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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
"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."
it took me five years to read this BUT OH MY GOD I LOVED IT SO MUCH. everything about this story is EXQUISITE. the drama, the romance, the exisitentialism, the politics, the banter, the social commentary, the tragedy. just wow. just....WOW.
it took me five years to read this BUT OH MY GOD I LOVED IT SO MUCH. everything about this story is EXQUISITE. the drama, the romance, the exisitentialism, the politics, the banter, the social commentary, the tragedy. just wow. just....WOW.
I held no expectations going into Anna Karenina, and was mostly pleasantly surprised. I felt a subtly depressed fascination in the boredom, drama, and scandal of the elites, although it was especially hard to relate to them, and I disliked almost all the characters (although could respect and admire many choices made). There were moments of the women's lives- jealousy and feelings regarding childbirth and children, which were incredibly deep and accurate, but Kitty was naively shallow and Anna uncompromisingly aloof and insincere. Anna's deep depression and spiraling moods, however, felt an accurate representation of an estranged woman not allowed to fill a greater sense of purpose or find an outlet for such repressed intellectual capability. Tolstoy delved into all manner of politics, economics, and religion in insightful ways, but always through the male characters, and I felt the emotions, conveyed by both the men and women, were what held more the substance of the novel.
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow. Huh.
The story was about what I'd expect from Tolstoy. Depressing. Lots of tangents to side characters and their political thoughts about 19th century Russia. Morality issues that seem outdated. A warning about entering into illicit romantic attachments (Spoiler- they make you go crazy to the point where throwing yourself in front of a train is your only option.)
Tolstoy went by the very old adage, "bros before hos"... or in this case, "sisters before misters". If Anna had just kept her hands off Kitty's man, none of this would've happened. None of it. Maybe she would still have married Levin- who knows? Who cares, really? The most boring couple in history and they aren't even that likeable.
Let's go further back and wonder why Anna married the first guy to begin with. What the heck? If she was so charming and beautiful, didn't she have other marriage offers?
Geez. Russians.
But the story, I didn't mind. The tangents were intolerable. If you are looking for good Russian prose- read Crime and Punishment. Equally depressing, but at least it mostly stays on topic.
The story was about what I'd expect from Tolstoy. Depressing. Lots of tangents to side characters and their political thoughts about 19th century Russia. Morality issues that seem outdated. A warning about entering into illicit romantic attachments (Spoiler- they make you go crazy to the point where throwing yourself in front of a train is your only option.)
Tolstoy went by the very old adage, "bros before hos"... or in this case, "sisters before misters". If Anna had just kept her hands off Kitty's man, none of this would've happened. None of it. Maybe she would still have married Levin- who knows? Who cares, really? The most boring couple in history and they aren't even that likeable.
Let's go further back and wonder why Anna married the first guy to begin with. What the heck? If she was so charming and beautiful, didn't she have other marriage offers?
Geez. Russians.
But the story, I didn't mind. The tangents were intolerable. If you are looking for good Russian prose- read Crime and Punishment. Equally depressing, but at least it mostly stays on topic.
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
The beauty of this book cannot be understated. Despite its length, which initially intimidated me. It has become apparent to me the depth of this story and I appreciate it fully. The themes of the book are incredibly well-conceived and conveyed through its strong characterisations and the contrasts of varying story elements, as well as the powerful emotional beats of the story.
The book is heavily reliant on its strong cast of characters, which I adore. The variances in their difficulties and successes, as well as their intricacies in the forms of flaws and how they address them were all lovely to read, and I found significant attachment to the characters and their individual stories.
The main conflicts/relationships are incredibly well-written and intricate, with Tolstoy developing them throughout the story with great mastery. I would recommend keeping a character list or remembering the characters well, as there are many and their different flaws and dynamics are important to the story’s impact.
Overall, the book was incredible. I very much enjoyed the surprisingly comprehensible prose, the powerful themes of relationships, loyalty, forgiveness, etc. and found the characters to have been very much lovable. Would highly recommend.
The book is heavily reliant on its strong cast of characters, which I adore. The variances in their difficulties and successes, as well as their intricacies in the forms of flaws and how they address them were all lovely to read, and I found significant attachment to the characters and their individual stories.
The main conflicts/relationships are incredibly well-written and intricate, with Tolstoy developing them throughout the story with great mastery. I would recommend keeping a character list or remembering the characters well, as there are many and their different flaws and dynamics are important to the story’s impact.
Overall, the book was incredible. I very much enjoyed the surprisingly comprehensible prose, the powerful themes of relationships, loyalty, forgiveness, etc. and found the characters to have been very much lovable. Would highly recommend.
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
tense
slow-paced
What an undertaking to write such a book! The only other Russian author I've read so far is Dostoyevsky and Crime and Punishment which I really enjoyed and is sort of like the opposite of Anna Karenina. Reading about Russian aristocracy felt similar to reading about other Victorian aristocrats, like Oscar Wilde's characters in The Portrait of Dorian Gray or Edith Wharton's characters in any of her stories. I didn't know that Russians were so influenced by French culture and language, either. I enjoyed the French lessons throughout the book.
Who hasn't felt the waning of passion as Anna felt in her relationship with Vronsky? Any number of insecurities that spring up on a woman's mind is only magnified by some small action on her partner's part--unintentional and done without any thought to hurt her, but which she feels like the stab of a knife into her heart. Once resentment on either side enters, love will be hard-won and displaced by that resentment. Communicate with each other! Make the effort. If the effort is no longer found, rarely can love be saved.
I was interested in the thoughts of Dolly as she visits Anna in the country: of being bound or enslaved as a wife and mother in a state of mediocrity or unhappiness. Her thoughts have resonated with some of my own recent feelings.
I struggled a bit through Part VIII after Anna's death because for me, that's where the story ended. But I did appreciate Levin's conclusion that he is responsible for his own happiness in life.
"There are people who, on meeting a successful rival in whatever it may be, are ready at once to turn their eyes from everything good in him and to see only the bad; then there are people who, on the contrary, want most of all to find the qualities in this successful rival that enabled him to defeat them, and with aching hearts seek only the good. Levin was one of those people. But it was not hard for him to find what was good and attractive in Vronsky." pg. 50
"After the doctor's departure, Sergei Ivanovich expressed a wish to go to the river with a fishing rod. He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation." pg. 240
"From the fifth sitting the portrait struck everyone, especially Vronsky, not only by its likeness but by its special beauty. It was strange how Mikhailov was able to find this special beauty in her. 'One would have to know her and love her as I do to find that sweetest inner expression of hers,' thought Vronsky, though he had learned of that sweetest inner expression of hers only from this portrait. But the expression was so ture that he and others thought they had always known it." pg. 477
"He understood not only that she was close to him, but that he no longer knew where she ended and he began. He understood it by the painful feeling of being split which he experienced at that moment. He was offended at first, but in that same instant he felt that he could not be offended by her, that she was him. In the first moment he felt like a man who, having suddenly received a violent blow from behind, turns with vexation and a desire for revenge to find out who did it, and realizes that he has accidentally struck himself, that there is no one to be angry with and he must endure and east the pain." pg. 482
"And now for the first time Anna turned the bright light in which she saw everything upon her relations with him, which she had avoided thinking about before. 'What was he looking for in me? Not love so much as the satisfaction of his vanity.' She remembered his words, the expression on his face, like an obedient pointer, in the early days of their liaison. And now everything confirmed it. 'Yes, there was the triumph of successful vanity in him. Of course, there was love, too, but for the most part it was the pride of success. He boasted of me. Now it's past. Nothing to be proud of. Not proud but ashamed. He took all he could from me, and I'm of no use to him anymore. I'm a burden to him, and he tries not to be dishonourable towards me.'" pg. 763
Book: borrowed from Skyline College library.
Who hasn't felt the waning of passion as Anna felt in her relationship with Vronsky? Any number of insecurities that spring up on a woman's mind is only magnified by some small action on her partner's part--unintentional and done without any thought to hurt her, but which she feels like the stab of a knife into her heart. Once resentment on either side enters, love will be hard-won and displaced by that resentment. Communicate with each other! Make the effort. If the effort is no longer found, rarely can love be saved.
I was interested in the thoughts of Dolly as she visits Anna in the country: of being bound or enslaved as a wife and mother in a state of mediocrity or unhappiness. Her thoughts have resonated with some of my own recent feelings.
I struggled a bit through Part VIII after Anna's death because for me, that's where the story ended. But I did appreciate Levin's conclusion that he is responsible for his own happiness in life.
"There are people who, on meeting a successful rival in whatever it may be, are ready at once to turn their eyes from everything good in him and to see only the bad; then there are people who, on the contrary, want most of all to find the qualities in this successful rival that enabled him to defeat them, and with aching hearts seek only the good. Levin was one of those people. But it was not hard for him to find what was good and attractive in Vronsky." pg. 50
"After the doctor's departure, Sergei Ivanovich expressed a wish to go to the river with a fishing rod. He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation." pg. 240
"From the fifth sitting the portrait struck everyone, especially Vronsky, not only by its likeness but by its special beauty. It was strange how Mikhailov was able to find this special beauty in her. 'One would have to know her and love her as I do to find that sweetest inner expression of hers,' thought Vronsky, though he had learned of that sweetest inner expression of hers only from this portrait. But the expression was so ture that he and others thought they had always known it." pg. 477
"He understood not only that she was close to him, but that he no longer knew where she ended and he began. He understood it by the painful feeling of being split which he experienced at that moment. He was offended at first, but in that same instant he felt that he could not be offended by her, that she was him. In the first moment he felt like a man who, having suddenly received a violent blow from behind, turns with vexation and a desire for revenge to find out who did it, and realizes that he has accidentally struck himself, that there is no one to be angry with and he must endure and east the pain." pg. 482
"And now for the first time Anna turned the bright light in which she saw everything upon her relations with him, which she had avoided thinking about before. 'What was he looking for in me? Not love so much as the satisfaction of his vanity.' She remembered his words, the expression on his face, like an obedient pointer, in the early days of their liaison. And now everything confirmed it. 'Yes, there was the triumph of successful vanity in him. Of course, there was love, too, but for the most part it was the pride of success. He boasted of me. Now it's past. Nothing to be proud of. Not proud but ashamed. He took all he could from me, and I'm of no use to him anymore. I'm a burden to him, and he tries not to be dishonourable towards me.'" pg. 763
Book: borrowed from Skyline College library.