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moswanky's review
5.0
A thoroughly interesting read! The first chapter might be a little off-putting to some as he writes in a scholarly tone that differs from the tone of the rest of the book. I enjoyed it all, but if you are finding chapter one dry, just skip to chapter two. I found out about this book when the author was interviewed on Al Mohler’s podcast Thinking in Public. I would recommend listening to that podcast episode to see if this is a book that interests you!
ddejong's review
4.0
My Russian Lit professor was reading this book while teaching us Anna Karenina, and it has been sitting on my shelf for 10+ years now waiting for the right time to be read. I would not recommend this book to a casual reader or anyone who does not deeply love Anna Karenina. It is an uneven book—full of wonderful insights and thought-provoking arguments; also full of choppy organization, wandering points, and moments where Morson comes across as a bit grumpy and overly insistent on the rightness of his perspective. For me, the book was easily worth the read to encounter Morson’s concept of the “prosaic novel”, of which Tolstoy was a master, and the accompanying concepts of “prosaic good and evil” as personified by the characters of Dolly & Stiva. I was taken by Morson’s characterization of Anna was an “expatriate from romance placed in a work and in a world antithetical to the entire romantic vision.” Morson’s ability to explain how ill-fitting Anna is with Tolstoy’s vision of the good [prosaic] life deepened and changed the way I read this novel.
Morson soundly rebuked my youthful margin notes on the “foreshadowing” of Anna’s death with his brilliant insight that Anna herself made a decision to believe in “evil omens” and to carry out her own death consistent with those omens: “It is she, not the author, who fulfills the omen. This is not a novel with foreshadowing, but one in which the character believes in the real-life counter-part to foreshadowing, omens. To read the trainman’s death as foreshadowing is to mistake the work’s point. For the author, the world of romance is false.” Morson shared several interpretations and theories regarding Tolstoy’s epigraph (Vengeance is mine; I will repay) that were thought-provoking and helpful.
Also appreciated were his insights on the role of seeing in Anna Karenina (and attention as a moral act), the role of women’s handiwork throughout the novel, context around the large-scale “reforms” and Westernization happening in Russia at this time, and an excellent exploration of Levin as a thinker who embodies Tolstoy’s values in contrast to the intelligentsia. Levin is constantly wrestling through complex- sometimes existential- questions because he does not espouse a particular theory, political party, or “side”— he is willing to change his mind and thus constantly questioning and reassessing.
I’m grateful to Morson for taking a book I already loved and making me love and respect it all the more. This was, in all, a challenging but very worthwhile read.
Morson soundly rebuked my youthful margin notes on the “foreshadowing” of Anna’s death with his brilliant insight that Anna herself made a decision to believe in “evil omens” and to carry out her own death consistent with those omens: “It is she, not the author, who fulfills the omen. This is not a novel with foreshadowing, but one in which the character believes in the real-life counter-part to foreshadowing, omens. To read the trainman’s death as foreshadowing is to mistake the work’s point. For the author, the world of romance is false.” Morson shared several interpretations and theories regarding Tolstoy’s epigraph (Vengeance is mine; I will repay) that were thought-provoking and helpful.
Also appreciated were his insights on the role of seeing in Anna Karenina (and attention as a moral act), the role of women’s handiwork throughout the novel, context around the large-scale “reforms” and Westernization happening in Russia at this time, and an excellent exploration of Levin as a thinker who embodies Tolstoy’s values in contrast to the intelligentsia. Levin is constantly wrestling through complex- sometimes existential- questions because he does not espouse a particular theory, political party, or “side”— he is willing to change his mind and thus constantly questioning and reassessing.
I’m grateful to Morson for taking a book I already loved and making me love and respect it all the more. This was, in all, a challenging but very worthwhile read.
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