Anna Karenina

Random House Australia0 stars

11 February 2013 at 10:23am

Thank you to everyone who left a review in our ANNA KARENINA READ & REVIEW IT BEFORE YOU SEE IT competition! The 3 major winners are: Emma195, Clare96, Ryan2. The following winners receive a double in-season pass to see ANNA KARENINA: Kristy56, Christine253, Merryl2, Rob3, Margaret70, Roslyn29, Suzie11, Karen386, Robin12, Annie29, Cian2 and Andrew5. Please email webmaster@randomhouse.com.au with your full name, address and phone number to collect your prize.

Matthew724 stars

10 February 2013 at 11:49pm

I had no idea going into this book that it was not just the tale of Anna Karenina's adulterous affair with Vronsky but that there was a parallel and almost equal story of Levin's arduous road to find love and spiritual peace. As one character descends the other rises and Tolstoy masterfully weaves the two tales together so that while you read of one character you contemplate the events in the other's recent past and the contrasts between the two. I can't wait to see the movie and hope that they have done something similar and imaginative with the direction though based on the trailer and poster am somewhat concerned that it will concentrate on the Countess, her lover and husband.

Andrew53 stars

10 February 2013 at 10:49pm

Disintegrating families, new marriages, affairs and even melancholy landowners with financial woes, Anna Karenina has more melodrama than a daytime soap opera. While there's no questioning the brilliance of Tolstoy's writing which is as original and inspiring now as I'm sure it must have been 150 years ago my unusual complaint is that the characters are all too intricate and complicated. Didn't anyone in 19th century have an ordinary marriage without so many complications? And as there are no obvious heroes and bad guys in this novel I found it hard to root for anyone as all the characters are very flawed. The one exception might be Konstanin Levin the tortured landowner, his tale of financial difficulties I find the most compelling and having learned that he was based to some extent on Tolstoy himself this is perhaps not surprising. It is however a very long novel and being so ambivalent to so many characters I found it a bit of a slog.

Cian24 stars

10 February 2013 at 10:45pm

This is a compelling story,with intrigue, romance and philosophy. But the constant changing of people's names and repeatedly calling the characters by first and last name can be a little confusing at times. Tolstoy is masterful when describing things true to life. I believe that James Joyce and Dostoevsky regarded this book highly and I can understand why.

samj24074 stars

10 February 2013 at 8:36pm

I have meant to read Anna Karenina for years and never got around to it but the forthcoming moving and seeing Random House's request reviews urged me on. Let me start by saying it's long. So long I almost didn't get it read in time to write this review before the close date, at one stage I didn't even think I'd get it writte before the movie came out. But it's most certainly worth the effort. The characters are incredible and the writing awe-inspiring. It's a timeless story that could just as easily have been written today as the facets of life and social issues it delves into are as topical now as they would have been in Russia over a hundred years ago. I had never read Tolstoy before but would certainly do so again and don't allow yourself to be put off by the length as I was for so long, the story despite covering so many pages skips along at a brisk pace which will keep you reading for as long as you have time.

Ryan25 stars

10 February 2013 at 1:58pm

I will be completely upfront and state that Anna Karenina is one of my favourite books and Leo Tolstoy my favourite author. I've read the book multiple times. The story concerns the married aristrocrat Anna Karenina, her affair with Count Vronsky and her relationship with her husband Count Karenin. Running parallel is another story involving Konstantin Levin and his efforts to marry Anna's brother's sister-in-law and the difficulties he faces in running his estate. Far greater than the tragic central love story for which Anna Karenina is well known, the novel's strengths lie in contrasting the opposing attitudes and lifestyles of the protagonists of the two concurrent stories and exploring the social implications of the era which are still highly relevant today. The novel deserves time and concentration, the emphasis frequently shifts from character to character and you'll find your loyalty shift too as each character reveals their flaws or in some cases their unlikely attractions. It's a book worth reading also merely for the myriad of writing innovations that Tolstoy utilises. He uses real events of the era to heighten the social and political context of his themes and most dramatically introduced stream-of-consciousness narrative which would become the hallmark of novelists such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. But I don't just recommend Anna Karenina as an academic exercise, the characters are magnificent, the themes eternal and thought provoking and the writing brilliant, put down what you're reading right now and start Anna Karenina, you won't regret it.

Clare365 stars

10 February 2013 at 10:22am

I brought Anna Karenina on holidays last year upon the recommendation of a friend. Though the story taks place both in a distant era and faraway place the themes are close to home and the situations revealed are as shocking today as they would have been in pre-Revolution Russia. My greatest surprise in reading the book was the depth and complexity of the characters, I came to it expecting to be enthralled with the titular character but found myself as involved with both Levine and Vronsky and it certainly gave me a greater understanding of the opposite sex. Tolstoy's writing is rich and detailed and his characters are quite multidimensional far beyond my typical summer time reading, all of them have imperfections but also positive attributes whereby you feel your loyalty towards them changing as the novel progresses. It's an involving story that you will ponder long after you have finished and one of the best books I've ever read which has encouraged me to read more classics.

Greg74 stars

10 February 2013 at 9:58am

Anna Karenina is seen by many as a great romance, but really it is a tragedy played out on a grand stage, full of music, larger then life characters, lavish sets, and bright costumes. Aristocratic Russians desperately chase happiness, but the harder they chase it, the further away it goes. Only those who accept themselves as they are can find some measure of peace. I think we can all learn from that.

Annie293 stars

9 February 2013 at 5:50pm

Ah, the Russian novel. Full of worthy philosophising, internal torment or potential bleakness on every page, this is not an endeavour to be taken lightly. I have thrice started on Russian novels without any success at completion. Perhaps Dostoyevsky was too deep, I thought. Perhaps I needed a love story. Passionate, tragic people in love. Another Heathcliff and Catherine. I can do that. Hmm. It seems not without a lot of help from my friends. On this second attempt (the first, a few years back where a very kind friend lent me her book and I didn't quite make it to the appearance of the heroine of the title, but kept the book for an embarrassingly long time to try and try again...), I needed 3 other friends to read along. 2 parts per week, it was at a gruelling pace but I am very happy to say that I have now finished a Russian novel. I am no longer a literary wimp. And what did I think of it? I would love to say that my efforts were richly rewarded. That necessary sleep was sacrificed because the story swept me away or I could not bear to part from the pair of lovers. But that would be a lie. I read because I had to. I had a deadline. No doubt, it was a worthy novel. It was dense. Of characters, of places, of ideas and ideals, the breadth of human experiences. A perfect social novel that explored a time, a place and a people through a carousel of multiple cast members, in the best tradition of Victorian literature. But I could not like it. Tolstoy famously started his novel with, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Happiness was an elusive thing for all the characters, and it was through his characters that we search for the meaning of life. No one is ever truly happy. Perhaps the happiest of the families in Tolstoy’s masterpiece was Levin and Kitty, and they provided the only lightness in the book, and for only a few amusing chapters in the middle at that. But even they were not immune to the mysteries and unhappiness of life, love and marriage. While Stiva acted like a guilty little boy, not quite as contrite as he should be, his unhappy wife, Dolly, struggled on and tried to bury her unhappiness by focussing on her children. The most unhappy, unsurprisingly, were the main couple, Anna and Vronsky. However, though I knew the unhappy end that was to come, I did not expect the tragic foreshadowing from the start of their meeting. This was a difficult read. Not because of the language though Tolstoy's grand philosophical concepts needed deep interpreting. It wasn’t his essays on farming, or the conversations depicting uncertainty between the old and the new Russia, nor Levin’s socialist struggles with his place in society, or that the plot centred on an extra-marital affair. Tolstoy packed a lot in his novel. His observations about people, both individually and as a society were insightful and most accurate. The central themes of the novel were big and important: What is forgiveness? How does one find faith? What is the measure of love and can love be too much to bear? But the difficulty lies in the main characters themselves. Selfish, entitled, and purposely blind, the impassioned characters who took action acted foolishly harming mostly themselves, whilst passivity dominated the others who allowed fear and an unwillingness to face the situation with moral conviction to rule. Everyone’s frozen despair hung over the novel like the icy Siberian winds. This was perhaps Tolstoy’s genius, that he wrote extremely unlikable characters that were at once fragile and wilful, frustrating yet pitiable. Of all who suffered, the jilted husband, Karenin, was perhaps the foremost example. Though he remained weak, despised and unbending, the slow stripping of his character revealed the tenderness of a broken heart. Tolstoy did not give clear easy answers. His internal monologues, so modern in its stream of consciousness style, revealed, to an extent, the motivations of these frustrating people, especially Anna and Levin, the parallels of the story. At many points I wanted to throw the book away (metaphorically!!) or incur violence on most of the characters. It is a testament to the undeniable power of the book, that we can feel so strongly one way or another for all of them. But in spite of this, I could not like the book because I could not like its protagonists, nor the motivations and actions that propelled the plot. 3 trains out of 5. My head hurts.

Robin124 stars

9 February 2013 at 5:04pm

Anna Karenina is a novel that must be read on many levels. At a superficial level it is a sexy and engrossing read that must have placed it in the Mills and Boon category of late nineteenth century Russia. Characters are developed slowly, almost like peeling an onion-One layer at a time. It takes several chapters for picture of Anna to emerge, and then we only have a basic physical description of her. We learn that she has grey eyes, thick eyebrows and soft lips. On another level Tolstoy is shown as an astute observer of the family and how families function, the workings of society in general and the contrast between the idle life in the town compared to the virtues of life close to nature in rural Russia. Anna’s story is the vehicle for those observations. Anna Karenina is the story of a society and its values at a fixed point in time. It is not an effortless read and Tolstoy needs to be forgiven for some minor lapses of accuracy, such as Kitty’s 11 month pregnancy, however, the diligent reader will be well rewarded. A good read.

Karen3863 stars

9 February 2013 at 10:43am

I found Anna Karenina a thought provoking but enjoyable book. Although a long book by any stretch of the imagination and I did find I got 'bogged' down by the politics, the love story between Anna and Count Vronsky is so compelling that I had to finish the book to learn the outcome.

Karen243 stars

9 February 2013 at 8:35am

For years, I didn’t want to read Anna Karenina because I thought it was all about an affair. It’s a painful subject to me as it cuts too close to home (ie. I’ve seen personally just how it affects a family and therefore, usually am not interested in reading it either). Suffice to say, my OCD-ness in being able to tick this book off the list (BBC Top 100, 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, etc) and seeing that I’d have some support in a read-along, drove me to actually pick it up. I’m sort of glad that I did. Whilst it was painful reading about the beginning of the affair, there was so much more in this book. I don’t think the Anna bits were even half of the book, maybe 30-40%, and yet, this book is titled ‘Anna Karenina’. The book opens with Anna’s brother who is currently in ‘hot water’. Prince Stepan "Stiva" Arkadyevich Oblonsky is a man whom you just could not keep down. Whatever the situation is, somehow, he’s always seems bubbly. To begin with, he is someone that you would just wanna slap silly but… whilst he doesn’t really change in the book (and I think this is the key), you come to tolerate him for who / what he is. To help Stiva out of the ‘hot water’, Princess Anna Arkadyevna Karenina came as a peacemaker. Anna is introduced as someone absolutely stunning and alive, admired and loved by just everybody. By random chance, she met Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky by whom she was made to feel alive (despite the first impression of being lively). Both Anna and Vronsky felt that there is nothing else and no one else in this world than the other. Vronsky, a former dedicate of the Bachelorhood, broke the heart of Princess Ekaterina "Kitty" Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya when he, obviously, just do not see her anymore even though she stood right in front of him. Kitty is very young, naïve, and impressionable. She is one of my most loved character in this book though as she grew in maturity and is, basically, goodness itself! Nikolai Dmitrievich Levin was one of Kitty’s suitors. He is the most likeable character in this book, by far. He’s what you’d call a country gentry who is actually interested in the works (both physical and mental). You’d see straight off that he’s just one good and straight bloke who still strives to a better person even at the end of the book. Aside from Anna, the most pitiable character would be Count Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin. He was obviously not a popular guy nor the most balanced person. It seems most people do not like him at all but for me, I pity him right from the beginning as I see that even though he is not well-liked by his peers, he is nonetheless, a person with feelings and needs of his own. Thoughout the read-along, I’ve concentrated most of my rants on the characters as I just found that to be the best way for me to make sense in my rants / review. I have only slightly disclosed what you can expect at the beginning of the book but I’d not go further as that’s something for you to discover. If you do decide to pick this book up, I’d suggest to NOT give up within the first 25% (parts 1 & 2) of the book as that’s the toughest part. The rest of the book was quite enjoyable although Tolstoy’s comments on the Russian politics, agriculture, etc were not to my interest but then again Stieg Larsson employed the same sort of thing with his Millenium series (comments on Swedish economic / financial in the first book, abstract maths in the second, and violence against women in the third). I still don’t understand why this book is the “greatest novel ever written” but I kind of enjoyed the reading although that might mostly be due to the great support I had from other participants in the read along ;)

Emma1954 stars

9 February 2013 at 1:29am

In the space of eight hundred pages, Anna Karenina won my heart and a spot on my list of personal favourites. A novel which is at its heart about the realities of happiness and unhappiness in love, 'Anna Karenina' is a compelling and engaging read. We experience the struggles of characters who want little more than to be allowed to be with the ones they love, but who are challenged in their romances by not only the constrictions - and condemnations - of Russian society, but by the pitfalls of their own nature. In the intertwined stories of these noble families, Tolstoy deliberately set out to write something very different to his other well-known epic, War and Peace, and the novel lives up to its purpose as a far more personal and intimate book. We see their relationships not through the lenses of happily-ever-after, but with all the jealousies and annoyances that colour even the most loving relationships. Tolstoy's women are as well-rounded, fascinating and flawed as his men, and while at the same time he captures the confining and cruel double standards that forgive Stepan and Vronksy, but harshly criticise Anna. Throughout the book, despite the period, there is a constant sense as a reader that what is happening is relevant still. Overall, it is incredibly easy to relate to the characters, and this is a mark of Tolstoy's prowess as a writer and storyteller. I would recommend this to readers of all kinds, young and old.

Suzie115 stars

8 February 2013 at 10:56pm

The love story between Anna and Vronsky kept me enthralled through the entire book, one challenge after another and still she showed she was a fighter. The setting against the Russian wonderland was captivating with the description of this magificent country which made me want to visit and experience the people and the culture of Russia. This book will excite you, sadden you and make you pity some of the characters but in the end it will open up your eyes to another world indeed.

Vaz4 stars

8 February 2013 at 10:25pm

Good books are all alike; every great book is great in it’s own way. And Tolstoy’s masterpiece is indeed a great book. Love, lust, jealousy, betrayal, gender inequality, societal expectations, social and political conscience – all seamlessly woven together in a work that is both eloquent and memorable. In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy has created a flawed heroine that is ultimately undone by the actions of herself and others. Perhaps we may never see “Team Tolstoy” paraphernalia gracing our stores, but I’d like to think there exists an underground legion of fans, waiting to recruit a new generation. Anything is possible with Tolstoy’s timeless tale.

Roslyn295 stars

8 February 2013 at 2:44pm

Interestingly, Anna Karenina was published in a serial format over several years, a form of storytelling that has had massive success in the today’s digital world. The comparisons to today’s long running drama serials end there, for Tolstoy is unlikely to have written for Home and Away, if he were alive today. Dostoevsky, Nabokov and Faulkner all regarded Tolstoy as a genius and Anna Karenina as a perfect work of fiction. If that is not enough to make you want to read the book, then consider that it still regularly appears in the top ten novels of all time. Tolstoy’s genius lies in the dramatic arc of the novel, with its central themes of identity crisis, class oppression and existential angst. These all too human struggles still resonate strongly with readers today. Tolstoy infuses his writing with really powerful narrative, so that regardless of the story being set 140 years ago, it seems immediate and gripping. If you have not read it yet, you simply must buy it and put it straight on the top of your reading pile.

Margaret704 stars

8 February 2013 at 1:02pm

Anna is called upon to be mediator concerning her brothers flirting ways with women. The parallels which can be drawn during Anna's life after this encounter is nothing short of uncanny. Anna Karenina is an aristocrat/socialite who has the world at her feet, and has an absolute and finally destroying,possessive love for Count Vronsky. It's a myriad of tales of lust,infatuation,Russian roulette at every turn. Tolstoy the master story teller, threading and cleverly encompassing his own life experiences through the characters in his enthralling novel.

Jeremy165 stars

8 February 2013 at 12:31pm

Sergei Ivanovich suggests to Konstantin Levin (the fictional character most closely resembling Leo Tolstoy himself) early on in the novel that: ‘The chief task of philosophy in all ages has consisted precisely in finding the connection that necessarily exists between personal and common interests.’ And it is the central interest of this book. When the various relativist critics of Tolstoy’s oeuvre use glib ***sments of his personal worldview that they feel are patterned into it, such as misogyny or didacticism, they are enacting and negotiating through their own version of this tension: for to be labelled a ‘misogynist’ is to enforce a common interest upon a personal one in a similar way as happens to the namesake of the novel: Anna Karenina. ‘She raves about you. … She says you’re a real heroine from a novel and that if she were a man she would have committed a thousand follies for you.’ You will hear much in the way of this character, Tolstoy’s great heroine, as being a redeeming feature in his sea of outmoded political barbarism. While she is perhaps the chief protagonist of the drama---certainly the most dramatic moments of the novel centre around her---she is by no means heroic. Of all the focal characters, she most heavily fails to establish a liveable connection between her personal and common interests, so she is certainly a tragic figure; but she often comes off as a spoiled brat, so utterly full of herself and her entitlement that you can squirm. ‘Anna took a knife and fork in her beautiful, white, ring-adorned hands and began to demonstrate. She obviously could see that her explanation could not make anything understood, but, knowing that her speech was pleasant and her hands were beautiful, she went on explaining.’ Tolstoy is far too great an author to create a focal character like Anna that could be so easily used as a gender politic rallying point. She is fantastic, in all her flawed humanity. The few pages where Levin meets her fully, and she wins him over, is a fantastic glimpse into how this character won Tolstoy over too. ‘…she was a bad woman. Well, what are these desperate passions! It’s all to prove something special. So she proved it.’ Vronsky’s mother (understandably perhaps) sums her up harshly. She was a bad woman. She cheated, she lied, she manipulated, she abandoned; and all for a love that wouldn’t last. Not in the format that she could understand it, anyway. So many of the blurbs and synopses say that Vronsky spurned her ‘Do I live? [Anna asks herself] I don’t live, I wait for a denouement that keeps being postponed.’ But Vronsky never spurns her. His love changes, and hers does also, but her demands on him, and life in general, of which she is the focal point, do not change. I can only imagine how any modern film version will spoil this novel. Much more focus on the ‘We all want something sweet, tasty, if not candy, then dirty ice-cream.’ And less on the ‘All that day she had had that she was playing in the theatre with actors better than herself and that her poor playing spoiled the whole thing.’ Anna is a broken human being, not a battleship: at heart, she is not the strong woman but the frightened girl. Trotting out a society-is-to-blame excuse for her is facile and empty, which is what makes it so interesting, heartfelt, tragic and beautiful. Anyway, this is a masterpiece by a master, and translated by the Peaver/Volokhonsky team masterfully I have to imagine, since if it were not, I would not have such a solid English-language impression of Tolstoy’s masterfulness…

Rob33 stars

8 February 2013 at 12:02pm

Borgeois aristocracy battle ennui through sexual infidelity.

Merryl24 stars

20 January 2013 at 10:18am

This epic love story is set against a background of pomp, ceremony and revolution. Love, passion, betrayal and heartbreak make it a rivetting tale that is impossible to put down. Leo Tolstoy is a master story teller and this novel will not disappoint you. I find something new to love about this book every time I read it.

Christine2534 stars

17 January 2013 at 2:04pm

Just finished reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't wait to see it as a film. While I was enthralled with the main love story between Anna and Vronsky, I actually more enjoyed the parellel love story played out between Levin and Kitty. I found the novel an intriguing and romantic read which had me constantly changing the way I felt about the characters. As all were so complex I felt sympathy with them all in one way or another.

Kim2004 stars

17 January 2013 at 11:09am

Yes there's plenty of characters to keep track of but this is one of the most enthralling books I've ever read.

Kristy564 stars

17 January 2013 at 10:41am

A sprawling romance of epic proportions, Anna Karenina brings a story of love and passion, betrayal, revolution, the ideology of family and the values and morals we choose to live by. With characters so lavish and a plot line so fulfilling, Anna Karenina is must-read for any lover of classic literature, searching for an escape into a magical world unlike any displayed in literature today.