ANNA KARENINA by LEO TOLSTOY

“Respect was invented to cover the empty place where love should be."

PR: 7.5/10

Russians are hell dramatic and they wouldn't have it any other way!

Last year, I've read War and Peace. When I was about to start War and Peace, I was confused which one to start first: War and Peace or Anna Karenina; anyways I went with War and Peace and I'm glad I did that.

If War and Peace was a novel you had to live, Anna Karenina is a character you have to be, unless you do, you won't be doing justice to her character. She is envious, jealous, mean and selfish; she is beautiful, rich and witty, but most of all she's a fallen woman. Her infatuation with Alexei Vronsky, an officer in the service, is the most accurate of exaggerations.

The raw emotions that succumb a human heart sometimes overflows through our actions which henceforth cloud our reasoning; and that's exactly what happened with Anna.

First, she deceived her husband, Karenin, who is the most eligible man, or husband character I've ever read of or known. Devoted and loyal, not much loving, sometimes cold, but best of a kind. But Anna leaves him for the Young Count Vronsky and I guess it's then that Karenin realises what he's missing.

Vronsky here is not at fault at all. His only mistake was, he fell in love with a married woman, courted her and then fled with her. Anna gave away too easily to charms and good nature, but then again everything is fair in love and war.

Her second mistake was her confusion and unsettlement. She was neither a wife, nor a loyal lover. She couldn't bring herself to completely detach from her former relations which gnawed at her like worms underneath her heart.

And thirdly, she was stupid, like any possessive lover, jealous quite alot.

I think Tolstoy tried portraying his inner conflicts and character through Anna. But talking about self-portraits, Tolstoy successfully draws up his character in the form of Konstantin Levin. And I won't hesitate to say it that this is the character that clearly outshines the main character both literally and morally.

Levin and Anna, what it seemed to me, were polar arcs of the same person which Tolstoy himself was. Levin too was extremely jealous and possessive, much like Anna. And he too had his skeletons.

In Anna Karenina, Tolstoy gambles, perhaps experiments with these two paths the two contrasting characters walk into. And as we read through the story, we'll see righteously Levin shines in the wrongness and vileness of Anna's character.

Another thing which struck me was, Tolstoy surely loved hunting and perhaps had a very vivid imagination of it. Hunting and childbirth. These are two scenes or parts you'll find both in War and Peace and in Anna Karenina very exiquisitely explained.

I finished this 800+ pages novel in 8 days and I'm glad to say it was very worth it.

Thank you for reading.