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Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

Anna Karenina

Written by Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by Alfred Molina

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

When beautiful, aristocratic, and married Anna falls madly in love with the dashing Count Vronsky, their affair shocks Russian society, tears her family apart, and leads, inevitably, to tragedy. Count Leo Tolstoy's epic story of passion, infidelity, vengeance, and retribution has held readers spellbound since it was first published in the late 1800s. Set against the fatal attraction of Anna and Vronsky, unfolding in perfect symmetry, is another love story: of the melancholy nobleman Constantin Levin and his devoted wife, Kitty. In doubt about the meaning of life, haunted by thoughts of suicide, Levin's struggles echo Tolstoy's own spiritual crisis.

Filled with unforgettable characters, rich in history and social realism, Anna Karenina is a masterpiece of world literature, a story that fires the imagination and touches the heart.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 14, 2006
ISBN9781598872620
Author

Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy grew up in Russia, raised by a elderly aunt and educated by French tutors while studying at Kazen University before giving up on his education and volunteering for military duty. When writing his greatest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy drew upon his diaries for material. At eighty-two, while away from home, he suffered from declining health and died in Astapovo, Riazan in 1910.

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Rating: 4.057324840764331 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    An unforgettable love story following two pairs of lovers on divergent paths, one pair towards entropy, pride, and stagnation and the second pair towards order, selflessness, and personal growth. In the contrast between both pairs of lovers we see the rewards and sacrifices that come from pursuing passion and desire vs. pursuing compassion and righteousness, without an easy answer as to which is the better course. Added to this are the multitudes of unique and individual characters that are awarded Tolstoy's unique gift of character development and a plot line that twists through decades of Eastern European and Russian historical events along with a deep study of basically every major benchmark in human life (birth, death, marriage, divorce, etc.). Though long in terms of pages, the fact that each chapter typically consists of only 2-4 pages makes this a quick read that is easy to put down and pick up as time allows. Fans of War and Peace will find a novel of similar feel, but at a more personal and introspective scale than Tolstoy's other epic masterpiece.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Beautiful language. It's such a shame that I hate Anna and Vronsky. The only way I could enjoy this book is by skipping chapters about either of them, which sort of spoils it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    liked Levin. I liked his desire to do something with his life and his struggle to figure out what that should be: reform the peasant system starting right here with his own property? Write a book about it? I liked how real his love for Kitty felt to me. I liked him so much that I was disappointed when I had only the merest intellectual understanding of what Levin came to realize in the end and how it brought him peace: I’d felt everything he experienced right along with him, all the way up to that ending.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Epic, certainly. I felt confused for the first half of the novel as to why it is considered such a great book but the second half was so incredibly engaging. I developed strong feelings for the characters (not necessarily of love) and questioned my own understanding of relationships, society's morality, and faith. I'm still reeling a bit from the philosophy and questions of the character Levin and have continued to feel no sympathy or warmth for the novel's namesake, Anna Karenina. What an interesting book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I found the main plot absolutely gripping, though I got a bit weary of Levin, the character who represents Tolstoy himself.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Words fail to describe the godlike magnitude of what Tolstoy has put into this book... There's just nothing I can say to do it justice. So I'll let my silence and reverence for Mr. Lev Tolstoy speak for it self.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anna Karenina is very character-driven. Not much happens, but Tolstoy takes the reader into the minds of the different characters. Based on the title, I assumed that most of the book would revolve around Anna herself, but Levin is an equally important character. The beauty of this novel, for me, is in the juxtaposition of Levin and Anna's lives. Levin lives a simple life out in the country, while Anna is the wife of a prominent man in society who is many years older than Anna. They each have their share of heartache (some self-inflicted), but Tolstoy shows how their personal choices affect the outcome of their lives.I loved Levin. It was so easy for me to relate to him, which is kind of sad because I share some of his negative traits. He and I are both worriers and over-thinkers (it is super annoying--just ask my husband). He is so compassionate and concerned about others. Levin is also quick to forgive. This is in stark contrast to Anna who is selfish and vengeful.I know many people who hate this book because of Anna. I agree; she is despicable. This didn't ruin the book for me though because I felt this was Tolstoy's point. I don't think he meant for the reader to sympathize with Anna, but set her up as an example of what happens when you fill your life with selfishness and hatred. Her relationship with Vronksy could never work. They were both only thinking of themselves, and they didn't trust each other. Compare this to Levin and his wife. Their relationship flourished, and they found happiness because of the love and respect they showed each other.I would be lying if I said that I loved all of this book. The farming chapters, the election chapters, and the political discussions were a little dry. Overall, I really enjoyed reading Anna Karenina. Is it one of my all-time favorite books? No. It might be one of my favorites this year, but we'll have to wait and see. Is this book for everyone? Probably not. Because it is more of a character study, I can see many people finding too slow. It's just a matter of taste. If you've been wanting to read it, give it a try. It isn't as scary as it seems.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this in college. I thought Anna was foolish for commiting suicide. I want to read the book again now that I'm older, I might have a different perspective on Anna's choices.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was a tedious read to begin with but after finding a better translation and putting it on my Kindle things got better. Something about not knowing how much of this massive book I had left made it less daunting. And, although I wouldn't say this is one of the best books ever written, it wasn't the horrible, bring me to tears, drivel of Jane Austen either. I truly think I wouldn't have put the book down if it hadn't gone off into such in depth political and farming tangents. The politics and farming are integral to the story, don't get me wrong, but neither of these things interested me enough to find them enjoyable. I was also disappointed in the ending, I expected to revisit at least her husband and son in conclusion as we had previously been privy to their innermost feelings. I expected reaction of all of Anna's acquaintances to be provided after the tragedy. We knew how each and every person felt about the scandal all the way through the story but her affair ends abruptly we are left to make our own conclusions. Is Vronsky really the only person affected? Does Dolly appreciate her role as a mother and wife more as a result? Does Lidia rejoice and make designs on Karenin? Does Seryozha learn the truth? Does Stiva have any regrets? Although I am happy with Levin's peace of mind and faith in the end I felt like there was so much left to do. Levin's revelations, instead of being inspiring, fell flat because they were followed by the words "the end."
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    It is definitely a classic. A friend recommended I get the unubridged version. I recommended to myself that I get the audio CD unabridged version. I could not stop listening. A classic (in my eyes) is defined by a storyline, plot, and themes that transcend time. Outside of the carriages, this novel will transcend time for generations to come.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Psychologically meticulous and deeply moving, Anna Karenina probes the human condition so acutely and so deeply that it sorta has to be like 900 pages. Well maybe like 700. There's a good 200 pages of description and dialectic about the Russian class and agrarian system that will probably be somewhat lost of modern readers, at least it was to me. Great pathos, great psychological insight, but at times slow and meandering, without knowledge or interest in 19th century Russian agriculture. Overall great read, but if I'm going to read Russian I'm sticking with Dostoevsky.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Some classics are classics because they are that good. Other classics are classics for no apparent reason. This book falls into the latter half as the story is essentially supposed to be a sob fest but the reader is left high and dry without a tear to be found.  
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Now that I have finished the book, I appreciate that the introduction in my edition mentions that Tolstoy passes no judgment on his characters--he merely describes. I think this description he helped me enjoy the book more that I would have otherwise. And I think that Tolstoy’s powers of description of characters are so immense because there is no judgement. Characters may judge each other, but the narrative does not. Until the end! I don’t want to spoil anything, but characters who embrace Christianity fare much better than characters that do not, or do not actively think about their religion. I liked how different characters’ stories would slow and speed up at different parts of the narrative, but I found it was slow going despite the pacing quickening at times. I had to discipline myself to keep picking up this book each evening. But I’m happy I made it through though, some of the better parts were near the end of the book.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5

    After several months of procrastinating and putting off listening to this book, I finally dived in, deciding that I would finish this before the end of the year. Surprisingly, I ended up finishing it in a little over a week! I enjoyed almost every bit of the book, and the Audible narrative by Maggie Gyllenhall is very good. She is about as far from being my favorite actress as she can get, but she read this classic admirably.

    This book is known as the “single greatest novel ever written”, and it is very good. Tolstoy's narrative moves easily from stage to stage and scene to scene; the characters’ lives progress naturally through Russian society in the 1870s.

    The story focuses on just a few main characters: Anna Arkadyevna Karenina and her husband Aleksey Alexandrovich Karenin; Count Aleksey Kirilich Vronksy, Konstantin Dmitrich Levin, and Kitty Scherbatskaya. These characters propel the story, and it is their lives and relationships that are followed most closely. Supporting characters include Prince Stepan Arkadyevich Oblonsky, his wife Darya Alexandrovna Oblonskaya, and Levin's brothers, truly a small cast for such a grand Russian novel.

    The novel’s theme centers on relationships, specifically, the relationships in 19th Century Russian aristocratic society of St. Petersburg and Moscow. Anna Karenina is an elite, beautiful woman married to a powerful government official, Aleksey Karenin, with whom she has a son, Seryozha. She has an extended affair with the rich, dapper Count Aleksey Vronksy, and has a child with him, a daughter. Their story follows her inability to divorce her husband, and her increasing unhappiness in the relationship with Vronsky, as she is bannished by society and resents the freedom he has as a man to move in his old circles. Her jealousy and insecurity grow throughout the course of the novel, rendering her nearly mad.

    The other relationship, which serves as contrast Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky, is that of Levin and Kitty Scherbatskaya. Levin is several years older than the young and beautiful Kitty, daughter of one of Moscow's many princes. He is an aristocratic farmer and meticulously cares for his family's vast agrarian holdings in the country. At the beginning of the novel, he was courting Kitty, but had returned to the country. When he returns to ask her to marry him, he sees that she is infatuated with Vronksy, whom he doesn't trust. Vronsky meets Anna Karenina at a ball and stops calling on Kitty, breaking her heart. After a long separation, Kitty and Levin meet again and she happily agrees to marry him. Their storyline follows their marriage and the birth of their son, Dimitry.

    This novel is a slice out of life. The characters are incredibly realistic and complex, as is the pace and plot of the novel. The true artistry, however, lies in Tolstoy's effective setting of one relationship against another. The "good couple" Levin and Kitty have difficulties in adjusting to each other and in their relationship. Levin, like Anna, is jealous, but unlike Vronsky and Anna, he is motivated by love and generosity to overcome his angry feelings for the benefit of a harmonious home. Other aspects of the two different relationships greatly contrast one another. A very compelling character is made of Aleksey Alexandrovich Karenin, whom Anna despises, but who undergoes a convincing and sad degeneration of self as Anna leaves him and he maintains custody of the son that she loves. He gets caught up with a society woman who has converted to a fundamentalist, ecstatic Christianity and gives him advice, ultimately leading him to allow a French faux-mystic to decide the fate of his marriage to Anna.

    The novel has a well-known climax, beautifully written, which allows the reader to come through the shock and pain to what Levin discovers beyond the love of the family life he craved. This is definitely a masterpiece, worth the time spent on every page.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anna Karenina is an enchanting read. The characters are fascinating, and Tolstoy has such an ease of language and creates such comfortable vantage points into their worlds that the pages fly by. Some parts, of course, are more difficult to follow, due to changes in custom, common knowledge and culture, such as the more intricate realities of the Russian nobility, but the people in the book, their mindsets - especially Anna and Levin, the two main protagonists - are so intimately relateable it's a little disconcerting.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Of course I've known the basic story of Anna Karenina, who has an affair with Count Vronsky and comes to grief. Because the basic story outline did not appeal to me, I have waited this long to read Anna Karenina. That has got to be the greatest literary mistake of my life!I had absolutely no idea of Tolstoy's gift for writing on such a grand, panoramic scale while at the same time writing with such great attention to detail. What really blew me away, though, was his ability to put both himself and the reader inside the heads of so many diverse characters. It is obvious that not only must he have been a great observer of human behavior, but he must also have spent a great amount of time on reflexion and self-examination. Never before have I encountered a writer with such ability to capture the essence of what it is that makes us human.Anna Karenina has caused me to fall in love with reading all over again!
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Possibly one of the worst things I've ever read. It almost beats Tess of the D'Urbervilles to the bottom. I only liked two of the host of characters and the constant drivel about sheep and farming almost sent me to sleep. I did, however, manage to finish it. And the ending was abrupt and rather stupid, I'm sorry to say. I know it's regarded as a classic, but it just seemed a little ridiculous and utterly pointless to me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It would be oh so easy for me to take a dislike to Anna Karenina, the book.; as I disliked Anna Karenina the person but I must temper my impulsive first thoughts. Yes Anna was attractive, condemned through her times to an unhappy marriage, and managed through her own failings to make matters a whole lot worse. Wow, did she manage to irritate me by time of her final rail journey, I just wanted to give a gentle gentle nudge myself. She just reminded me so much of an ex, or perhaps I was looking through a mirror at part of me. That I realised is Tolstoy’s charm, he creates characters that I desire to dislike, or like, or attach any other human emotion. I dislike Anna as much as I liked Levin or was as emotive about one of the myriad other characters.I don’t attach significance to the difficulty of Russian names and their variations, as I have read more Russian authors they start to make more sense and it becomes a non-issue. It’s part of the cultural immersion. I go to Russia, India or Finland and expect to meet Bob or Jim.I don’t enjoy all of Tolstoy’s tangential mutterings, but one of them provided the most memorable experience of the book. The description of 19th century Russian farming and Levin’s day spent in the fields with the peasants scything was the most evocative of the book for me.Characters to think about long after, just wish Anna didn’t remind me of that ex. ;-)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Anna Karenina is really the story of three different marriages. Anna and Alexey Karenina and her lover Count Vronsky. Anna's brother Stepan Arkadyevtch and his wife Dolly. Lastly, there is Dolly's little sister Kitty and her eventual marriage to Kostantin Levin.The novel begins with Dolly discovering that her husband Stepan has been unfaithful to her and Anna convincing her sister in law to not leave the marriage. Anna represents all that is beautiful and best in mid nineteenth century Russian high society. But Anna soon after falls in love with the dashing Vronsky and abandon's her husband and young son to be with him. Dolly resigns herself to a marriage without trust or respect, comporting to the social norms of the day. Meanwhile Anna falls deeper into despair as she is cut off from society and her son, living as a fallen woman with Vronsky.At the other end of the spectrum is the youthful and naïve Kitty. Like Anna, Kitty eventually chooses to marry an older man. Like Alexey, Levin is far more dour and introspective then his young bride. The parallels between the Karenina's and the Levin's are many. It is interesting to speculate how Kitty and Levin's relationship will change over the course of ten years. Would they become like Anna and Alexey, unable to bear each others differences? Or like Dolly and Stepan, one spouse cheating and slowly draining all mutual love and respect from the marriage? Or are Kitty and Levin actually destined to be the one couple happy with one another over the long run?
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I read this book during my first semester of graduate school because I needed a break from the texts on pedagogy and philosophy of user testing I was forced to endure. What a wonderful escape it was. I still have fond memories of curling up on my thread-bare futton getting lost in Levin and Kitty's less than perfect courtship or shaking my head disapprovingly at Vronsky and Anna. It's been ten years and I think it may be time to return to their world. I hear the new translation is amazing...
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy uses a society soap opera as the basis for observing the nuances in relationships: non-verbal communication, interpersonal dynamics, social class and social standing, each depicted sensitively and with concern for their interaction and evolution over time. For me, that is the literary accomplishment here, and easily justifies the book as a classic.There is, apart from all this, much reflection in this book: on economics, politics, class relations, religion, morality and principle. There is also a thorough-going contrast between every major character’s personality and situation and one or more of the other characters. This contrast is multifold because it is not accomplished by a simple pairing (Vronsky contrasted with Alexei, for example, as rivals for Anna's affection and loyalty); but rather, one trait of a character is compared to another character, while another trait or circumstance is compared to a second character (Vronsky’s ambition compared with Levin’s). The result is a complex portrait of people, their family and social relations, and indeed a generous slice of 19th-century Russian society.The Pevear-Volokhonsky translation is readable and lovely, but does retain the patronymics and various nicknames common to Russian culture. Personally, I prefer that as it adds integrity and a sense of time & place, but it can be confusing. I understand other translations do away with that, using one name per character for ease of reference.A key question for me: Why name the novel after Anna, rather than any of the other 4 characters? Why name it after a character at all? I do not for a minute think it is gratuitous, and I’ll be curious to read up on it one day. But it occurs to me that Anna is the one character who essentially chooses her fate, but is driven to choose by – it would seem– genuinely falling deeply in love with someone other than her husband. She loses so much, and hurts so many others, but … what lesson should we take? It was not her choice to fall in love, she had merely to choose how to live, once that occurred.Probably not worth re-reading, though from a literary standpoint it would be good to be familiar with its various situations and characters, in much the same way it would be good to know the Bible. Anna Karenina persuades me that Tolstoy’s short stories are worth reading, perhaps even War and Peace.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Anna Karenina by Leo TolstoyWell, I now have the bragging rights that I survived the reading experience of this one. Good story but waaaaaaaaay too long. It started off interesting as we come to know the main players, The Karenins, Levin, Kitty, Count Vronsky; and begin to see the sometimes negative results of poor choices made because of passion.He felt that the love that bound him to Anna was not a momentary impulse, which would pass, as worldly intrigues do pass, leaving no other traces in the life of either but pleasant or unpleasant memories. he felt that all the torture of his own and her position, all the difficulty there was for them, conspicuous as they were in the eye of all the world, in concealing their love, in lying and deceiving; and in lying, deceiving, feigning, and continually thinking of others, when the passion that united them was so intense that they were both oblivious of everything else but their love.Yeah, that could be the start of the problem...My take on this novel was that it was a study on those choices, especially in the age in which the book was written, as well as delving into politics (the benefits vs. criticisms of socialist government), religion, depression, jealousy, revenge. There was SO much drama, so much whining. So much time spent around dinner tables and listening to debates about all of the above. I'd say nearly 700 of the 900+ pages were monotonous.Within the last few chapters it started to pick up again--oh! something interesting--but then, oh, back to the boring stuff again. I admittedly am not a literary genius so take my advice with a grain of salt, but I suggest watching the movie instead (I rarely say that. I think the only other time I've said that was for The Time Traveler's Wife where I liked how some of the characters were portrayed better in the movie than in the book.) This story just took too long to tell, and I am now very hesitant to start another Russian novel any time soon. My apologies to those who loved it.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I first read this in high school and at the time thought that it was one of the best books I had ever come across. I have since re-read it several times, always with renewed admiration. I was just noticed that I hadn't added it to my Goodreads list and had to correct the omission.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    To seek happiness Anna left the proper and dull Karenin for the dashing and exciting Vronsky, but in the end, committed suicide to end her misery. Rather than a comment on morality, Tolstoy through Anna Karenina, as in War and Peace, sought to contrast those who like Anna ignored or opposed the ubiquitous force which direct the destiny of individuals and nations and those who like Levin flowed with it. Both Anna and Levin, unlike Stiva and Dolly, could not passively regurgitate accepted behavior to satisfy social conventions and accept a banal existence, but they paved their paths one to the north and the other to the south.Passion directed Anna to oppose social conventions and with all a rebel’s defiance pursued in Vronsky’s arms the happiness that Karenin could not provide. They would love as if the whole world belonged to them. But in the end she could not live like Robinson Crusoe and was not strong enough to fend off social forces, which proclaimed reality’s omnipresence. Levin sought to transform himself and love Kitty as social conventions could only imitate. He sought to transcend social conventions, which were not in sync with the force that directed destinies, to attune to a higher melody, one that resonates wit the natural order of things.The diametrically opposing destinies of Anna and Levin revealed, as in War and Peace, Tolstoy’s search to harmonize with a natural force greater than reason, passion or will. For him, to raise the sword against that force would be to embrace the inferno.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Don't let the size daunt you; Tolstoy's novel is engrossing, captivating, whatever adjective you want to insert in there. I resisted for the longest time since I did not have any interest in Russian literature -- ha, was I ignorant! My favorite parts, really, were the parts that plumbed Russian society and really peeled away all the different layers. I loved learning about the highest echelons and the "lowliest" farmers. I'm not a fan of this cover, though. :)
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Tolstoy’s greatest novel, what some deem the greatest novel ever written, seems to ‘proceed as plotlessly and accidentally as life itself’ (E. B. Greenwood, Introduction to Anna Karenina, p. xii). Tolstoy contrasts two people of different character and temperament both of whom we squirm, flinch and weep in response to their actions. Anna lives for her own needs, passions and freedom. Levin lives for the good of others and his soul. In this way Anna and her affair with Vronsky depicts so outstandingly what modern philosophers call expressive individualism, where being true to our authentic self by expressing our deepest desires and acting on them is heroic. The Tolstoy critic Andrew Kaufman says in an interview that the 1860s were a time of great transition in Russia whereby the more traditional value system was being replaced by a new value systems. Tolstoy watched his friends and family members were getting divorced at alarming numbers. And this concerned him because in his view, the family is one of the key social units. And when families fall apart, he believed societies begin to fall apart. This is a central theme in Anna Karenina. Tolstoy heard people saying, "maybe marriage isn't the be all and end all of life. Maybe even if you do get married, not having kids might lead to a greater happiness." And, and of course, this is something that's very much echoed in today's world. In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy shows that the problem with these arguments is that they come from a false set of assumptions: This idea that more freedom means more fulfillment, that the gratification of one's personal desires, leads to more happiness. Tolstoy came to the opposite conclusion; that in many cases, less freedom can lead to a more abiding happiness because it forces us to make choices to make hard choices, and to commit to those choices with the fullness of our being. And family life is the ultimate embodiment of making those kinds of choices, of limiting our freedom for the sake of love. And so it is the characters who embrace the duties, the pain, the vulnerability of family life—of fatherhood, motherhood, being a son, being a daughter—those are often the characters who in the end, end up achieving the deepest kind of fulfillment.Kaufman gives an example from Tolstoy's own life. While writing War and Peace, he used a very interesting metaphor to describe what he was like before he got married, and what he's like now. It was the metaphor of an apple tree that he described himself as. An apple tree, that once sprouted in all different directions. But 'now, that it’s trimmed, tied, and supported, its trunk and roots can grow without hindrance.' It's a very powerful image. At the heart of it is this idea that sometimes limits are what allow us to grow more fully. And limits are actually what allow us to realise our fullest human potential.So according to Tolstoy a life like Anna's, which looks so romantic and promising, usually ends in tragedy. The reversal of fortunes is shown when Anna and Kitty are contrasted by Dolly (Kitty's sister): “‘How happily it turned out for Kitty that Anna came,’ said Dolly, ‘and how unhappily for her! The exact reverse,’ she added, struck by her thought. ‘Then Anna was so happy and Kitty considered herself miserable. Now it’s the exact reverse.’” (p. 551)Anna becomes a slave to her love/lust for Vronsky and finds herself trapped without access to her son, with excessively jealous of Vronksy, and unable to live without his enmeshed love.Tolstoy contrasts Anna's persist of freedom to desire what she wants to Levin's. Upon his engagement to Kitty, Levin's brother and friends question him about the loss of freedom he will experience when he is married. Levin replies, “‘What is the good of freedom? Happiness consists only in loving and desiring: in wishing her wishes and in thinking her thoughts, which means having no freedom whatever; that is happiness!’” (p. 442). Levin’s desire is not possessive self serving eros (like Anna’s), but generous other-centred agape. The result is that while Levin’s life is not easy, although there is doubt and jealousy and fear and conflict, there nevertheless is true freedom, fulfilment and happiness. He is not enslaved but a servant of love and goodness. I found the book long and tedious at points but I suppose that is because Tolstoy so wants us to “love life in all its countless, inexhaustible manifestations”. He packs in so much of life into the 806 pages, not just in the grand moments but also in the ordinary ones. The result is that you end up on a journey through 19th century Russia, a place and time I have now lived vicariously through. But Tolstoy also takes you on a journey to the very heart of human experience. The plot changes don’t come quickly. Instead Tolstoy spends significant time taking you into the mind and heart of all these different kinds of characters: nobels and peasants, philosophers and farmers, men and women, the promiscuous and duty-bound. Tolstoy draws you in to empathise with all these as you realise you share their same hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, temptations and regrets. The conversions of Karenin, Anna and Levin all demand attention. I am not sure Tolstoy ever really grasps the nature of the gospel of grace. He comes close at points but never really gets there. The closest we get is Karenin’s forgiveness of Anna, Anna’s cry for forgiveness at her death, and Levin’s humble recognition of the gift and goodness of life.I think this novel is like the book of Ecclesiastes: it teaches us about life under the sun and concludes that the meaning of life is “to live for God, to the soul” (p. 785). or as Solomon says, "A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?" (Eccl 2:24–25)Yes this is the meaning of life, but what does that look like? And how is atonement possible when we fail. Tolstoy raises this question superbly, hints at an answer, but in many ways it's still a mystery. For a clear answer we must turn to the Gospels or perhaps to the novels of Dostoevsky who perhaps understood better the gospel of grace.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    I thought this was one of those books I should read, however, I couldn't bring myself to care about Anna or any of the other characters by halfway through. I found the writing rather tedious as well. I'll stick to the Russians short stories, I can make it through those.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I don't know exactly what I was expecting from Anna Karenina, but whatever it was it was just beyond my grasp. I just never felt truly moved or impacted by anything in the novel. There is something to be said for the mirroring of the lives of Levin and Anna Karenina. One starting out on a high while the other suffered, only to end in the opposite. But I never felt for their plight because neither character ever felt real. Both characters seemed to live in a reality they had created within their own mind, while the real world circled around them. This novel simply fell short for me in what the hype had led me to expect. Glad to have read it. but unfortunately not one that will stick with me.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    9-11-2008Anna Karenina is the classic tale of a married 18th-century Russian woman who falls in love with another man, leaves her husband and child for him, then has to face the consequences of those actions. This was my first Tolstoy to finish (been reading War & Peace on and off for a little while now, but am not even close to finishing) and even though the English translation was choppy, I liked the basic story and admire Tolstoy’s determination to write about a subject so controversial at that time and so far removed from his own life, in that he’s trying to tell what is very much a uniquely woman’s story (a married person falling in love with someone else is not unique to women, of course, but the consequences are certainly different, particularly in the era in which Tolstoy is writing). I enjoyed this book and it held my attention throughout, but it has some major flaws, the main one being that it’s like flipping back and forth between two entirely different novels. One is the story of Anna and her torment over her love for Kostya; the other is the story of Lev, a familial connection of Anna’s who spends many, many pages giving us every detail of his conflicting emotions over various philosophical, political and sociological points, none of which have anything whatsoever to do with Anna’s story. How are these two plot points related? Good question! I see NO real connection between Lev and Anna’s stories besides the very thin one of their being related by marriage. Supposedly, the character of Lev is based largely on Tolstoy himself, and if so, he should have saved it for his autobiography and not used Anna’s story as a platform for his personal ramblings. It’s not that Lev’s story wasn’t interesting. It was just a different book. The parts that did relate to exploring the actions and emotions of Anna, her husband and her lover were fairly well done. Aside from the fact that there was too much of Lev’s story and it detracted from Anna’s, it also seemed like Tolstoy had to struggle to try and get into a woman’s head and heart to speak for her. For a man of any generation and culture to try and convey the emotions of a woman is a feat in and of itself, though (and the same goes for women writers who try to write from a male point of view) and he did it as well as can be expected. I won’t give anything away, but let me just say that I’m also a little conflicted about the famous ending. On the one hand I can genuinely appreciate it as the outcome of one particular story that is not necessarily how someone else’s story with the same events would have ended, but I also can’t help but feel that it’s an almost misogynistic conclusion one might expect from a man of that generation and culture. That sounds so militantly feminist but I can’t help it! That’s just how it struck me. Still, one can’t deny its dramatic effect. There is a new translation of AK out written by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, and it’s been getting a lot of attention via Oprah’s Book Club and book reviewers. I’m not likely to re-read AK anytime soon, but I might pick up their translation of War & Peace to see if it flows better than the one I have. At any rate, everyone is saying that if you’re planning to read English translations of either Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky, the Pevear/Volokhonsky versions best capture the original feel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is one of my all time favorite books. I loved how the author intertwined so many different characters and their stories. My favorite was the tragic love story of Anna and Count Vronsky. When I read it I already knew the ending, most people do, but it didn't make the book any less enjoyable. Knowing the outcome gave everything a doomed sense that heightened the romance and beauty of the story. The other characters' stories are also interesting, everything about this book is fantastic.