The story contrasts the experiences had by two different couples—one of which ends with joy and edification and the other ends in tragedy and misery. I thoroughly enjoyed the story but also found it incredibly heart wrenching. I finished this book about a week ago but it has weighed heavily on me and I haven’t been able to write a proper synopsis. I still find myself unable to do so, so I’m going to steal a review from Esther Lombardi. Here you go:
"When Tolstoy finally started the story of Anna Karenina, his wife reported in a letter to her sister, "Yesterday Leo suddenly started to write a novel on contemporary life. The subject is the unfaithful wife and all the ensuing tragedy.'
So, Tolstoy creates the character of Anna Karenina, a young woman who finds herself in a loveless marriage with Karenin. It might not have seemed so intolerable if she had not met and fallen in love with Count Vronsky.
As a comparison to Anna's tragic affair, we hear about the relationship between Kitty and Levin, a conjugal love match. Levin is first rejected by Kitty, since she has her heart set on Count Vronsky. Since Vronsky's affections are already taken by Anna Karenina, Kitty's heart is broken and she eventually turns back to Levin for love and marriage.
In the character of Anna, Tolstoy creates a woman who is perhaps most unhappily destined for tragedy. Anna falls in love with Count Vronsky, only to find that her passions are uncontrollable. She might have continued the relationship in secret, but she defies the 'rules,' and is forced to pay the ultimate price... She loses all contact with her son; and she is shunned from proper society.”
Favorite passages (there are several):
"You think war is necessay? Fine. Send anyone who preaches war to a special front-line legion--into the assault, into the attack, ahead of everyone!" Pg 808
"And it now seemed to him that there was not a single belief of the Chuch that violated the main thing--faith in God, in the good, as the sole purpose of man." Pg 799
"The conversation had begun nicely, but precisely because it was much too nice, it stopped again. They had to resort to that sure, never failing remedy--malicious gossip." pg 134
"Be bad, but at least don't be a liar." pg 235
"The role of a man who attached himself to a married woman and devoted his life to involving her in adultery at all costs, had something beautiful and grand about it and could never be ridiculous." pg 128
"Stepan Arkadyich smiled. He knew so well this feeling of Levin's, knew that for him all the girls in the world were divided into two sorts: one sort was all the girls in the world except her, and these girls had all human weaknesses and were very ordinary girls; the other sort was her alone, with no weaknesses and higher than everything human." pg 37
If this were a movie, I’d rate it: R
Overall Grade: A
Would I recommend this to my friends? Yes
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