It was alright. Some parts were pretty interesting and I felt involved with the characters and invested in what was going to happen to them.

However, there were times when I wished I could just skip ahead. I don't need multiple chapters describing some sort of political scene which the character you are with doesn't understand so how in the world am I going to understand?!
There was way to much stuff about farming that did not need to be there. It added nothing to the story.

It could have been a great book, but for me there were too many unnecessary and dull chapters.

Probably my all time favorite book. I read it in college and hid myself away from everyone while I devored it. I remember sitting in my dorm room and reading about waltzes and Russian aristrocracy and tragedies while living in NYC amongst graffiti and weekend suburban mall runs.. Still don't know what the magic was but I became deeply involved with this book.

One of the most beautiful things I've ever read.

Such an exquisitely beautiful and pure novel, probably the most beautiful novel I've ever read. Depicts the grandeur and sophistication of 19th century Russian society, in a period of relative political and cultural calm before the turmoil that was to come in the following century. These cultivated and cosmopolitan Russians of the 1870's spoke in such simple yet delicate and graceful ways, but the emotion that is conveyed and experienced - verbally, facially and through hand-touching - is abundant.

There are really two stories: Anna and Vronsky, being the ostensible tragedy of the novel, and Kitty and Levin, who are the real romantic heroes of the story. The latter couple follow an opposite trajectory to the title character's, and it is a brilliantly understated but stunning love story between two triumphant albeit very human and flawed people.

There's a third love story too; fatally flawed - that of Dolly and Stiva. In fact the whole book is about love. The times it works, the times it doesn't, the times it struggles. Sergei Ivanovich and Varenka's near miss; even Kostya's first proposal to Kitty. It's all about love.

I'm not gonna finish this. It pains me to dnf a book, but I don't care enough about this to spend any more time pushing my way through this.

long book. good if ur into that

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina turns out to deserve its reputation as one of the world's greatest novels. Far more than just the famous story of a married woman's doomed love affair, it presents a broadly sweeping picture of the Russian elite in the 1870s, from dysfunctional marriages to troubled courtships, against a backdrop of a society in flux. As well as a powerful narrative drive, its strength lies in the complexities of its characters and a brutally honest exploration of the emotions and outside forces that motivate and change them.

Schon seit Jahren wollte ich Anna Karenina lesen. Traute mich aber nicht wegen der Länge des Buches und der Sprache. Zu meiner Überraschung war die Sprache überhaupt kein Problem. Zunächst hatte ich eine alte Übersetzung von Hans Moser. Diese war etwas anstrengender zu lesen. Dann wechselte ich zur Übersetzung von Hermann Asemissen (Aufbau Verlag). Diese liest sich sehr gut. Am Ende habe ich mir noch die neue Übersetzung vom Rosemarie Tietze gekauft, die mir sehr gut gefallen hat.

Im Roman geht es nicht nur um die unglückliche Liebesgeschichte zwischen Anna Karenina und Wronski. Es ist vielmehr ein Gesellschaftsroman, ein Bild der russischen Gesellschaft in der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts, mit dem Adel, den Bauern, den gesellschaftlichen Normen, der Politik und dem Glauben.

Anna Karenina wird aus dem gesellschaftlichen Leben ausgeschlossen, nachdem sie sich von ihrem Mann trennt und mit ihrem Geliebten Wronski zusammen lebt. Zunächst scheint sie sich damit zu arrangieren. Mit der Zeit wird es für Anna immer schwieriger. Zumal nur sie, als Frau, von der Gesellschaft ausgeschlossen wird. Wronski kann weiterhin in der Gesellschaft verkehren ohne schief angesehen zu werden.
Anna steigert sich so in ihre Eifersucht hinein, dass sie sich das Leben nimmt. Für mich waren das beklemmende Kapitel. Manchmal hätte ich Lust gehabt, Anna wachzurütteln, um ihr klar zu machen, dass sich sich da in etwas hineinsteigert, was nicht der Realität entspricht.
Tolstoi beschreibt ihre Gedankengänge über mehrere Kapitel hinweg auf eine beeindruckende Weise.

Neben Anna und Wronski, spielen auch Lewin und Kitty eine zentrale Rolle in diesem Roman. Sie sind sozusagen das Gegenstück zu Anna und Wronski. Eine Familie, die aufgebaut wird und "funktioniert" im Gegensatz zur zerstörten Familie von Anna.

Mir hat der Roman sehr gut gefallen und ich möchte auf jeden Fall mehr über Leo Tolstoi erfahren und auch Krieg und Frieden lesen.

A very long and very good read.

Slight spoilers/trigger warning: this book contains themes of self harm/suicide and some existential thinking/spiraling of some characters. I have had both of the above, it was relatable in a honest way to me, though I can see how it would be triggering for some or might have been triggering to me not long ago. Just a heads up.

Anna Karenina is a story about addiction.

Addiction to indulgence, to argument, to philosophy, to gambling, to drugs, to propriety, to station. Each addict gradually destroys their relationships and themselves and too few - perhaps only one or two - breaks free, sometimes just a moment too late.

***SPOILERS***

The unraveling of Anna and Vronsky's love affair in Moscow perplexed me until near the end, when we see Anna taking multiple doses of opium many months after her labor. It was then that I realized with a shock that she'd become addicted to opium and her mood swings, paranoid delusions, depression, and toxic cynicism were all products of her drug abuse. It was so clear in those last scenes from her perspective that she was high as a kite. The way every subtle glance of total strangers revealed their whole soul and the secrets of the universe and society to her is familiar to anyone who's been sufficiently dosed up.

In light of this twist on her story, I began to reconsider the rest of the book and realized that each character was struggling with a kind of psychological or spiritual addiction of their own, that was equally destructive in its own way.

I scanned other reviews and was surprised no one mentioned this theme.