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unfinishedduet's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, and Suicide
Moderate: Addiction, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Pregnancy
sofmar917's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-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
5.0
Amazing book, it’s long but so worth it! Super interesting and the characters are all amazing! At the end of the book I felt like I knew every character so personally and this book just couldn’t have been any better!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Pregnancy
Minor: Alcoholism
fishgulper's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
lauren_loves_books's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism
kari_f's review against another edition
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Funnily enough, my first introduction to Anna Karenina was through my favorite children’s series, A Series of Unfortunate Events. According to one of the characters, “The central theme of Anna Karenina… is that a rural life of moral simplicity, despite its monotony, is the preferable personal narrative to a daring life of impulsive passion, which only leads to tragedy." I always knew I wanted to read the book eventually, but the idea of reading Tolstoy has always felt daunting.
On the surface, this is a story about family, loyalty, and love. Looking deeper, though, the books acts as social critique on a variety of topics that include family duty and relationship, (in)fidelity, the purposes and realities of marriage, societal reputations and the jealousy within social groups, hearing vs. understanding, political reform, self-centeredness vs. others-centeredness, gender inequality, hypocrisy, faith, ideas on industry and progress, and the contrasts between country living and city life.
The character stories are riddled with metaphor and allegory, with outside events aligning to inner attitudes and occurrences. Just one example is a country house where one of the families resides for the summer. A character promised their spouse that the house had the necessary work done in order to comfortably reside in it. Upon arriving, though, the rest of the family finds that it has nice curtains and décor while the functional parts of the house have fallen into a state of disrepair. The situation with the house mirrors several of the marriages in the book; one spouse thinks by making things look all right, they will be better, while the other spouse is left to deal with the consequences and/or do the major repair work.
While there are a few places where the story was slow (agricultural information, anyone?), there was a LOT to take in! Multiple characters with great arcs and evolutions, dramatic events, and plenty of commentary about Russian culture make this a book to be savored over a longer period of time. (Aka, this isn’t a book to stay up all night reading, but rather something to read in smaller chunks so that you can take your time, analyze, consider, and reflect.)
On a surface level, this is a domestic (and often sad) story about individuals, but the revelations and emotions apply to the greater world around them.
On the surface, this is a story about family, loyalty, and love. Looking deeper, though, the books acts as social critique on a variety of topics that include family duty and relationship, (in)fidelity, the purposes and realities of marriage, societal reputations and the jealousy within social groups, hearing vs. understanding, political reform, self-centeredness vs. others-centeredness, gender inequality, hypocrisy, faith, ideas on industry and progress, and the contrasts between country living and city life.
The character stories are riddled with metaphor and allegory, with outside events aligning to inner attitudes and occurrences. Just one example is a country house where one of the families resides for the summer. A character promised their spouse that the house had the necessary work done in order to comfortably reside in it. Upon arriving, though, the rest of the family finds that it has nice curtains and décor while the functional parts of the house have fallen into a state of disrepair. The situation with the house mirrors several of the marriages in the book; one spouse thinks by making things look all right, they will be better, while the other spouse is left to deal with the consequences and/or do the major repair work.
While there are a few places where the story was slow (agricultural information, anyone?), there was a LOT to take in! Multiple characters with great arcs and evolutions, dramatic events, and plenty of commentary about Russian culture make this a book to be savored over a longer period of time. (Aka, this isn’t a book to stay up all night reading, but rather something to read in smaller chunks so that you can take your time, analyze, consider, and reflect.)
On a surface level, this is a domestic (and often sad) story about individuals, but the revelations and emotions apply to the greater world around them.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Racism
char233's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
reflective
sad
slow-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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Medical trauma
ewelinakl's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
laurenleigh's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Giving myself major props for finishing my first Tolstoy! It’s easy to feel intimidated by big long classics, but I found Anna Karenina to be very readable and quite engaging. The chapters are short, which keeps the pace moving, and Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s conversational narration made it easy to keep all the characters straight. I was struck by how relatable these characters were. I have no idea what it’s like to be Russian nobility in the 1850’s, but I do know what it’s like to feel jealousy, doubt, fear, joy, and love. The novel deeply explores jealousy in particular, in all its frustrating futility. Tolstoy masterfully captures all these human emotions. I know some folks have issues with this Constance Garnett translation, but on the whole, I found it beautiful. (I could see myself reading this again with a different translation; that’s how much I liked it!) Garnett could have translated more of the French for me, sure, but Tolstoy’s rich imagery, similes, and symbolism truly shined. I loved the part where Levin compares marriage to a little boat off in the distance, for example. From afar, it looks like the boaters are having a sweet, peaceful time on the water, but once you’re in the boat, there’s a lot more rowing and balancing and focus needed to keep the thing afloat. I was also blown away by the scenes where Kitty gives birth. I could so feel Levin’s intense anxiety and joy. Truly a powerful piece of literature!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Pregnancy
kengore's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Misogyny, Racism, Antisemitism, and Religious bigotry
novi's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
It's a long book and i finished it in a month-ish. Sort of proud for a slow reader like me lol. I don't know how to review this.. but i'm certainly glad that i read this thick book. It's a beautifully tragic book but it's still hopeful and light at times, and even relatable. I still don't 100% understand Anna, i think i need to read analysis about her to help me understand her more. But Levin is relatable to certain degree. I heard that his character is based on the author himself or something like that, so i'm actually kinda embarassed saying that i relate a lot to him, but i do feel that we're both are just mess of contradiction lol.
Once again, this is a long book (but the chapters are mostly quite short, so it helps a little) and sometimes i got bored reading it especially when there's nothing going on with the plot and just Levin being Levin, going on and on about farming and his (internal or external) debates and conflicts. But it's a very complex book so i don't know how to really put everything i feel about it here. My favorite part of the book is the giving birth of Kitty's child. I found the pre-birth panic sooo funny (towards the end, before the climax (or anti-climax?) end of the book, this book was seriously getting comedic, probably to prepare us for the tragedy) and the rest of the birthing process and the aftermath was the most beautiful part of the book. It's so pure.
Before reading this, i already watched the adaptation on the year it was released (2011/2012?) and it's one of my favorite films ever because the production is so unique, but i appreciate the film and the book as their own thing, because it's impossible to summarize this book into a two hour movie. Some things i note though: in the movie, we can clearly see the beginning (the "courting") of Anna and Vronsky, while in the book, we see it either from other character's point of view (not from Anna or Vronsky) or the book just skipped over the whole thing then BAM. Pregnancy. One other thing i wanna say: Alicia Vikander was the PERFECT Kitty. So so so so perfect.
Once again, this is a long book (but the chapters are mostly quite short, so it helps a little) and sometimes i got bored reading it especially when there's nothing going on with the plot and just Levin being Levin, going on and on about farming and his (internal or external) debates and conflicts. But it's a very complex book so i don't know how to really put everything i feel about it here. My favorite part of the book is the giving birth of Kitty's child. I found the pre-birth panic sooo funny (towards the end, before the climax (or anti-climax?) end of the book, this book was seriously getting comedic, probably to prepare us for the tragedy) and the rest of the birthing process and the aftermath was the most beautiful part of the book. It's so pure.
Before reading this, i already watched the adaptation on the year it was released (2011/2012?) and it's one of my favorite films ever because the production is so unique, but i appreciate the film and the book as their own thing, because it's impossible to summarize this book into a two hour movie. Some things i note though: in the movie, we can clearly see the beginning (the "courting") of Anna and Vronsky, while in the book, we see it either from other character's point of view (not from Anna or Vronsky) or the book just skipped over the whole thing then BAM. Pregnancy. One other thing i wanna say: Alicia Vikander was the PERFECT Kitty. So so so so perfect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Racial slurs and Racism