Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) | Leo Tolstoy | Classic Russian literature at its peak

Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) | Leo Tolstoy | So much more than a great tragic romance

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Anna Karenina (Opr...

	Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) Leo Tolstoy Penguin Classics, 2004 - 864 pages average customer review:based on 171 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Classic Russian literature at its peak

It's really a disgrace to see how many people have commented on the length of this novel, and as a post-modern youth, I see how short the attention span of the average person is, and how absent minded people have come to be, with respect to literature.

If you expect every single word of this book to be filled with gut wrenching action like an action film, go see a Die Hard movie. This book, and all other novels of any significance are setup to show the human condition, to show something not readily apparent. Sometimes, it takes hundreds of pages.

This is one of my favorite works of literature, and my favorite work of Tolstoy. Take time to read a book that envelops emotions and feelings that you have never experienced, or at least would admit to experiencing.

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So much more than a great tragic romance

This is one of the great books. It works so well on so many levels. It is great realist fiction but it also paved the way for the modern psychological novel. The writing is masterful as Tolstoy alters the tone of the novel to reflect the thinking and actions of different characters. There are also recurring ideas and motifs, such as the infidelity of Stiva echoed on a much more serious level by his sister Anna, and the railway themes of arrivals and departures, beginnings and endings on their most metaphoric levels.

The 2 main protagonists are Anna Karenina, and Konstantin Levin, whose thoughts and actions mirror those of Tolstoy himself. Both are looking for love, but the loves are unique in aspect. What Anna seeks is emotional enrichment..a passion which is sorely missing in her marriage to Karenin but also unfortunately, can't be sustained in her affair with Vronsky. Levin seeks a love that will anchor his life, give it meaning and purpose. Levin seeks the truth and while he rejects society's hypocrisy, learns to adapt and function with it as he discovers a deeper meaning to his existence. Anna won't face the truth, and is victimized by that hypocrisy. She ultimately finds her existence to be empty and meaningless.

Anna Karenina is the literary equivalent of a great tragic opera. There is also much more to this novel. Much of Tolstoy's philosophy can be found here. His thoughts on Russian class structure, culture, religion, sociology , politics, and agronomy can be found in this novel. To get further insight into that thinking I suggest reading Tolsoy's Confession, which was written shortly after the publication of this work.

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Great Book

I bought this book for my girlfriends birthday, and she wasnt paying attention to me because she was reading it. SHE SAID SHE LOVED THIS BOOK.

reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

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