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A review by leahtylerthewriter
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
5.0
"Respect was invented to fill the empty place where love ought to be."
A 19th century exploration of every facet of upper-class Russian society--from fidelity to farming, politics to parenthood, religion to retribution--as centered around an unfaithful wife and the reactions to the choices she makes and subsequent consequences she faces.
IMHO Anna Karenina is not a book to review on Goodreads. It is a book that deserves a master's thesis, or at the very least a semester's worth of discussion led by somebody who has already written the dissertation.
At the center of the story sits Anna, a beautiful and unhappy wife married to Karenin, an upright and distant husband. Through the eyes of the three men who revolve around her, husband, lover, brother--as well as his wife's family and his long-time friend Levin, who forms the moral bookend to Anna, we watch her life unravel.
What stunned me the most is the accessibility of this book. And it's quite humorous as well. With a delicate hand Tolstoy dips his knitting needle in to and out of a multitude of lives and points of view as he slowly weaves together a compelling and comprehensive examination of morality and society, the futility of the nobleman, and the desperation of depression.
The mark of a truly great author is one who does not include unnecessary information. Every nugget is utilized, put in place for a reason, and in this 964 page book Tolstoy achieves this beautifully. By centering this story around Anna instead of the male characters, he is able to open up their interior and portray them in an honest and unflinching light.
I may have read this book once but I am not done. Every time I finish another I read a few chapters of Anna before starting the next to cleanse my palate because the writing is so sublime, characters so evolved, and the story is so well constructed.
A 19th century exploration of every facet of upper-class Russian society--from fidelity to farming, politics to parenthood, religion to retribution--as centered around an unfaithful wife and the reactions to the choices she makes and subsequent consequences she faces.
IMHO Anna Karenina is not a book to review on Goodreads. It is a book that deserves a master's thesis, or at the very least a semester's worth of discussion led by somebody who has already written the dissertation.
At the center of the story sits Anna, a beautiful and unhappy wife married to Karenin, an upright and distant husband. Through the eyes of the three men who revolve around her, husband, lover, brother--as well as his wife's family and his long-time friend Levin, who forms the moral bookend to Anna, we watch her life unravel.
What stunned me the most is the accessibility of this book. And it's quite humorous as well. With a delicate hand Tolstoy dips his knitting needle in to and out of a multitude of lives and points of view as he slowly weaves together a compelling and comprehensive examination of morality and society, the futility of the nobleman, and the desperation of depression.
The mark of a truly great author is one who does not include unnecessary information. Every nugget is utilized, put in place for a reason, and in this 964 page book Tolstoy achieves this beautifully. By centering this story around Anna instead of the male characters, he is able to open up their interior and portray them in an honest and unflinching light.
I may have read this book once but I am not done. Every time I finish another I read a few chapters of Anna before starting the next to cleanse my palate because the writing is so sublime, characters so evolved, and the story is so well constructed.