You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
OMFG! I can't believe it - I actually, FINALLY made it through "Anna Karenina" -- though only with the help of audio recordings (thank you, LibriVox.org!!) The last chapter -- with all the cooing over that annoying baby, and Levin going on and on about his spiritual angst (just man up, already, Konstantin Dmitrich!) -- about did me in. But I made it, I did.
So, what kind of star rating do you give to an acknowledged masterpiece? To be sure, the characters, character development, and detailed depiction of life at the time among the Russian upper class, are all brilliant, so I deeply appreciate the work. Enjoy it? Not so much - or at least not when the focus is on Levin/Tolstoy. Two full chapters on scything wheat? Really? And an entire final book in which the impact of Anna's death and the fate of Vronsky, the baby Anna, Seryozha, et al. is scarcely mentioned? Call me a philistine, but I'm giving it 3 stars (well, 3-1/2).
So, what kind of star rating do you give to an acknowledged masterpiece? To be sure, the characters, character development, and detailed depiction of life at the time among the Russian upper class, are all brilliant, so I deeply appreciate the work. Enjoy it? Not so much - or at least not when the focus is on Levin/Tolstoy. Two full chapters on scything wheat? Really? And an entire final book in which the impact of Anna's death and the fate of Vronsky, the baby Anna, Seryozha, et al. is scarcely mentioned? Call me a philistine, but I'm giving it 3 stars (well, 3-1/2).
I love Russian literature ugh!!!!!
"I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it."
WHICH I HAVE THE POWER TO PUT INTO IT!
Such a good ending. I loooove Levin so much. Now I want to read a bunch of analysis articles about this.
"I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it."
WHICH I HAVE THE POWER TO PUT INTO IT!
Such a good ending. I loooove Levin so much. Now I want to read a bunch of analysis articles about this.
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be.”
Considered one of the greatest novels of all time, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina follows a corner of society during the love affair of the title character. We follow Anna as she is weighed down by society forcing her to choose between the things in her life she loves. She is surrounded by her husband Karenin, a man who shuns all warmth; her brother Stiva, a carefree man with connections to everyone; Stiva's sister-in-law Kitty, an ingenue trying to find herself; Levin, the man in love with Kitty and Stiva's best friend; and Count Vronsky, the charming younger man Anna falls for.
This book was so rewarding to read. It's one of the world's most beloved classics, it's long and episodic, and it covers lots of people and time at a point of cultural shifting. I would like to note that I read the Garnett translation, and while it's not the translation that the most popular versions of quotes are pulled from, I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. This copy was stunning as well, and easy to read out of. The only thing I would have wanted more from it was maybe some more resources for historical context, etc.
What were the things I really liked about this book? Anna and her plotline is my favorite part by far. Her crime is loving and wanting love, uncompromisingly seeking truth and a life based on genuine emotions. She is a creature of grand emotions, feeling the highest highs or the lowest lows and few things in between. She is wrought by guilt as her desire for truth leads her to follow her heart in loving Vronsky, because she is not allowed to have a truthful life with him while also maintaining a relationship with her son. She is shunned by Russian society for her choices, but to her, she cannot see them as choices but as the most survivable path. She doesn't always do the most "right" thing - nobody in this book does - but I find her to be a visceral and admirable character. She suffers, but I don't think she is necessarily punished by the narrative; she cannot be supported by the society she is in, but we as a reader do not see her as the guilty party.
I was nervous when reading a classic written by a man that the female characters may not be well-realized or respected through the lens of the narrative, but that was not the case. While Levin, who is Tolstoy's most autobiographical character, is certainly the most main of the main characters, the female characters are respected and well-rounded. Some of the comments about women also seemed rather feminist to me, for the time it was written.
Each of the characters we follow have their own purposes to the story, and none are without merit. We see several characters through trial and error try to find their raison d'être and the morals they can allow themselves to live by. Kitty tries living for performing good deeds; Karenin tries living strictly on logic. Levin has several moral debates, from his questions on religion, to how he runs his farm and what that means for society at a whole as the caste distances shrink, to his dealings with his loved ones, the wife who he wants to protect and his brother who is an outcast in society. Each of the characters also has their own foils within the story, and as such we see - and they the characters see - how their differing characters traits bring out the best and worst of them all.
The most challenging part of this book for me was the episodic nature. I was aware going into this that it was published serially, but if I wasn't, I still would have been able to guess as such. Some chapters felt less important to the overarching narrative than others did, and because of that I was less driven to pay attention to them. The chapters on farming were particularly dry to me. Compared to chapters where characters are pouring their hearts out through internal or external monologues, the stakes seemed less concrete.
Overall, this is a classic that I prepared a long time for, I read for a long time, I actively turned over for a long time, and will be on my mind for a long time. It's not a brand new classic of all time, but it's one that I'd love to tear apart again more than once. 4.5 stars.
Considered one of the greatest novels of all time, Tolstoy's Anna Karenina follows a corner of society during the love affair of the title character. We follow Anna as she is weighed down by society forcing her to choose between the things in her life she loves. She is surrounded by her husband Karenin, a man who shuns all warmth; her brother Stiva, a carefree man with connections to everyone; Stiva's sister-in-law Kitty, an ingenue trying to find herself; Levin, the man in love with Kitty and Stiva's best friend; and Count Vronsky, the charming younger man Anna falls for.
This book was so rewarding to read. It's one of the world's most beloved classics, it's long and episodic, and it covers lots of people and time at a point of cultural shifting. I would like to note that I read the Garnett translation, and while it's not the translation that the most popular versions of quotes are pulled from, I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend it. This copy was stunning as well, and easy to read out of. The only thing I would have wanted more from it was maybe some more resources for historical context, etc.
What were the things I really liked about this book? Anna and her plotline is my favorite part by far. Her crime is loving and wanting love, uncompromisingly seeking truth and a life based on genuine emotions. She is a creature of grand emotions, feeling the highest highs or the lowest lows and few things in between. She is wrought by guilt as her desire for truth leads her to follow her heart in loving Vronsky, because she is not allowed to have a truthful life with him while also maintaining a relationship with her son. She is shunned by Russian society for her choices, but to her, she cannot see them as choices but as the most survivable path. She doesn't always do the most "right" thing - nobody in this book does - but I find her to be a visceral and admirable character. She suffers, but I don't think she is necessarily punished by the narrative; she cannot be supported by the society she is in, but we as a reader do not see her as the guilty party.
I was nervous when reading a classic written by a man that the female characters may not be well-realized or respected through the lens of the narrative, but that was not the case. While Levin, who is Tolstoy's most autobiographical character, is certainly the most main of the main characters, the female characters are respected and well-rounded. Some of the comments about women also seemed rather feminist to me, for the time it was written.
Each of the characters we follow have their own purposes to the story, and none are without merit. We see several characters through trial and error try to find their raison d'être and the morals they can allow themselves to live by. Kitty tries living for performing good deeds; Karenin tries living strictly on logic. Levin has several moral debates, from his questions on religion, to how he runs his farm and what that means for society at a whole as the caste distances shrink, to his dealings with his loved ones, the wife who he wants to protect and his brother who is an outcast in society. Each of the characters also has their own foils within the story, and as such we see - and they the characters see - how their differing characters traits bring out the best and worst of them all.
The most challenging part of this book for me was the episodic nature. I was aware going into this that it was published serially, but if I wasn't, I still would have been able to guess as such. Some chapters felt less important to the overarching narrative than others did, and because of that I was less driven to pay attention to them. The chapters on farming were particularly dry to me. Compared to chapters where characters are pouring their hearts out through internal or external monologues, the stakes seemed less concrete.
Overall, this is a classic that I prepared a long time for, I read for a long time, I actively turned over for a long time, and will be on my mind for a long time. It's not a brand new classic of all time, but it's one that I'd love to tear apart again more than once. 4.5 stars.
challenging
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed reading "Anna Karenina". I loved reading from Kitty's point of view, especially during the first half of the book. Anna's story wasn't my favorite, but I still liked reading about her life. I was surprised how easy the story was to follow, and also how easy the language in this translation was to understand.