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 Anna Karenina November 17, 2009
-_Tim_- (The Western Hemisphere)
Anna Karenina is a long book with a number of themes, characters, plots, and subplots, and it takes a certain amount of effort to appreciate what Tolstoy has done here. Still, the book is a joy to read, and re-read.
A very prominent theme deals with ethics and how to live a good life. Levin, Tolstoy's protagonist, explicitly considers this question throughout the book. He engages in a number of rather abstruse conversations about politics and economics that mostly confirm his suspicion that men are self-interested fools. Clearly, the meaning of life will not be found here, and Levin looks to love and religion to see if he can find some higher meaning. Although Levin would deny it, he lives for others, and ultimately he finds peace and purpose within a network of people who depend on him. Anna is very different from Levin. She is made of fine material - she is vital, intelligent, and beautiful - but she lives for herself and she suffers for it. Some other themes that are explored at length deal with social issues in Russia at the end of the 19th century: the destabilizing effects of social, political, and economic development; the vast inequalities between landowners and peasants; and what we would now call gender politics. Tolstoy, a Christian pacifist, also condemns the Russian volunteers who were leaving to fight the Turks in the Serbo-Turkish War as Anna Karenina was being completed.
These themes are developed through two principal plots that center on Anna and Levin, respectively, as well as through a number of subsidiary plots. Anna Karenina was published serially, and Tolstoy moves from one plot to another in a way that maintains suspense for the reader.
Tolstoy is a practiced observer with a great deal of psychological insight, and almost every page from the novel offers some highly quotable passage. Of Oblonsky, Anna's brother and a kind of lovable fool, Tolstoy writes that ". . . although neither science, art, nor politics specially interested him, he firmly held to the opinions of the majority and of his paper on these subjects, changing his views when the majority changed theirs - or rather, not changing them - they changed imperceptibly of their own accord." Tolstoy also uses symbolism to tremendous effect. In one of the book's most moving passages, Anna has just told her lover, Vronsky, that she is pregnant. He leaves her to ride in a steeplechase, where he takes a jump incorrectly and his mare breaks her back. Looking down at the mare, Vronsky reflects, "...this dear, unfortunate mare ruined. Ah! what have I done?" Months later, Anna "had broadened out, and as she spoke . . . there was a malevolent look on her face that distorted its expression. He looked at her as a man might look at a faded flower he had plucked, in which it was difficult for him to trace the beauty that had made him pick and so destroy it."
I read the Norton critical edition, based on the Maude translation, and I thought it was terrific. There are less expensive editions, but this one is nicely produced and includes 128 pages of end matter, including excerpts from letters, diaries, and newspapers, a chronology, essays, and a bibliography. These are of high quality and considerably enhanced my experience of reading Anna Karenina.
 Disappointed by this translation June 15, 2009
Janet Bloom (Portland, Or)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I much prefer the translation by David Magershack (Signet Classics). Perhaps it's a case of heightened expectations not lived up to because I'd read so many wonderful reviews about this translation. It's still one of my favorite books of all time, but mid-way through this new translation I returned to my ancient dog-eared paperback. If I didn't know Anna Karenina was translated, I would think the Magershack version was simply better written. However, if you've never read this book, any translation is a worthwhile endeavor.
An amazing novel December 30, 2008
Evan Wearne (Lincoln, NE United States)
Anna Karenina. She was an amazing woman. But no less amazing than the other characters in the novel. Tolstoy was a brilliant man and writer. He knows how to blend plot and thought like few others. After reading his novels, I am convinced that he was a keen observer of human nature and interactions. I believe he must have spent hours reflecting on why people act in the way they do. And the result, clear and penetrating novels on the human experience.
I highly recommend this novel. I feel enriched for having read something so well written. Just the way that Tolstoy mixes words leaves me with a feeling of awe. This novel is much more direct than War and Peace. He left his characters out of his writing in War and Peace, while he digressed about other topics. In this novel, digression sometimes happens in his dealings with Levin, but not as frequently as in War and Peace. The novel is great, the plot is fantastic. I see similarities to War and Peace everywhere. Natasha and Kitty. Levin and Nikolay. Tolstoy's dislike of the medical profession.
Lovely Classical Literature December 23, 2008
Kellie Cales (Munster, Indiana USA)
I have read all of Tolstoy's works and though I love them all, Anna Karenina is my most treasured. I have read this book atleast a dozen times and never get tired of reading it. I love how high society is always portrayed in Tolstoy's works as "naughty" (wink). But mostly I fall in love with the tragic heroine, torn between the love of her only son and her adulterous lover. Her affair in the end consumes her, and Anna's life takes a tragic turn. A story that stands up to the test of time.
both timeless and of its era August 17, 2008
T. Burket (Potomac, MD United States)
Many themes of Anna Karenina are timeless: marriage, infidelity, the roles of men and women, personal fulfillment, honor, spirituality, and naturalism. If that isn't enough, then Tolstoy offers an 18th-century look at Russian society and culture, still well before the run-up to the revolution. Don't look to Tolstoy for enlightened feminism, although one of the characters argues for education and equality for women, and one of the minor threads relates to the status of peasants.
Tolstoy is not especially subtle in portraying his characters, full of emotion and conflict. Nobody is idealized, yet all still prompt some sympathy. The main characters are so richly drawn. Anna's decline was inevitable, but it's the loss of someone far from pure evil, with her significant talents and deep capacity for love.
Read Brothers Karamazov and Anna K at around the same time, as I did, and you'll get an excellent opportunity to compare two of the greatest Russian novelists head-to-head. Two thousand pages well spent.
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