The greatest of all novels
I thought I knew what Anna Karenina was about. A russian Madame Bovary of a higher social order who has the good taste to kill herself, a priggish, conventional husband, a dashing inconstant lover and a bunch of hangers-on. Having recently read War and Peace and contemplated the world from its lofty heights, I assumed Ana Karenina couldn't possibly match it (or the Brothers Karamazov, or Madame Bovary, or Les Miserables, or Our Mutual Friend). I have just finished reading Anna Karenina and I stand corrected. In its characterization, its dialogues, its descriptions of nature and ordinary life, in the vividness (and depth) of its discussions about art, politics, economics, morality, in its dark sense of humor, Anna Karenina is truly at the peak of the novelistic art. Awkward, passionate Konstantin Dmietrivich Levin (and his unique brothers) and his beloved Kitty, gentlemanly Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky and his redoutable mother, charming Stephan Arkadievitch Oblonsky and long-suffering Dolly, decent and good hearted Alexei Alexandrovitch Karenin, plus assorted relatives, servants, peasants and noblemen are unforgettable.
In Anna Karenina one is dazzled by Tolstoy's mastery of his art. In Konstantin Levin's visit to his brother Nikolai the reader feels he has strayed into the Brothers Karamazov territory. The description of a doctor's visit to Kitty Levin when she is giving birth to her son is worthy of Dickens, as is the delightful Vasenka Veslovsky and even Stephan Arkadievitch himself. The scenes in a sanatorium match anything in The Magic Mountain and the stream of consciousness sections near the end anticipate Joyce and Woolf. Yet, in spite of all these shadings and variations the Tolstoy's imprint is evident in the generosity and decency that pervade the novel along with absolute, unflinching truthfulness. In Anna Karenina Tolstoy took the novel to its perfection, to the total synthesis of form and content, of storyline and characters, of descriptions and dialogue. Although such points are debatable, I don't believe there is a greater novel than Anna Karenina. Reading Anna Karenina one stands at the pinnacle, the Everest of this art.
Kicking over the traces
Dostoevsky hailed the novel as a great masterpiece. Of course I concur. Stiva and Dolly Oblonsky quarrelled. Stiva headed a government department. His post had been obtained through the influence of his brother-in-law, Alexey Karenin. Konstantin Levin had been Stiva's close friend since boyhood Levin was in love with Dolly's sister, Kitty Shcherbatsky. The Shcherbatskys were a cultured aristocratic family. Levin was in love with the whole family. Levin learns from Oblonsky that Vronsky is a rival for Kitty's hand. Levin asks her to marry him and she declines. He is mortified.
When Anna Karenina visited Moscow, husband and wife, Dolly and Stiva, were reconciled and Kitty was infatuated. Anna became the eighteen year old's model. Then Kitty becomes heartbroken at the ball when Vronsky asks Anna to dance the mazurka with him. Anna cuts short her visit to avoid running into Vronsky again, but Vronsky, it seems, is a passenger on the same train she takes to return to Petersburg. There is foreboding, Anna return to Petersburg with a shadow-- Vronsky. There is also the accidental death of a man by falling onto the tracks taking place as she arrives in Moscow for her visit to the Oblonskys. Finally, there is the death of Vronsky's horse. Subsequently Anna meets Vronsky everywhere and Karenin can do nothing.
Notable is Tolstoy's realism. When Oblonsky visits Levin on his country estate, (he is negotiating to sell wood from a parcel owned by Dolly), the food and atmosphere and the lives of the peasant workers are described. The social classes are portrayed with understanding and precision. In fact, two characters in the novel, Levin and Dolly, draw closer to the peasants when they are in the country. Religious practices are described. The financial circumstances of Vronsky are reviewed. (He is stalled in his career as a cavalry captain.) The advanced social set is pictured, along with the unseemly ways of its members. Tolstoy uses irony. The characters read English and French novels, (and play English games, croquet, the steeplechase), and use knives to cut the pages.
ANNA KARENINA is two stories, that of Levin and that of Anna. In that respect it resembles DANIEL DERONDA. Do the stories support each other? Well, in a way they do, and both intersect with the Oblonskys. Levin and Anna are two aspects of their creator, Leo Tolstoy. On the one hand there is the reformer, the spiritual philosopher, (and conscientious landowner), and on the other the excessively loving social creature, a product of the environment.
This may well be the best novel ever written. A contender for such a designation is WAR AND PEACE, but this is better art in its sophistication and harmonious, finely-balanced construction. I envy people who are reading ANNA KARENINA for the first time.
A great book for mature readers
I loved the book I got here, Anna Karenina. This is a timeless classic by Leo Tolstoy about a woman torn by the decisions of her past and the confines of society and their affect on her happiness and her family. There is also a sub story about socialism, communism, and the rights of the people and peasants in Russia. The main point of the story, is that Anna had an affair with someone that she actually loved- the reader is left with the question, "Were her actions justified?" There is a lot of wonderful symbolism in this book, as is seen by the metaphor of the train throughout it. While many would enjoy it, it is a fairly difficult read with some dry passages so I would recommend this to people over the age of 17 who have an interest in women's rights and politics. The story was engaging, though it may not be appropriate for anyone under the age of 13 as there are some thematic adult elements. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has an interest in politics, sociology, literature, philosophy, or questioning the ties in society that bind us down. This was a fascinating novel on the affects that society can have on one lone woman and what a single decision can do to her and to her reputation. Anna Karenina is a timeless classic not just because of its engaging story line but because of the reflections of what Anna felt that we can see in our own lives today.
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