: May 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Some people say Anna Karenina is the single greatest novel ever written, which makes about as much sense to me as trying to determine the world's greatest color. But there is no doubt that Anna Karenina, generally considered Tolstoy's best book, is definitely one ripping great read. Anna, miserable in her loveless marriage, does the barely thinkable and succumbs to her desires for the dashing Vronsky. I don't want to give away the ending, but I will say that 19th-century Russia doesn't take well to that sort of thing.
Product Description
Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness. While previous versions have softened the robust, and sometimes shocking, quality of Tolstoy's writing, Pevear and Volokhonsky have produced a translation true to his powerful voice. This award-winning team's authoritative edition also includes an illuminating introduction and explanatory notes. Beautiful, vigorous, and eminently readable, this Anna Karenina will be the definitive text for generations to come.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 186
 Everything of genius is simple November 15, 2009
I P (CA, USA)
There are several love stories in the novel, but I see it more as a one story about love in the time of social boundaries. Karenina is married to a man she loves, but isn't in love with anymore. When she meets "the one", she thinks nothing should or would stop her from starting a new life. However she is also a mother and the two loves, that of a woman and of a mother, pulls her heart apart.
The way Tolstoy takes the reader through their lives and thoughts is a true work of genius. You can relate and understand almost every one of them, because you know what it feels like to do or say the things they do or say. You know what it's like to fight with the ones you love the most, to give up something you've been looking for your whole life, to wonder whether all of it is real or just a dream...
 Philosophical meanderings with a bit of a story on top October 10, 2009
cassdog (Gainesville, Fl USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
In order to keep my reading list balanced I try to read a fiction book in between books about science. This is to keep my interests varied and prevent me from only reading non-fiction books. I never usually enjoy the fiction books as much but I find it a worthwhile pursuit anyways. Often times my forays in to fiction take the form of classics, to see what all the fuss is about. I found this book a bit grueling and I imagine that more can be gleamed about it if you understood the context of the time. What I did enjoy were the bits of philosophy and ethics that were inserted in to a stuffy story about russian aristocracy. This seems to be a theme in Russian novelists. The Brothers Karamazov appeared to be a story that was written mainly as a vehicle for the authors intellectual meanderings. This book is no different although the tantalizing intellectual bits were given short-shrift. Additionally the authors description of the feeling of being in love was extremely visceral in a manner that I've never read before. But overall this is a book that follows several mildly interesting characters in somewhat normal pursuits and I couldn't help but thinking I'm forcing myself to enjoy it because it was a work of classic fiction.
Heartbreaking October 7, 2009
Irina V.O. (Cincinnati, OH)
I am grateful to be able to read this book in its native language. I've read it for the first time in high school back in Russia as it was part of the curriculum. Re-reading it now, some 20 years later I see and appreciate it in a different light.
Tolstoy is a great story teller. His writing is simplistic and conveying. His characters are well developed and make reader care.
Anna, Levin, Dolly, Kitty, Karenin are main and thus better described characters. Reading through the book, I first get annoyed with Anna and her way of living, abandoning her child for a man as superficial as Vronsky. I think Tolstoy made Vronsky's character a bit one-dimensional on purpose. It is difficult to care for him and his motives and to me he was just a mere object without real ability to feel or empathize.
As Dolly has conflicting feelings towards Anna. I relate, moving from great pity and understanding to almost a rejection.
In the end understanding the feeling of great despair, chaos and sad realizations described in the last minutes of her life from the flashing moments of the happy memories to the horror that she can't turn back and undo and that it is over.
I enjoyed reading about Levin and his struggles with understanding the meaning of life but find it difficult to accept/understand his come bouts with religion in the end.
All in all a very interesting read.
Tolstoy's best August 24, 2009
Michael McGrayne (Jamestown, CA)
This is one classic that's worth reading more than twice. It's my third go-around I highly recommend this complex beautifully written piece of Russian literature. Oprah has good taste.
Great story, but Tolstoy could have used an editor! July 27, 2009
J. Bratt (Wichita, KS)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Let me start out by saying, I'm an English teacher and love Tolstoy. He wrote today's soap opera in 19th century Russia. The story is great. However, if Tolstoy had an editor the story would be minus 200 pages at least. As I read I would go through 20 pages extremely quickly because I was anxious to see what would happen. However, the next 20 pages would be very slow simply because I did not care about the horse race or whatever excess snippet he had to share.
So, my advice to readers:
It's a classic. It's a great story line with a wonderfully tragic ending. However, you will find yourself slowing down in sections, but keep reading!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 186
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