Review of Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars Although Levin was Tolstoy's hero, the double standard that Anna faced made it difficult for me not to sympathize with her. Anna was married to a man she didn't love, and he didn't love her. I think her mother bribed him to marry her or threatened him, so you end of feeling like it's not really the fault of her and her husband that they get divorced. She falls in love with someone else and follows her passion. She leaves her husband in an arrangement that he agrees to. Divorce is so taboo at the time though that they pretend they are still married for a while, but eventually Anna leaves her husband and son in order to become a nomad with Vronsky and their unborn child. This, of course, is shameful for everyone involved.  

Levin, on the other hand, is supposed to be the more sympathetic character. He pushes the envelope by questioning religion, but compared to Anna he walks the straight and narrow. He finds a woman he loves early on, who rejects him for Vronsky, but then goes on a retreat where she has what's possibly a lesbian crush, decides on the kind of person she wants to be as a result, and comes back to accept Levin's love. He's in his thirties and she's about eighteen, but back then that meant she was the perfect age to bear many children for an older, established man. They were really a match made in Heaven.  

Levin grapples with the big questions: Do I believe in organized religion or just a general connection in the universe? Could I hack it as a farm hand? Meanwhile Anna faces social death, while her own brother publicly carries on affairs with women who aren't his wife. Not only is he not banished from society but is an extremely well-liked and popular guy. He's not the brightest man, but he has friends in high places who have set him up with a good government job. Basically, he coasts through life, while others struggle. The people who are good have it much harder, because of their attempts to deal with morality, and the contrast that this presents to what was socially acceptable at the time.  

Definitely recommended. View all my reviews >>