This book is about Anna Karenina. That would be my answer at high school having not read the book.

But I have read it and now I don't know where to start.
The novel does not only catch the life of Anna Karenina but of all the people whom are connected to her. Among which are her husband, her new lover, her brother and his family, her brother’s best friend, his family and many more. All these people are connected to each other in one way or another, which makes the book moving.
Even though the plot is set in the nineteenth century it does not loose any of its readability. You find straight away that the characters are fighting the same problems and staying on the same crossroads of their lives as a modern person might. Through Tolstoy’s words we experience all society’s levels, from ostentatious balls in Moscow to poor peasants’ days in the Russian countryside.

The novel Anna Karenina is tragic. However, it is a well-known truth that everyone is a creator of his own fortune and I could not agree more when I had finished the book. I felt sorry for the heroine Anna at first but when penetrating deeper into the book I realised she is not anything more than a hysterical woman, insecure and mentally unstable and doesn’t know what she wants. I never will forgive her for not trying hard enough to stay in her son’s life, for not loving her daughter and for completely ruining Vronsky’s existence. She might have had more options to choose from how to put her life in order or she might have not. But as I said everyone is a creator of his own fortune or destiny and she is not an exception.

that novel doesn't follow one person's life only. There are many interesting characters, their lifes are revealed in a great depth.

Long passages about Levin's farming. I found it kind of boring. Also some conversations among men about politics are too dragged out for my taste.

the used language is just brilliant. Tolstoy is a master of the pen.

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Created Jan 22, 2003 at 4:32am • Submit your own review...