Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) | Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) | Leo Tolstoy | collectors point of view.

books:

Anna Karenina (Opr...

	Anna Karenina (Oprah's Book Club) Leo Tolstoy Penguin Classics, 2004 - 864 pages average customer review:based on 177 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Couldn't put it down

Anna Karenina is a masterpiece! Tolstoy's writing style is unlike modern novels; rich in detail without being overly wordy. Amazingly while reading I felt as though I was a fly on the wall in the Russia he recreates- observing the characters and plot nearly as a participant. Tolstoy's character descriptions jump off the page, making the plot seem like the reader's reality.

Although the story is somewhat somber and the plot is fatalistic, it is a clear view into the social and moral obligations of the late 19th century. When protagonist, Anna Karenina decides to leave her husband Alexi Alexandrovich for another man and a new life, we are introduced to the unequal struggle men and women faced in law and society after being unfaithful. Although the theme is strong throughout we are not tied down to that single plot, we are also swept along in parallel stories of class struggles, political pressure and even the day to day tasks of local farmers.

Very enjoyable novel, I would even read it again!

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collectors point of view.

As a collector of Great Books I was disappointed to find that this translation is not available in hard back. This is clearly the best translation and I would so love to own a hard cover version. For now I must settle for the disposable copy.

OPRAH LIT

P&V's translation is really beyond praise: delicate, scrupulous, and rendered in English as smoothly propulsive as diving into a warm lap pool. Clearly, the problem is Tolstoy. In early drafts, he started out very judgmental against Anna, but flooded the final text with enough nuance that the reader makes his own decision, and mine is that she was another Princess Di: willful, spiteful, manipulative, humorless. We've all wanted to hurt those who reject us, but committing suicide to hurt Vronsky, who sacrificed his life loving her every day, is contemptible, so I had no sympathy for her. I did, however, sympathize with her husband, who had to clean up her childish mess, yet what Tolstoy did to him is also contemptible. He turns him into a religious prig in a way that completely contradicts foregoing character development. This is Tolstoy at his old puppet-master tricks, tricks that keep you from caring about any of his characters. Despite some masterful passages (like Dolly's monologue on her way to see Anna, going back and forth on whether to accept or condemn what Anna did, and relating those conflicts to her own womanhood), this long work, though impeccably written, never really pulls at your heart.

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