A review by kstones
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

4.0

Why have I not heard more about the pre-feminism of this book? It may not be considered feminist today, but at the time of Hugo, Dumas, Dostoyevsky, and Dickens, it stands out. Tolstoy writes a full fleshed-out HUMAN character in Anna. He has sympathy and even love for her intellect, desires, and flaws. Mrs. Tolstoy, you lucky lady, you! Published 27 years after the Scarlet Letter, it is no less amazing that Tolstoy pushed through religious themes to tell us why we should still love this frantic adulteress. He doesn't just point out the double standards and problems with divorce law-- he hits us over the head with it. Sure, all the other women in this book are simple-headed baby-makers, and Levin is the real hero who gets to have actual philosophical and spiritual growth which his silly wife could never understand. And he seems to be pretty clearly juxtaposed to Anna in this way-- (**spoiler alert**) both struggled with loneliness, self-doubt, and suicidal thoughts and only one of them conquered it all. But I believe Tolstoy intended to emphasize Levin's spiritual development as the deciding factor and not his gender... OR, because "Lev" Leo Tolstoy was writing himself so much into Levin, he had to give him a happy ending, and his parallels to Anna reiterate his empathy all the more. Don't take away my kudos!