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Anna Karenina


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First published between 1875 and 1877.

Translated by Constance Black Garnett (1862-1946) in 1917.

Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society.

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Set in nineteenth century Russia, this masterpiece illustrates the pressure of living up to the expectations and quota of an unforgiving society and the personal choices individuals face which alter their destinies. A read which leaves the responder unable to forget the lessons taught; it gives true meaning to learning from other people's experiences and mistakes. A guide which leads by example in demonstrating the challenges one faces in the pursuit of happiness and contentment and the gruelling outcomes of what some of these choices produce.

Submitted by Sonja Golub.



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Recent Forum Posts on Anna Karenina

Anna

I just finished reading this book and thought I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was really very good, I could not stand Anna. I started out liking her but as the story progressed she just became completely irritating. She was like a little spoiled child who only thought and cared about her own personal happiness no matter at who's expense. If she was unhappy, she would throw a tantrum to make sure everyone else around her was also unhappy. I could not really bring myself to feel any sympathy for her sense she was completely responsible for the position she put herself in. I also always felt bad for her husband Karenine, she seemed to me to always unfairly judge him. I was really disappointed at the beginning to the book when Dolly let Anna talk her into reconciling with her husband. When the story first started, I kept rooting for Dolly to just take the kids and walk out on Stiva. Then I kept wanting him to get busted again. Though in spite of my feelings about Anna, I still did find the ending of the story to be rather sad.

Posted By Dark Muse at Sat 26 Apr 2008, 12:12 PM in Anna Karenina || 2 Replies

Is Garnett's translation really that bad?

I'm very particular when it comes to translation, but as it is, I am constrained by the necessicity of economy, and the cheapest translation of Anna available in my hometown is Garnett's. First of all, I hated her treatment of Dostoevsky. Her translation of The Brother's Karamazov is devoid of the primal, and intense quality, which I expected to find in a Dostoevsky book. I wonder if the same problem run through her translation of Anna

Posted By marakatsu at Thu 10 Apr 2008, 4:19 AM in Anna Karenina || 1 Reply

Why do you not like Anna?

johann cruyff wrote: There is,IMO,a special kind of people who are never happy with their life.Never happy with what they have,who they have,especially in contrast to all those who haven't got anything.Those are the people who will always put blame on people surrounding them and look for reasons for their own discontent in the actions of others.Those are the self-centered,egocentric people who will stop at nothing in pursue of their own abstract happiness without looking back at those whose lives they have destroyed in the process.That's Anna Karenina.That's why I hate her. Why would Anna be happy with her life? Why would anyone be happy with his life? From our perspective sometimes someone should be happy, but that doesn't necessarily means he or she is happy. Yes, Anna had husband, son and she was rich but she wasn't happy. Materialism is not happiness. You know the story about the peasant and his shirt? Same with Anna. Anna never put blame on anyone. She just wanted some happiness she couldn't find in her marriage. If you remember, Anna said to Dolly: ''Ne želim nikome ništa dokazivati, želim samo normalno živjeti. Ne nanosim nikome zlo osim samoj sebi. Na to imam pravo, nije li tako? '' I really like that quote, so I still remember it. Society blamed her, she didn't blame no one. Actions of others - remember Stiva's actions. He act like Anna, but no one ever even got an idea to think about him, and Anna was excluded from society. Anna's road to happiness - it's normal for every human to look for his happiness, and it's normal to be slightly egocentric in that. You're probably pointing on Vronsky or Karenin because I think her death maybe great impact on their lives. In order to make them happy, Anna also had to be happy; because if you want to make someone happy, you also have to be happy and Anna wasn't. And in situation where she supposed to choose who's happiness she want more; her choice was completely normal: she had chosen her! I don't find anything wrong in that, every normal human would be probably do the same.

Posted By bazarov at Fri 29 Feb 2008, 5:32 AM in Anna Karenina || 24 Replies

Anna Karenina on the road to suicide

Anna begins as a confident, intelligent, empathetic beauty – a paragon of all things good. Eve before ‘The Fall’. The only blemish in her life is the millstone of an older and unresponsive husband, married to his government job. Handsome Vronsky assiduously seduces her and - like brother, like sister - she is ensnared in marital infidelity. Stiva indulges with gay whimsy, whereas, Anna cuckolds cold Karenin after much heartache and soul searching, making a considered and enduring commitment to Vronsky. Though a disgraced woman, Anna long retains her grace and integrity, and is blest with a devoted lover in Vronsky. Increasingly, jealousy and suspicion begin to erode her poise because the guilt she feels, over her lost son and husband, is heightened by her social isolation. She is cool towards her young daughter. By the time she suicides under a train, Anna the opium addict, is a shadow of the woman, who rescued Stiva and Dolly’s marriage. The wages of sin is death. Less spectacularly, Stiva’s marriage has sustained lasting wounds from his random infidelities, although, considering the extenuating circumstances around Anna’s unfaithfulness, divine retribution seems tempered for the male adulterer. Levin and Kitty, by contrast, will be faithful unto death…surely so, now that the despairing Vronsky - heading to death in battle - has removed himself from Kitty’s reach for the second time. Ensconced in marital bliss, honest Levin is blessed with a vision of the sacred. Have I understood the novel?

Posted By Gladys at Sun 17 Feb 2008, 5:06 AM in Anna Karenina || 7 Replies

Anna Karenin - the greatest novel?

Having just read 'Anna Karenin' and Tolstoy for the first time, I found the ending a big let down, a fizzer, after 'The Idiot' and a few other Dostoevsky novels. The entire ending, from Anna Karenin's suicide onward, teeters on the moralistic: Tolstoy is subtly preaching at me. The narration and Levin's reflections at the end seem almost arrogant. And I was hoping for the thunderbolt ending of a Dostoevsky novel! (I have also been reading the Australian author Patrick White, with endings as subtle and stunning as Dostoevsky's.) I had expected Tolstoy’s focus would return to old Karenin, Vronsky, or at least to the unpredictable Kitty, but this was not to be. I concede that Tolstoy paints Russian society and the predicament of characters in 'Anna Karenin' most elegantly and sympathetically. But am I wrong in seeing a psychological void behind that sumptuous veneer?

Posted By Gladys at Mon 28 Jan 2008, 5:02 PM in Anna Karenina || 9 Replies

Got to read confession

Confession. is it posible to get somewhere reviews and summuries of that article...?

Posted By Ursha at Tue 20 Nov 2007, 8:12 AM in Anna Karenina || 0 Replies

Anna Karenina Character List

Hey, I have to make sure i have every character relationship that ever appears in this novel. Can people please contribute both minor and major relationships that appear in this novel?

Posted By CollegeBoi at Fri 16 Nov 2007, 8:57 PM in Anna Karenina || 0 Replies

Stiva

I'm trying to come up with a list of practical reasons why Stiva is in the novel, most importantly relating to Levin. Does anyone have anything to add to this list: -Serves as a foil to Levin; contrasting personalities -Organizes party which brings Levin and Kitty back together -Introduces Levin to Anna; the plots intertwine Thanks

Posted By shanehodson at Mon 21 May 2007, 9:44 PM in Anna Karenina || 3 Replies

Women

Did women, at the time of Tolstoy, empathize themselves with Anna? or they condemned her?

Posted By Didone at Wed 16 May 2007, 11:18 AM in Anna Karenina || 2 Replies

Just got this book

My mother recently bought me a copy of Anna Karenina at a flea market. The name Tolstoy sounded familiar, and after some research on Wikipedia I found out that he is one of the most famous novelists of all time. I wonder if this book is readable. I love 19th-century literature, so my hopes are high. Could anyone give me a short, spoiler-free summary on the book's main plot? Because I'm afraid that if I'd google it, I'd run into spoilers and such. Thanks in advance.

Posted By Panflute at Fri 4 May 2007, 1:58 PM in Anna Karenina || 7 Replies

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