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A review by krdegan
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
5.0
I couldn't put this book down the first time I read it. It is beautiful and tragic and I would lose myself in the story for hours. Tolstoy's prose, even in translation, is gorgeous and the images he paints are vivid. I highly recommend reading the Maude translation -- they seem to be the best translators of Tolstoy's works.
I read this book nearly 10 years later, and wasn't quite as engrossed. But as Cari wrote in her review, this is probably an important book to read every 10 years or so because the meaning will be so different at various life stages.
p. 253
"There are times when one would give a whole month for sixpence and others when you wouldn't sell half-an-hour at any price."
p. 288
"Pretence about anything whatever may deceive the cleverets and shrewdest of men, but the dullest child will see through it, no matter how artfully it may be disguised."
p. 830
"If goodness has a cause, it is no longer goodness; if it has consequences -- a reward -- it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect."
I actually don't think I agree with this. Doesn't "goodness" inevitably have a result -- generally happiness or more goodness? If so, it is not outside the chain of cause and effect, but rather is an integral part of it. But I do agree about goodness being less pure if something is only done in anticipation of a reward.
I read this book nearly 10 years later, and wasn't quite as engrossed. But as Cari wrote in her review, this is probably an important book to read every 10 years or so because the meaning will be so different at various life stages.
p. 253
"There are times when one would give a whole month for sixpence and others when you wouldn't sell half-an-hour at any price."
p. 288
"Pretence about anything whatever may deceive the cleverets and shrewdest of men, but the dullest child will see through it, no matter how artfully it may be disguised."
p. 830
"If goodness has a cause, it is no longer goodness; if it has consequences -- a reward -- it is not goodness either. So goodness is outside the chain of cause and effect."
I actually don't think I agree with this. Doesn't "goodness" inevitably have a result -- generally happiness or more goodness? If so, it is not outside the chain of cause and effect, but rather is an integral part of it. But I do agree about goodness being less pure if something is only done in anticipation of a reward.