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Today I am supposed to post about books 1-4 of Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy for Arti’s Anna K readalong. I am not going to give a synopsis of things so far but there might be spoilers for those who haven’t read the book. I don’t believe what I say will actually spoil anything unless you are the kind of person who likes to know nothing about a book before reading it, then you might want to look away (though really, I don’t think knowing details in this case ruins it).
What has surprised me most about the book is how completely indifferent I am to Anna. Bookman loved Anna when he read it and her fate brought him to tears. A hopelessly romantic co-worker of mine counts this as her favorite book and she gushes about Anna and Vronsky and how tragic their love is. Everytime Anna comes on the scene I wait to be swept away but to be honest, she kind of annoys me.
She and Vronsky are supposed to have this passionate love affair going but Anna doesn’t really exhibit much in the way of passion and neither does Vronsky, at least not when they are together. Sure, Vronksy gets himself all worked up about seeing Anna, practically stalks her in the beginning until she gives in to him. And Anna, her pulse quickens and she breathes a little faster, she throws propriety to the wind and looks at Vronksy too much and talks to him too long. She tells her husband that she hates him and loathes the sight of him and that she is pregnant with Vronsky’s child and she cries frequently. But there are no declarations of love in hurried whispers we get to overhear, no stolen kisses we get to worry over their being caught at, no love letters we get to read. To me, their relationship has no fireworks.
Oh yes, I feel sorry for Anna, trapped in a loveless marriage to a man twenty or so years older than she is. Mr. Karenin is not a bad man though. He loves and trusts his wife. His fault is being an old, boring bureaucrat and I can’t see that as a fault. I find myself feeling sorry for Mr. K rather than Anna and that just seems like I’m all messed up and there must be something wrong with me for not being caught up in Anna and Vronsky’s romance.
Where I do find the romance is between Levin and Kitty. Shy, hard working Levin who feels socially inferior to Kitty and morally superior to everyone who flits about the mindlessness of high society finally gets up the nerve to ask Kitty to marry him and she turns him down because her mother has her convinced Vronsky is going to marry her. But of course Vronksy is just carrying on a flirtation with no intention of marriage and then completely throws over Kitty when he meets Anna. Levin doesn’t know all this, he goes back to his farm in the country and loses himself in his work. Meanwhile Kitty almost dies of a broken heart.
But one thing leads to another and in spite of misunderstandings and fears of being rejected, Levin and Kitty finally declare their love for each other while playing a letter game one evening at a party. Now that’s romantic!
A few people I know told me to skip the peasant scenes so while I was reading I kept waiting for some long, drawn out, 50 to 100 pages of peasants kind of like the whale processing scenes in Moby Dick (not expecting the peasants to be chopped up and boiled down for blubber but was expecting long, detailed chapters about peasant life). Every time I was with Levin on his farm and he’d begin thinking about agricultural improvements and what not, I’d think, ok, here we go. But it would only last for ten pages or so and I figured that must not be the peasant stuff I am supposed to skip. There have been lots of peasants and farming and talk of improving the labor force and raising production and all that, but it has never really been boring. It’s actually been kind of interesting watching Levin trying to figure out how to get his peasants to buy in to his improvement schemes. Levin has ambitious and radical ideas and he has all of Russian history to fight against. He tries and fails and then tries something else and I find myself admiring him even when he has backward ideas.
I really like the way the book is structured. We get several chapters of Anna’s story and then we switch to Levin and Kitty for several chapters and the book so far is switching back and forth with sometimes Levin meeting Mr. K or Kitty hearing of Vronsky and then there are a bunch of secondary characters moving in and out of all parts of the story. I haven’t noticed whether there is a regular number of chapters given to each, for instance whether Anna gets four chapters and then we get Levin for four chapters before going back to Anna. Instead it seems like the story is broken up in a natural way. Tolstoy doesn’t do cliffhangers, he lets big events play out before changing the scene. Still, I find while I am reading about Levin I wonder what Mr. K and Anna and Vronsky are up to and while I am reading their story I wonder what Levin and Kitty are doing. I like that. I like thinking things continue to happen with characters while I am focusing on certain other ones. That’s good characterization. That’s a good writer and a great story.
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Like you, I can’t say I like the ‘heroine’ here. My sympathy goes out to Anna’s husband and her son. But this I find… I can still have immense pleasure from reading the book without liking Anna because Tolstoy is such a masterful storyteller, actually he’s telling several stories at the same time. I find I like Levin and Kitty the most, maybe they are there to contrast Anna and Vronsky, or the Oblonsky’s. And I admire Levin’s down-to-earth character, honest and humble. I like Kitty’s change too. I don’t know about their future marriage life, but at this point it seems they are the most blissful couple of the three. And, if Anna is complaining about her husband being years older than she is, just take a look at Kitty and Levin.
Thanks for reading Anna K. with me, Stefanie. It’s great to have a travel companion esp. when the journey is long. Do stop by and read what other participants have to say about their experience so far.
Arti, Oh yes, I agree, I am still enjoying the book immensely even though I don’t like Anna much. Didn’t you just love how happy Levin was when he and Kitty got engaged? I thought it so sweet when she told him that people are often better than he gives them credit for and he honestly tried to see the good in people and found it. They are good for each other. Tolstoy is a magnificent storyteller. Sometimes he gets a bit wordy but when I stop and think what words I would want cut out I would leave them all!
Thanks for doing the readalong Arti, you finally got me to get around to reading the book!
I glad to know I am not the odd one out….I mean I never could feel any empathy for Anna and well…..the end could not have come sooner….I quite loath Vronsky and almost fell in love with Mr K for being so respectable, even honorable!! When I read it age of 17, I did not feel any romantic passion and when I read it last year, some 12 years down the line, I only felt more irritate by Anna….of course I have been told that I am unfeeling and lack sensitivity for failing to understand the tragic love story….but give me War and Peace any day!!!!!
cirtnecce, so glad there seems to be plenty of people who find it hard to feel for Anna. My coworker who gushes about Anna and Vronksy is quite disappointed in my lack of feeling for Anna. She tells me I must have a heart of stone so you aren’t the only one accused of being unfeeling!
This is wonderful, Stefanie. Most reviewers and critics rarely if ever write or talk about how a book affects them, how they feel about the characters, and their reactions to whatever is going on in the book. I welcome the fact that you did in discussing this classic novel.
Richard, thanks! I was going for something a little different since Anna K has been written about so much by better reviewers and critics than I. So I am glad you enjoyed it
That’s funny that someone told you to skip the peasant scenes, which I did once upon a time when I first read this novel. But now I find them indispensable and so indicative of the “purity” of Levin’s character. He is close to nature and therefore close to God, in my opinion. Plus, he seems to have the fewest pretentious.
I know what you mean about Anna and Vronsky’s affair being somewhat flat. I, too, would love to read a letter between them, or catch a glimpse of something more than Anna blushing.
Levin and Kitty are the ones who thrill me this time around, although I do understand Anna’s boredom with her husband. It’s so sad to say, but isn’t goodness often boring?
Bellezza, I’ve actually had several people tell me to skip the peasant scenes but I think they are important to the story. If they weren’t important in some way, then why would Tolstoy write them, right? You are right, goodness is often very boring. Though Levin and Kitty are good and not boring but they are striving to be good together and Anna is completely obtuse regarding the good qualities of her husband.
Wow, I have so enjoyed reading your current assessment of my own favorite novel of all time. It’s just such an incredible book, so perfectly written.
One thing I would mention is that the way you feel about Anna — the sort of lack of real romance between Vronsky and her — is exactly what [I think] Tolstoy intends for the reader to feel. As you say the real love affair is definitely that of Levin and Kitty, as the final pages shall reveal — yet, not in the way that the book as a whole could have been titled Kitty Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya-Levin. [or whatever]. The usage of the Anna-Vronsky story, while being central, is like a backdrop [a foil] to the real story Tolstoy wants to tell. The rewards of honest hard work, fidelity, [as opposed to adultery] and the somewhat delayed gratification of persistent love, etc.
The letter game that Levin and Kitty play in their courtship, is an exact re-enactment of how Tolstoy courted his own wife. I find it interesting that he employs it here when his own marriage was so [how does one say it] less than romantic!
And, oh yes — DON’T skip the peasant scenes. No. Don’t ever skip any scenes with Tolstoy. They are all important. Even the scenes where they go out hunting and Tolstoy narrates the thoughts that are inside of the dog’s head — it is all an example of miraculous writing!
I so agree with you about the structure of the book — the seeming naturalness of it — and how, while you are engrossed with the current action, you still wonder about what the off-stage characters are up to. It is all quite seamless. It is all a part of what the best writer in the world does to us.
With a character as famous as that of Anna Karenina its probably inevitable that reactions to her will vary a lot. I remember getting a jolt reading the Reader’s Encyclopedia’s entry on Madame Bovary which calls Emma something like a “hopelessly limited ” character. For all her faults this seemed to me a hopelessly condescending response to her! Strange the realist novelist’s continuing spell to get poweerful responses from his/jher invented characters!
Oh goodness–my copy of the Reader’s Encyclopedia is dusty. There it is–a jolt indeed Ian. I notice the entry for Anna is cut and dry. I wonder why the writer thought Madame Bovary was “limited?”
Cipriano, thanks! Very interesting what you say about Tolstoy perhaps intending Levin and Kitty to be the central couple. I hadn’t thought to add the Oblonskys to the couple comparison mix but they certainly belong there. I am glad to know that Tolstoy and his wife had at least one romantic moment in their engagement/marriage! And no skipping for me of anything, promise.
I can’t like Anna and Vronsky. I tend to agree with Cipriano that Tolstoy wants the reader to favor Kitty and Levin over Anna and Vronsky. Stepan Oblonsky gives me so many laughs. He actions are almost always described in loud and boisterious terms. I wish I had his dinner party skills.
Vanessa, Stepan is funny, isn’t he? Such an amiable man. But at the same time he uses his amiability to manipulate people and get what he wants though I don’t think he would see himself in quite that light.
Oh yes Stefanie; he’s definitely not high quality husband/friend material. Best to be a casual acquaintance with the likes of him
As you know, the grass harvesting was too much for me, which we can simply put down to personal taste. I found Anna and Vronsky more interesting though. I didn’t really think their relationship was about romance or passion, more about desperation in its different forms. I get the feeling that adultery in the 19th century was as much about the unbearable constraints on women (or at least about women who could not bear them), as unruly passion, but love is the only adventure that women are permitted, even when the love itself is not permissable so rebellion must take that form. But there may also be moral considerations, too, as authors would have known they’d get into a lot of trouble with the censors if they depicted their adulterous women too sympathetically. Much safer altogether to have them open to condemnation. See, I obviously needed a readalong to keep me going with Anna K! Maybe another time….
Litlove, the grass harvesting wasn’t the most action packed that’s for sure, but my desire to see whether Levin was going to collapse from exhaustion and be laughed at by the peasants kept me reading
I just finished reading book 5 and poor Anna got snubbed at the opera. Of course no one snubs Vronsky and he is just as guilty. sigh. The interesting thing is though that there are other women in the book who have affairs but are not snubbed because they keep their affairs clandestine. Anna’s mistake seems to have been leaving her husband.
I agree with Cipriano–this is definitely more a story of Kitty Levin–or rather what Tolstoy thinks (or maybe better to say what society at that time thought) about the subject of love and marriage and fidelity. It’s all quite contradictory really but he compares and contrasts the two relationships and it felt very obvious which was the better–though I think Levin was not a perfect character and while Mr. K did get my sympathy at first I must say that later he angered me with the way he treated Anna. This is a book I would love to reread sometime–I admit my eyes probably did glaze over during those peasant scenes, but I’m sure they are important (another reason to reread). I still felt sorry for Anna–very flawed but maybe that’s partially why I liked her so much.
Danielle, there is a distinct contrast between Levin and Kitty and Mr. K, Anna and Vronsky. Fascinating really. I do feel sorry for Anna since I have learned she was pushed into a marriage with Mr. K by her aunt. She is between a rock and a hard place. I haven’t even finished the book yet and I can see how it is one that can be read and enjoyed over and over.
I read both Anna Karenina and Gone With The Wind back-to-back during Christmas break my junior year in college. Since that time I can’t think of one heroine without comparing her to the other. Scarlett always comes out on top. In a crisis, she is the friend to have watching your back. I’m not sure I liked Anna, but I loved the book.
Grad, what a combination! I can see how Ann and Scarlett can come to be linked in your mind. Scarlett is one resourceful woman that’s for sure. And poor Anna, she sort of seems to be helpless (though not completely helpless) in directing her own fate.
I didn’t really care for Anna either, but still loved the book. Like you, I really enjoyed the Kitty and Levin romance, and none of the parts with Levin bored me. I was more likely to want to skim Anna’s sections.
It’s a great book overall though.
Lindsey, yes, I don’t think one really has to like Anna all that much to be able to like the book. And even not liking Anna, her story still draws me along just for the spectacle of knowing things aren’t going to end well.
I read this book years ago and always figured that I wasn’t “mature” enough for it. But now that I read your review, I think I WAS mature enough for it. Because I felt exactly the same way you did. I felt sorry for Anna, but she simply didn’t touch my heart and I felt the romance between her and Vronsky boring. On the other hand, I loved Levin and Kitty. I think theirs were the only parts of that book that I truly enjoyed.
Rachel, it sounds like you did just fine when you read the book. From other comments here it appears that Kitty and Levin are the real romance in the book and Anna is a tragic example of what not to do, a warning perhaps and why her name is the book’s title.
I don’t think you’re strange for not sympathizing with Anna and Vronsky…I didn’t either, and it wasn’t just the lack of fire you so rightly noted. Anna seemed just…sort of irritated or something. There was no pleasure in it for them–or no pleasure that has any sort of attraction to me. Maybe it would have had I read it when I was very young (I read it in my early 30s while on my honeymoon–ha!). I’ll be interested to see what you think of the conclusion…
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