Anna Karenina

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  The best book I've ever read. I've debated long and hard if I could really call it that, I hate to have something take Jane Eyre's place after all these years, but yes, Anna Karenina is the best book ever written. You don't meet just a Darcy, or a Rochester, or a Heathcliffe -- all three are there. There isn't just a Tess, but Elizabeth and Jane as well. Tolstoy takes the inner workings of 7 major characters and delves right into their lives. It never once felt like, "wait I can't ... (show more)

  The best book I've ever read. I've debated long and hard if I could really call it that, I hate to have something take Jane Eyre's place after all these years, but yes, Anna Karenina is the best book ever written. You don't meet just a Darcy, or a Rochester, or a Heathcliffe -- all three are there. There isn't just a Tess, but Elizabeth and Jane as well. Tolstoy takes the inner workings of 7 major characters and delves right into their lives. It never once felt like, "wait I can't keep track of them all." It was more like, "well I'm sick of Levin," turn the next page, and you're taken right back to Anna.

  I loved loved loved this book. I think it may be the best analysis of human behavior. Better than anything any psychologist has ever written after hours of study and research. Tolstoy covers our obsession with love, fear of death, and need for society. Our inability to change immediately, but the inevitable fact that over time we will all change. His prose on farming and the country, and the debates over educating women. All of it, all of it was beautiful.

  The best book ever. (show less)

   

   

  by Liz Szilagyi on Mar 29, 2009 at 11:52PM

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  [Cross posted to Amazon.ca and LibraryThing]

  I was a little daunted going into Anna Karenina, I thought of as the ultimate Classic of Classics and I’d never read Tolstoy before. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that it defied most of my expectations.

  I thought the whole novel was just about Anna Karenina, but it was much more. Yes, it told the tragic story of Anna’s loveless marriage and her doomed affair with Count Vronsky, but it also told the story of Konstantin Levin and his se... (show more)

  [Cross posted to Amazon.ca and LibraryThing]

  I was a little daunted going into Anna Karenina, I thought of as the ultimate Classic of Classics and I’d never read Tolstoy before. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that it defied most of my expectations.

  I thought the whole novel was just about Anna Karenina, but it was much more. Yes, it told the tragic story of Anna’s loveless marriage and her doomed affair with Count Vronsky, but it also told the story of Konstantin Levin and his search for love, for faith, and for satisfaction in his work. In between, Tolstoy manages to work in commentary on family dynamics, societal expectations, the state of Russian agriculture, and the evolving political situation in Russia at the time he was writing.

  The novel is long and it is loaded, but it is surprisingly accessible. Tolstoy understands human nature and he writes about it well, the characters here are all complex and have real conflicts that are still very relevant more than a hundred years after they were put to paper. It was a much easier read than I had expected and more engaging. It did get dry at times when Tolstoy went into long dissertations about farming or politics, and sometimes he took thirty pages to describe something that could have been covered in a few paragraphs. But just when I was ready to throw in the towel, the story took off again.

  Overall: lengthy and involved, but worth the effort. (show less)

   

   

  by Facebook User on Oct 01, 2009 at 01:54AM

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