Reviews with content warning for Antisemitism - Anna Karenina

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Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

23 reviews

bookish_bry's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Overall I enjoyed Anna Karenina. It had a lot of interesting and complex characters. I found each of them being my favorite at different points in the novel (except Vronsky whom I did not particularly like) and I found myself annoyed with them at different times.

The foreshadowing was done great. I especially liked how

trains were constantly mentioned throughout the book foreshadowing Anna's eventual suicide. The horse metaphor was also pretty well done.

It did drag in some places, though really what can you expect from a book of this length, and while I understood the strategy behind the last part

after Anna's suicide, Levin's revelation wasn't particularly interesting to me. I actually disagree with the choice to not share his spiritual thoughts with Kitty and think that could have been a more satisfying ending to me personally.

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uss_mary_shelley's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I have been meaning to read this for a long time and I am glad I finally have and that I gave myself the time to enjoy it. Right up my street with a tightly woven story involving so much of my favourite things.

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novelyon's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

anna's narrative slapped but levin was so boring, and worse, a landlord.........the peasants should've killed him the way the serfs did fyodor dostoevsky's dad :/

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demo's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

An excellent book occasionally spoiled by Tolsoy's tendency towards the driest didacticism .

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rebekahvldz's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I’m not sure I could’ve appreciated that ending the way I did a year or two ago. Anna Karenina is one of the most complex, provocative, reflective, moving and vibrant books that I have ever read. The characterization was spectacular- Dolly, Stiva, Levin, literally felt like they were buzzing off the page. It was a beautiful, insightful book, one that I am so glad I can now say I have read. I can’t believe the accuracy of my instinct that this would be one of my favorites, because it is, without a doubt, in my top three and already, it has shaped my vision of the book beginning in me, no matter how small the idea is right now.

One thing kept going through my head as I read those last remaining pages- how true this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/9hws4r/i_read_anna_karenina_in_5_days_and_now_i_think_my/) rang. This book is the peak for me- the writing, the story, the insights, the characterization, the personal significance of the story, the timelessness of its moral lessons even now- all of it enthralled me. It swept me up and took me with it and just like that Redditor, I will dearly miss the characters.

The only two gripes I have with it is that I wish there had been more study of Vronsky and Kitty’s characters and how dissatisfied I was with the ending. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the ending with Levin. It was one of my favorite parts of the book but I didn’t like that it was literally the last page or how none of the characters’ reactions to

Anna’s death were explored. I wanted more closure, more insight into how Dolly, Levin, Kitty, Stiva, Alexei, etc. would’ve reacted. I wanted to know how the high society which so poorly treated her received the rocking news. I wanted to read about Vronsky being told, running to the station and dropping to his knees with heaving sobs. I wanted to hear that Alexei, wracked with guilt, ran to his son and grabbed him close, sobbing into Seyrhoza’s unsure chest. I wanted to read the various measures with which everyone who loved and didn’t love her responded to this horrifying news. But I didn’t get that. Instead, I got hardly a glimpse of Vronksy’s despair. It was dissatisfying and even more so, because her death didn’t feel justified enough. I needed a more concrete reason other than her sudden descent into paranoia-induced madness. The expectations I carried into this book and even up until the halfway mark was that this was simply a story of her trying to leave Alexandrovich and him refusing, forcing her only resort to become her death at the train station. To read how they dragged on for months, in resentment and restlessness, instead of the grand romance I had expected was extremely disappointing and anti-climactic. Especially that her suicide was over some fickle feeling she’d contrived in her head. Maybe if the expectations of society and the weight of what she would do after he left her were more prominent, it would have felt more justified.

Regardless, I cannot say enough good things about this book and think that everyone should, given the chance, immerse themselves in it.

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