Anna Karenina (Pevear/Volokhonsky Translation) by Leo Tolstoy
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Web ID: 15661009A Touching Story and a Great Work of Literature
Anna Karenina is rightly considered to be one of the greatest works of literature ever written, and this translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky does a wonderful job exposing Tolstoy’s genius to English-language readers. As a writer, I’m often asked which of Tolstoy’s works I’d recommend reading. For the public at large, this is the work I recommend; it’s a wonderful, touching story that showcases Tolstoy’s brilliance as a writer. Even as a male reader, I couldn’t help but feel empathy for Anna Karenina in the painful decision that confronted her. Unlike War and Peace, another brilliant work by Tolstoy, Anna Karenina flows more like a modern-day novel, making it a more appealing read for most readers. Having said that, if you’re an aspiring writer or even a professional writer, I recommend reading and (most importantly) carefully studying Tolstoy’s writing in War and Peace to enhance your writing style; I learned more about constructing complex and compound sentences from studying War and Peace, than I learned in four years as an English and Journalism major. Tolstoy was a genius!
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great storyline, but moved very slowly
I was suggested to read Anna Karenina many times. It definitely was not my genre of a story but I enjoyed reading it. I feel that in order to read it and enjoy it you may have to be a part of a more mature audience because the wording and phrasing were a little hard to understand. Out of 800 pages, I feel that there was, if any at all, not much character development. The storyline was incredible and super interesting, but I feel that the novel had a lot more potential. A few times during the book I began to get very bored because the book was a little repetitive. I feel that Dolly's family problems at the beginning of the story may have definitely foreshadowed Anna's affair. Throughout the duration of the novel, a few parts were confusing. It begins with family chaos and affairs until Anna Karenina is brought to calm the situation with Dolly down. Annas sister-in-law, Kitty, is proposed to two times by Levin, a farmer, and landowner, but she rejects him, thinking that Vronsky will propose instead. Moving forward, Kitty finds Anna and Vronsky dancing together after she had expected a dance from him all night, of course, she is heartbroken. Anna Karenina has to be one of my least favorite characters due to her attitude, she contains a lot of complaints, and even though it adds to the story she begins to become annoying. Towards the middle of the book, the plot finally starts to come together, I could not take my hands off of the book. Many times throughout the book I feel upset for Annas' husband, Alexei, because he truly loved her as she slipped out of love. After she told him about the affair he became heartbroken and this is when I started to despise Anna. The novel holds many lessons and I feel that even though it was not a book I extremely enjoyed, it was well written. This story shows to tell that while early love is exciting it can always fade, leaving a craving for something more, but when you begin to realize people depend on you to love the right person, you get scared. This novel was one of the most mature novels I read, and even though it was not for me I understood the well-written story. It portrayed how to love back then was almost forced and how commitment to someone who depends on you is hard to do. You can't just run away from your problems, unfortunately, you can do something about them or not and sacrifice.
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Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Disappointing
This was no War and Peace. That novel was great, this novel was pretty boring to me. There were a few good chapters, but the book as a whole was not interesting. I feel like I spent a lot of time reading this with no payoff. Disappointed.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com