Anna Karenina

I mean, hello! The opening sentence “All happy families are alike…” is probably my favorite opening sentence of all time. This book is what I place in the “epic story telling” category for its breadth and scope of time. In many ways it is the story of two separate families and it hits on several themes I have come to crave and demand from art. Tolstoy looks at class, cultural and societal norms, and the emotional toll of familial expectations. It is a book so dense with interesting, flawed characters and it is one of the rare works I come… show more.

While this mammoth work by Tolstoy has various plot threads, the one involving the title character is perhaps its most thorough and tragic, as Anna (a wife and mother) struggles in her marriage and embarks on an affair, only to find it no more gratifying and ultimately only serves to question her very purpose. The book is a thoughtful meditation on what so many of us live for and what recourse there is when our aspirations are shattered.

This icon of Russian literature presents an unflinching look at the human heart as it navigates its deepest passions while flung about by the currents of high society. Every aspect is used to its fullest potential, including the fashions which are as ravishing as they are symbolic. The heart is fickle but it has one constant: the need for a good outfit! 

Tolstoy’s novel is cherished by most writers. Strong character achievements in Anna, her husband Karenin, her lover Vronsky, and her brother Levin. Probably one of the best examples of a complex action plot driven by character traits. Important to read the copy by the translators, husband and wife, Pevear and Volokhonsky. Applauded for their development of translation skills, and demonstrated in this novel, in Russian and French. Tolstoy is a unique artist with a life of contradictions and inexplicable decisions. He had an influence on Chekhov and their relationship, and Tolstoy’s family life is revelatory and rewarding to explore.

You don’t have to just have had your heart broken, or be in the grip of an obsessive love to recognize the pain, love, trauma, and joy Tolstoy depicts in this classic. Personally, this tragedy has always resonated for me throughout my life, I guess it’s because of the range and age of the characters, as well as the varied depictions of human entanglement that are both so ordinary and extraordinary. I think also this was a novel that showed me I could set a big personal story against a tumultuous political landscape and still move people. 

The upper echelons of Russian society of the 19th century and their surroundings are realistically depicted in this classic novel, where a doomed love story is set against the opulent backdrops of St Petersburg, Moscow, and rural Russia. The balls, luxurious restaurants, and parties of pre-revolutionary Russia are rendered in exquisite detail, the yearnings and preoccupations of the nobility well drawn. It’s even more fascinating to read about this society knowing that it was coming to an end.   

I first read this book when I was in grad school ‘way back when - I was so transfixed that as soon as I finished, I turned back to the first page and reread it again - and then -- came back to it last year during the height of COVID, seeking solace in a masterful tale of aching love and aspirational romance. I agree with Matthew Arnold: “We are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life.” This sprawling tale is for those who crave complexity that… show more.

Anna Karenina does what the best novels do so well, it fully transports the reader into another time and place. Tolstoy, the novelist, is a perfect guide to Russia at the end of the 19th century. He does not judge but observes, does not preach but portrays. His characters--aristocrats, servants, landowners, serfs--grapple with universal human problems of love, betrayal, duty, freedom, all solidly rooted in the world the writer knows in all its minute details. Moscow winter streets team with carriages, private sledges, and sledges for hire; two boys are selling kvas at the train station; Anna Karenina, already… show more.