I admitted to a friend that I had never read Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Her reaction?
“SHAME ON YOU! Faith, love, romance, morality, parenting, politics…it is all in there.” (Emphasis hers.)
Careful who you make such admissions to.
Feeling duly shamed, and a bit intrigued, I’ve set out to read all 935 pages of this book. And I’m here to report that I am 9.4% done. My goal last night was to reach 10%, but I fell short. This could take a while.
With Dostoevsky being my only model for classic Russian literature, I’m finding Tolstoy to be far more like Jane Austen than Dostoevsky.
The book is at present not within reach or I would quote the paragraph in which one of the characters equates letting young people choose their own spouses to giving a five year old a loaded gun.
I had to chuckle knowingly at that.
Gus/Adri
So glad you are [finally] reading – and enjoying – it. You may decide to read it more than once; it's well worth the time.–ae
MagistraCarminum
I stand in the halls of shame with you, Randy, having never read AK. I must admit I'm not much of a Russian novel fan…I have read Tolstoy's Redemption and Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, and while they were worthy, I don't tend to run to such novels.My other shameful admission: never made it through Brothers Karamazov. I have tried. In three attempts I've never made it past the first 100 pages.
Elsa
Oh good! Anna K. is currently one of my favorites. I've read it four times (sort of accidentally, and not because the first reading was astounding), and I've found it very interesting how my perception of the various romances has changed since I first read it in high school. I hope you have a good translation; I like the one by Pevear and Volokhonsky.
Randy Greenwald
Let's see: Elsa and Adri have read it multiple times. That averages out so that Chris and I don't need to….And, Elsa, thanks for the translator recommendations. I'm reading it in the original Russian, actually…Right. No, I bought the least expensive paperback from Amazon that was not branded 'Oprah's Book Club'. Translator is someone named David Magarshack. Hope it's good!Chris, I would agree that the BK takes some getting into. But CP — that is a great book, and pamphlet size by Russian standards!