Thursday, April 12, 2012

Anna Karenina - Spoilers Ahead

So the second to last book I read was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.  The book was actually a bit of a struggle to read and took me quite a while.  I chalk this up to the fact that it is quite long and written in a bit of a dry style.

I won't go into the book a huge amount but a couple of things struck me.  I read that the book contrasted the unfaithfulness of Anna with the unwavering devotion of Levin.  Truthfully, I just didn't see that.  Levin was devoted to Kitty, to be sure, and he did not give in to the favors of Anna like Vronsky did, however, I saw Levin as more of an intellectual who prized and learned to respect his wife, and Anna as a creature of romance and passion.

I was also quite amazed at Tolstoy's ability to craft the realism that he did at the end.  Anna's increasing fits and lunacy started to really have an effect on me.

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