I read Anna Karenina this summer not more than a month after finishing War and Peace, expecting something on par or even better than the latter. But this wasn't the case.
Keep in mind that I read Kate Chopin's dreadful, proto-sexnovel The Awakening right before Anna, so the theme of adultery had already begun to look like a literary cliche to me.
Anna Karenina presents two contrasting stories: One tells the story of Anna K. who cheats on her husband and eventually loses her mind, while the other tells of Konstantin Levin who represents the Tolstoyan ideals of family life and religion.
But this seems a bit familiar. Levin is almost a complete rehash of War and Peace's Bezukhov, minus Bezokhov's liberal leanings. Vronsky, Anna's lover, is merely a more sentimental and more honest version of Prince Anatol Kuragin. Kitty, Levin's wife, is basically the same character as Natasha.
Then there is the ambiguous treatment of Anna's character. Tolstoy neither condones nor condemns her behavior and never offers any explanations. I was left at the end of the book asking myself,"What's the point?"
Of course, this novel is also famous for discussing political issues of the time. This may be interesting to some, but in my opinion, they only date the novel.
Thankfully I read Middlemarch after to wash the bad taste out of my mouth.