Anna Karenina Review

This was my first Tolsoty novel. I have a lot of mixed feelings on this book. I literally couldn’t find out why this book was called Anna Karenina. It may be called Anna Karenina, but I felt as if she wasn’t the main character. Let me go more into my opinions. This book was a tragedy- but not a tragedy I actually fully liked.

While like some other books, you don’t get introduced to Anna till after other major/supporting characters have been introduced. I really couldn’t find myself getting really into her storyline. I wasn’t that interested to the relationship between Anna/Vronksy. It is basically about her having an affair with her husband after falling in love with Vronsky. I couldn’t find myself getting that attached to her. So you might be wondering why did I continue reading the book till the end.

The answer goes no further then the relationship found between Levin and Kitty. At first, there is a love triangle between Levin, Kitty, and Vronksy. Originally Kitty loved Vronksy, but for whatever reason she stopped loving Vronsky. Levin already was in love with Kitty- eventually the two of them do fall in love. I loved their relationship: there were some difficulties, but eventually it worked out.

Here is one frustrating thing about Tolskoy: there are phrases and sentences in there that are not in English. I had to use google translate a lot. Anna Karenina was the hardest book I read so far- not just because I did not fully get into Anna’s storyline, but having to use google translate. Now, I don’t even know if I would even want to read War and Peace. I prefer Dickens and Hugo. I actually believe that Anna Karenina is not Romanticism, but Enlightenment instead. I really am not the biggest fan of Enlightenment- but Romanticism.

Here was what was strange: I absolutely love Nicholas Nickleby, and it took much longer to read this Dickens book over Anna Karenina. Nicholas Nickleby is a longer book, but you would think it wouldn’t take as long. Anna Karenina is one of my least favorite classic novels.