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If I didn't know Anna Karenina was translated, I would think the Magershack version was simply better written. It's still one of my favorite books of all time, but mid-way through this new translation I returned to my ancient dog-eared paperback. However, if you've never read this book, any translation is a worthwhile endeavor. I much prefer the translation by David Magershack (Signet Classics). Perhaps it's a case of heightened expectations not lived up to because I'd read so many wonderful reviews about this translation.
Tolstoy was a brilliant man and writer. This novel is much more direct than War and Peace. But no less amazing than the other characters in the novel. I feel enriched for having read something so well written. Anna Karenina.
Levin and Nikolay. Natasha and Kitty. Just the way that Tolstoy mixes words leaves me with a feeling of awe. I see similarities to War and Peace everywhere. I believe he must have spent hours reflecting on why people act in the way they do. The novel is great, the plot is fantastic. After reading his novels, I am convinced that he was a keen observer of human nature and interactions. In this novel, digression sometimes happens in his dealings with Levin, but not as frequently as in War and Peace.
She was an amazing woman. He left his characters out of his writing in War and Peace, while he digressed about other topics. Tolstoy's dislike of the medical profession. He knows how to blend plot and thought like few others. And the result, clear and penetrating novels on the human experience.I highly recommend this novel.
But mostly I fall in love with the tragic heroine, torn between the love of her only son and her adulterous lover. I have read all of Tolstoy's works and though I love them all, Anna Karenina is my most treasured. A story that stands up to the test of time. Her affair in the end consumes her, and Anna's life takes a tragic turn. I have read this book atleast a dozen times and never get tired of reading it. I love how high society is always portrayed in Tolstoy's works as "naughty" (wink).
Read Brothers Karamazov and Anna K at around the same time, as I did, and you'll get an excellent opportunity to compare two of the greatest Russian novelists head-to-head. The main characters are so richly drawn. Anna's decline was inevitable, but it's the loss of someone far from pure evil, with her significant talents and deep capacity for love. Many themes of Anna Karenina are timeless: marriage, infidelity, the roles of men and women, personal fulfillment, honor, spirituality, and naturalism. Two thousand pages well spent. Don't look to Tolstoy for enlightened feminism, although one of the characters argues for education and equality for women, and one of the minor threads relates to the status of peasants.Tolstoy is not especially subtle in portraying his characters, full of emotion and conflict. If that isn't enough, then Tolstoy offers an 18th-century look at Russian society and culture, still well before the run-up to the revolution. Nobody is idealized, yet all still prompt some sympathy.
nothing else like it in all of literature. The opening line is a killer. Although I prefer Dostoevsky to Tolstoy, this is a genuine masterpiece. I'm probably one of the very few people who read this classic without having a clue as to the ending (no, never saw the movie--still haven't). so it was a genuine surprise and it rocked me.
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