Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
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Book Reviews of Anna Karenina
Book Review: A new "classic"
Summary: 5 Stars
I highly praise Oprah for using this book for her book of the month club. People who never even thought about picking up this book, did so because of her. I have seen teenagers and senior citizens of all colors reading this book (all over the city where I live). I was very glad to see a classic being brought back and "reinvented" all over again. Because of Oprah so many more people picked up this book.
I have found the book wonderful. The language, style of writing and the story absolutely took my breath away and definitely kept me interested until the very last page.
The characters and the plot are so well developed that it was easy to follow andunderstand. The story is absolutey amazing, how one women's beauty and choices had an effect on so many people. Anna is an amazing character whose beauty almost radiates through the pages that it is described on.
The love Anna has for her son, her lover, brother and others is incredible. Her love guides her actions and she often finds herself torn between her love for the people around her.
Some other characters that are very amazing: Dolly and her constant struggle with herself about her husband, chidlren, and family affairs; Levin and his love for a woman who broke his heart; Kitty who after an embarrasing courting flop finds true love; Karenin, and his constant worry about how his actions look in front of God, and society; Oblonsky and his love of having a good time; and of course Vronsky whose lust and love change the lives of many.
This is an excellent book, with a wonderful story about love, pride, family, and one's own torment about the decisions made in everyday life.
This version of Anna Karenina has very helpful endnotes that help explain some of the politics, religion, and life during that time in russia.
Book Review: Before the Movies, There was Tolstoy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my second reading of this towering classic. Here's what impressed me about Tolstoy. He could write well about everything. Most novelists are specialists favoring certain genres. Tolstoy's vision demanded an omnipresence that he fulfilled with staggering genius. Here are a few of his subjects from Anna Karenina: government ministerial discussions, horse racing, girl talk about wedding plans, a day spent mowing rye, lover's spats, bird shooting, a death bed scene, business deals, peasant life, ballroom manners, discussions about painting/art, European travel, military life, gambling, childbirth, suicidal ideation...
I hope no one will reject this novel because of its age or locale. Russian aristocrats in the 1870s dealt with all the fundamentals. Tolstoy had a way of summarizing little incidents with such straight forward assurity that despite the gap in time and culture you are apt to think, "Yes, that's exactly how it is."
Anna Karenina was serialized and this forced Tolstoy to write short chapters with intense focus on a myriad of subjects. He used third person omnipotence with shrewd precision. Some scenes were described as objectively as a camera. Others had the slant of a man, woman or even an animal. He always put a philosophically-minded character in his works and this allowed him to use the rich inner life of a thoughtful person. The author's ability to give introvert/extravert pespectives profoundly enriched his literature.
So, by the time you are through the 800 plus pages, you will know Tolstoy's characters intimately. Levin is more real to me than many of my relatives or co-workers. And when I meet a woman of consumate aplomb, I think of Anna.
Book Review: Grand Romance
Summary: 5 Stars
I regret waiting so long to delve into Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, thought it would be like War and Peace, but not so, the pace is quicker here and there is an intense character penetration reminiscent of Dovstoyevsky This is a really great classic, one of the best of its kind, a rambling soap opera with several plot lines and a full cast of characters, though there are two main protagonists - the title character Anna and Levin, who some believe is a self portrait of Tolstoy. The setting is Russia, mainly Moscow and St. Petersburg in the 19th century and while it describes a way of life gone forever the human passions and ambitions make the book timeless.
Love relationships are the main theme, a number of different relationships are set side by side for the reader, the main ones being Anna's suffocating and dutiful marriage to Alexei and her passionate affair with Vronsky; the marriage of Stepan and Dolly Oblonsky with all their children, him having one affair after another and she the suffering victim; Levin and Kitty with their early rocky road and later happy marriage in spite of crazed fits of jealousy. Of course it is the relationship between Anna and Vronsky that is the biggest story in the story, the attraction for each other is fatal and total, they give up all for each other and lose everything. An equal amount of time is devoted to the life of Levin, a religious doubter who slowly comes to a deep sense of spirituality in all around him. Through the Levin character the reader is introduced to beautiful descriptions of the Russian countryside and the peasantry that works the land.
Published in the 1870's and still an immortal classic.
Book Review: !!!ZESTICA!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
how anna karenina's struggle to tame love's seagullusiveness causes our souls to melt! this woman, refusing to accept life's dust-nausea, incapable of feeling more razors within her heart scrape and tear, yearning for love's maximo and its bullion, even fighting against her desire for impropriety when she re-bukes vronsky, castigates him and orders him to leave, un-doubtedly will maintain a chamber in ever soul who familiar-izes themselves with her dilemma. she hungers for a bloom that will invest her life with lustre and meaning, she demands that existence vibrate with more spasmo than a meaningless slog through the congo jungle, mosquitos everywhere harassing, steam arising from the ground, a goat for a guide. she wants eldorado, scintillata, moon-foam and love silk. she wants her soul to enflame itself in the arms of a man, satisfaction, the orbs of jasper, yet once more love proves ephemeral at best, elusive at worse. we all have wrestled with these demons. even if our society doesn't nail-punish extra-marrital discourse as her culture did, nevertheless we have still been oppresed by venus delight in torture. for a time anna does triumph, her and vronsky do taste for a brief time aphrodizjum's wealthy acuity and its gentles luxo-balm, yet, like all great things, it inevitably fades into the sands of the sahara, vronsky flames diminish slightly and anna is left suffering in the gobi desert, her soul affamished for throb. it is a powerful story, robust, quaking and formidible. we razor-lament the truths it reveals and we shrink in apathy that we will ever overcome the spears at aphrodite's disposal
author of Lorelei Pursued, Wrestles with God
Book Review: at first i hated her, then i loved her like no other.
Summary: 5 Stars
anna karenina really irritated me at first through most of its length. i didn't like many of the characters and i was disgusted with anna and that ruinous self-indulgent scoundrel vronsky being so ostensibly happy in their treachery.
of course, i didn't really understand what tolstoy's message was until the late chapters culminating with the shock ending. i was shocked because the story ended so precipitously, the events preceding seemed inexplicable, almost like a rush to conclude the novel, but there were subtle hints earlier in the narrative that i didn't realize at the time i read them. only when i got to the end did i realize that i had misread most of the novel.
anna karenina is first and foremost a moral exposition, not of the standards of a hypocritical society, but of the necessity of being truthful to our private consciences. tolstoy answers jesus' question, "what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" anna thought that love was the answer, but she ultimately realizes that even true love, if wrought in iniquity, can't compensate for sacrificing your spiritual values, i.e. your soul. anna achieves her spiritual baptism and redemption:
"a feeling such as she had known when about to take the first plunge in bathing came upon her, and she crossed herself. that familiar gesture brought back into her soul a whole series of girlish and childish memories, and suddenly the darkness that had covered everything for her was torn apart, and life rose up before her for an instant with all its bright past joys."