A review by thatjamiea
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
3.0
Overall, I'm unsure how, exactly, to review this book or what I feel about what I read.
There were parts of this book where I fully admit to skimming for pages. I got tired of reading about Russian peasants, farming theories and Levin's searching for the meaning of life. I was actually disappointed that the last 50 or so pages of the book were Levin searching for meaning and in the end, he finds God. Maybe. If he doesn't think too hard about it.
The story is a romance, peppered with a good dose of Russian history; the life of gentry, the struggle away from a feudal system, and the rise of communism.
The story is titled for Anna Kareninia, but she doesn't really get top billing and the story is at least equally split between she and Levin.
Anna is a difficult character for me. At the beginning of the book, she's quite likable. She's vivacious and smart. She counsels Dolly and helps her save her failing marriage. She loves her son. She's lukewarm towards her husband, but seems attentive to him until she meets Vronsky and falls in love.
Vronsky falls in love with Anna and gets her pregnant and her rather stodgy husband becomes unyielding as Anna petitions for divorce. Anna stays with her husband, Karenin, for the duration of her pregnancy and they reconcile briefly after the birth of her daughter, but in the end, Anna leaves her son behind and leaves with Vronsky. That doesn't work out so good actually, because Anna is shunned in society and refuses to ask her husband for a divorce.
Anna wasn't wrong in that choice because when petitioned, her husband refuses to grant the divorce. During the course of the book, Anna goes for a likable character to someone wholly unlikable. It's not that she's depressed. That's not why she's unlikable. She becomes so bitter and mean. She constantly picks fights with Vronsky and totally ignores her daughter. Vronsky is unable to convince Anna that he loves her and won't leave her and that ultimately leads her suicide.
Running alongside the story of Anna is the story of Levin. Levin starts out as a fairly unlikable character and then manages to morph into the most likable character in the story (besides the whole purpose in life craft that made up that last 1/16th of the book. Levin is in love with Kitty. He proposes. Kitty declines because she believes that Vronsky is about to make her an offer. Levin is humiliated and asks accordingly. He withdraws from society and then we have very long extrapolations on farming and peasants. Which was so boring I wanted to cry.
Vronsky never makes Kitty an offer. He's fallen in love with Anna and Kitty nearly dies from embarrassment and heartbreak. Levin never stops loving Kitty and when the opportunity arises, he proposes and she accepts. And they're happy. Vastly different from Vronsky and Anna.
There were parts of this book where I fully admit to skimming for pages. I got tired of reading about Russian peasants, farming theories and Levin's searching for the meaning of life. I was actually disappointed that the last 50 or so pages of the book were Levin searching for meaning and in the end, he finds God. Maybe. If he doesn't think too hard about it.
The story is a romance, peppered with a good dose of Russian history; the life of gentry, the struggle away from a feudal system, and the rise of communism.
The story is titled for Anna Kareninia, but she doesn't really get top billing and the story is at least equally split between she and Levin.
Anna is a difficult character for me. At the beginning of the book, she's quite likable. She's vivacious and smart. She counsels Dolly and helps her save her failing marriage. She loves her son. She's lukewarm towards her husband, but seems attentive to him until she meets Vronsky and falls in love.
Vronsky falls in love with Anna and gets her pregnant and her rather stodgy husband becomes unyielding as Anna petitions for divorce. Anna stays with her husband, Karenin, for the duration of her pregnancy and they reconcile briefly after the birth of her daughter, but in the end, Anna leaves her son behind and leaves with Vronsky. That doesn't work out so good actually, because Anna is shunned in society and refuses to ask her husband for a divorce.
Anna wasn't wrong in that choice because when petitioned, her husband refuses to grant the divorce. During the course of the book, Anna goes for a likable character to someone wholly unlikable. It's not that she's depressed. That's not why she's unlikable. She becomes so bitter and mean. She constantly picks fights with Vronsky and totally ignores her daughter. Vronsky is unable to convince Anna that he loves her and won't leave her and that ultimately leads her suicide.
Running alongside the story of Anna is the story of Levin. Levin starts out as a fairly unlikable character and then manages to morph into the most likable character in the story (besides the whole purpose in life craft that made up that last 1/16th of the book. Levin is in love with Kitty. He proposes. Kitty declines because she believes that Vronsky is about to make her an offer. Levin is humiliated and asks accordingly. He withdraws from society and then we have very long extrapolations on farming and peasants. Which was so boring I wanted to cry.
Vronsky never makes Kitty an offer. He's fallen in love with Anna and Kitty nearly dies from embarrassment and heartbreak. Levin never stops loving Kitty and when the opportunity arises, he proposes and she accepts. And they're happy. Vastly different from Vronsky and Anna.