Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Is not tragic. Is not thoughtful or profound. The characters are too unconvincing. August 29, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Absolutely pointless. The tragedy of oppressive Russian society is succintly discussed in about a page somewhere near the beginning, then we have to wait ages for her to kill herself, which she does not because of the above, but because she thinks her bloke is shagging some other bird.
In the meantime, we flounder around in 19th agricultural theory, an uneventful election, some whining...
Why is Levin even in the book, and far too much of it? We are told in highly descriptive pages of how much he and his wife love each other, and he just stresses. He then flakes out at the end.
And I don't think his revelation is at all profound. His path there is to erratic and uneventful. His belief is a compromise.
It would be tragic if the characters weren't so idiotic.
 One of the greatest love tragedies! May 26, 2008
This is a story of love that is one of the greatest ever written. However, the story is very long and not always as exciting as it could be. It is great literature and the story is brilliant with the two main characters in love as much as you could ever find with eventual tragedy. Not as good as War and Peace but still a great read.
 Incomparable March 14, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Together with 'War and peace' and 'Resurrection', Tolstoy wrote three of the greatest novels ever.
 Shine Without Substance December 30, 2007
2 out of 11 found this review helpful
The Russian connection between the author and his subject is obvious but I'm surprised that so many people have bought this book. Admittedly, Anna Karenina looks fabulous in a pair of tennis shorts, but how many tournaments has she won? I think something on Virginia Wade or the Williams' sisters would have been more significant.
Sense of Self October 18, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way"
- Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"
Anna Karenina is a beautifully written novel about three families: the Oblonskys, the Levins, and the Karenins. The first line (one of the most famous in literature) hints at Tolstoy's own views about happy and unhappy marriages having these same three families also represent three very different societal and physical locations in Russia in addition to distinctly different views on love, loyalty, fidelity, happiness and marital bliss.
Tolstoy seems to stress that `trusting companionships" are more durable and filled with happiness versus "romantic passion" that bursts with flames and then slowly; leaves ashes rather than a firm, solid foundation to build upon.
It is like reading a soap opera with all of its twists and turns where the observer is allowed to enter into the homes, the minds and the spirits of its main characters. The moral compass in the book belongs to Levin whose life and courtship of Kitty mirrors much of Leo Tolstoy's own courtship of his wife Sophia. Levin's personality and spiritual quest is Tolstoy's veiled attempt at bringing to life his own spiritual peaks and valleys and the self doubts that plagued him his entire life despite his happy family life and the fact that he too found love in his life and a committed durable marriage. At the other end of the spectrum is Anna, who also because of her individual choices and circumstances, falls into despair.
It is clear that Tolstoy wants the reader to come away with many messages about the sanctity of marriage, love and family life. He also wants us to be mindful of the choices that we make in life and the affect that these choices have upon ourselves, our station and path in life as well as the affect upon those that we profess to love. Tolstoy also wants us to examine what makes our lives happy or not; and what is at the root of either end result. Levin and Kitty are the happiest married couple; yet Levin faces his own double bind when struggling against domestic bliss and his need for independence on the other hand and how to achieve both (if that is possible) without relinquishing that which made him who he was born to be.
Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin are the primary protagonists in the novel and both are rich and fine characters in their own right. Both of them focus on self; one however finds the self to be a nurturer which puts value into life very much as a farmer; while the other views self with despair and as a punisher or destroyer. Both views, diametrically opposed, force the characters on very different paths and lives for themselves. Then there is the dilemma of forgiveness versus vengeance. The very epigram for the novel from Romans states: "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." Yet vengeance upon oneself or others is not up to individuals but God; and yet the characters are haunted about what forgiveness is or isn't and by the hollowness of words versus heartfelt and soulfully reflective actions. The themes of social change in Russia, family life's blessings and virtues and farming (even if it is simply the goodness one puts into life and how one cultivates it and others) dominate the novel's landscape. Trains also play a symbolic importance in the novel and it is odd that Tolstoy himself years after writing Anna Karenina dies himself in a train station after setting off from his home in an emotional cloud.
Sometimes the names of the characters themselves can be confusing: so a hint to the reader might be to think of each Russian character's name as having three parts: the first name (examples here are for Levin and Kitty) like Konstantin or Ekaterina, a patronymic which is the father's first name accompanied by a suffix which means son of or daughter of like Dmitrich (son of Dmitri) or Alexandrovna (daughter of Alexander) and then the surname like Levin or Shcherbatskaya. Thus the explanations for the Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya (nicknamed Kitty) and Konstantin Dmitrich Levin (Levin).
I loved the book and its details and the richness of the characterizations as well as the storytelling technique of the great Tolstoy and I have to agree with Tolstoy when he stated, "I am very proud of its architecture-its vaults are joined so that one cannot even notice where the keystone is. " The vaults: "Anna and Levin" are joined with the very first line of the novel and with their focus on themselves.
Rating: A
Bentley/2007
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