Anna Karenina is the novel which has a few parallel plot lines. Just one of them is the love between Anna, a married high-society woman, and Alexey Vronskiy, a handsome military officer. Since this plot line is the most passionate, personal, and has tragic end, Tolstoy named his novel with the name of this tragic character.
The novel is a broad panorama of Russian society and life in Russia of the end of the XIX century (19th). (Russians usually mark the number of the century with a Roman digit.)
Leo Tolstoy (in Russian Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, since we have a few writers with the last name Tolstoy) is the most prolific master of psychological novel.
When you read Tolstoy, you are involved in the special experience of the literary master, genius, who puts his words and phrases with the generous brush on the canvas of a page, and as a result we have the beautiful detailed color picture of the events. When you read Tolstoy you feel you are watching a movie. It is a very special experience to read Tolstoy. Do not hurry. Read him slowly. You'll be surprised how many things about yourself and your outlook you will discover reading Tolstoy. All Tolstoy is highly recommended. I do not remember anything he wrote being worse than "Anna Karenina". I read the novel in my twenties, and then reread in my 40-ties, and made a few wonderful discoveries about the change of my own thinking. People who find such a novel boring (I read such reviews) obviously find thinking boring. The novel and Tolstoy generally - make you think. Is it entertaining reading? Well, yes! If you think for entertaining! Tolstoy has a great sense of humor too. He was a count, belonged to high society. He knew what he described from his own life and experiences.
Does a reader of the translation misses on certain things compared with reading in Russian language? He or she certainly does! And it's a pity. That's why we have dual language versions with explaining notes. However, not to read it at all - is to miss on the great world classic.
June 10 2020 by Zoia Eliseyeva
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