Home :: Books :: Audio CDs  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs

Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina

List Price: $26.98
Your Price: $17.00
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 .. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 .. 22 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a super-saturated mega-novel; less would have been more
Review: I took up Anna Karenina thinking that it would be an epic saga concerning a woman victimized by a male-dominated, 19th century Russian society. In fact the novel Anna Karenina is only partly about the title character; a majority of the book is about the travails of her relatives, especially a thinly-disguised Leo Tolstoy going under the name of Constantine Levin.

While Anna Karenina is indeed beautifully written, especially remarkable considering I read an English translation, and it does transport the reader back in time to another part of the world. But the book falls far short of perfection because of its rather unlikeable (!) main character (..Anna Karenina was more a victim of her selfishness and neurotic behaviour than a victim to her husband and a sexist 19th century Russia), and due to overly-deep (read: boring) Levin character who thinks that it's better to be a uneducated peasant than a rich man (..as if!).

While not wanting to criticize Anna Karenina too much, I have to add that I was disappointed in Tolstoy's "rose-colored" view of peasants. There is almost no depiction of the squalor and disease which obviously tormented the Russian working class. Dostoyevsky, in Crime and Punishment (for example), certainly handled this area much more realistically (..almost to a fault).

So while Anna Karenina is brilliant effort to a certain extent I cannot think of it as a masterpiece. And since it is overly long and contains too much pie-in-the-sky socio-economic commentary by the Levin character (aka Tolstoy) I really can't recommend reading it. Certainly if you are looking for a romance novel where a Garbo-esque herione will bring tears to your eyes I suggest avoiding Anna Karenina at all costs.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Just say "Know."
Review: Some books have a "moral." In Turgenev's "Fathers & Sons," the moral (for me) is there being an invisible --- yet wide --- chasm separating the generations of a family, which love may try bridging but never entirely spans; in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment," the moral seems to be that there is a line which a man of conscience dares not cross. Perhaps, the central lesson of "Anna" is we cannot divorce ourselves from that deep inner need to exist in a society where we are able to meaningfully participate and genuinely contribute.

Basically, "Anna" is of that genre which the Japanese call "giri-ninjo conflict": "humanity vs. duty," or, in Joseph Campbell's terms, "libido versus credo." In such literature, a respectable family man, say, finds himself in passionate love with a geisha. Unable to resolve the psychological tension between duty and passion, the star-crossed pair may resolve to commit suicide together. (As Garrison Keillor puts it: "The great martyrs went to their martyrdom alone; they didn't take their wives with them.") Contemporary examples of this "horns of a dilemma" genre are "The Bridges of Madison County" and "The English Patient."

"Anna" well expresses the profound spirituality and technical mastery of Tolstoy, and could arguably be considered his representative work. The story and characters are so real. E.g., Anna on a train before, and after, her "fall":

"At first she could not get interested in her reading. The fuss and stir were disturbing; then, when the train had started, she could not help listening to the noises; then the snow beating on the left window and sticking to the pane, and the sight of the muffled guard passing by, covered with snow on one side, and the conversations about the terrible blizzard raging outside, distracted her attention. And after that everything was the same and the same: the same jouncing and rattling, the same snow lashing the window, the same rapid transitions from steaming heat to cold, and back again to heat, the same flitting of the same faces in the half-murk, and the same voices..."
[Part 2, chapter 29]

"'Yes, I'm very much worried, and that's why reason was given me, to escape; so then, one must escape: why not put out the light when there's nothing more to look at, when it's sickening to look at it all? But how? Why did the conductor run along the footboard, why are they shrieking, those young men in that train? Why are they talking, why are they laughing? It's all falsehood, all lying, all humbug, all cruelty!'"
[Part 7, chapter 31]

"Anna," then, presents the downside of Joseph Campbell's "Hero Cycle": having moved out of the circle of one's knowledges, one necessarily enters the field of the unconscious. In this case, the protagonist proves "unworthy." Devoured by powerful unconscious energies, Anna degenerates into suspicion, sloth, and jealousy --- all exacerbated by drug use.

"Anna" is pure tragedy; a beautiful woman crushed against the wandering rocks of social duty evokes "pity" and "terror" within us. Consequently, we feel ourselves "lifted up" and more appreciative of the precious frailty of our own lives: "catharsis."

The Constance Garnett translation is best; she knew Tolstoy and he personally approved of her translation. Take time to savor each chapter. You won't soon forget it.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Read it once, and then be glad you're done
Review: This book is "the best novel ever written." Of course, the people who say this also rave about James Joyce. The truth is, Anna Karenina is a book you should read, if only so you can say that you read it. The characters range from amusing to annoying, and you'll probably want to drop-kick Anna by page 500. Levin's internal struggle over peasant-noble relations and the agricultural revolution are nausiating. The religious conflicts several of the characters experience become equally tedious. The book is saved by the lovable near-do-well Oblonsky and his wife Dolly. So read this "classic" and just be glad it wasn't "war and peace"; that's even longer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazing study of people
Review: Anna Karenina was an amazing book. It is a timeless study in people and the way they interact with eachother. The only suggestion I would make to readers is that it's not an easy book to pick up and put down - unless you have some serious time to devote, it gets to be a bit overwhelming. I would definatel recommend it though!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent on so many levels
Review: Don't go through life without reading "Anna Karenina." This novel is excellent on so many levels that you can read it again and again, as I have, and still thoroughly enjoy it. Tolstoy skillfully tells two different stories simultaneously, based on the same theme: How does one find true happiness? Anna makes a choice and tries to bravely see it through, trying all the while to persuade herself that she's found happiness, but you can feel the strain build as the novel nears its climax. Levin nearly drives himself insane in his mental tug-of-war over where his place in life should be, but eventually comes full circle. In their journeys, Anna and Levin cross paths, with fascinating results. I can't stress enough that this book is a must-read. Be prepared to be thoughtful, depressed, elated and emotionally drained.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not if you have anything better to do
Review: A lot of people claim this is "the best book ever written", "why the novel was invented" and other such originalities. Quite frankly I don't believe them. Obviously Tolstoy does demonstrate a good grasp of his language and imagination. Apart from that the characters are truly despicable, each and everyone of those so called nobles and aristocrats.

I was relieved when I finished it so now I can slate it when discussing it with friends, but if you have a healthy dislike of boredom, I really suggest you do something better with your time.

Overall NOT an indispensible read, make sure you don't let the novel slip from your hands as it would probably break your foot.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: BOOOOOORINNNNNGGGGGG
Review: This book, written by the king of bore himself, and 811 pages long has got to be the most pointless book I have ever had to read. It's just about some woman's extra-marital affair with some guy and these two newlyweds' life together. Honestly I could care less. It has no excitement, not much of a thick plot, and is stifling in the reading experience. Which, by the way, was an experience in torture, endurance, and stamina. I wouldn't reccomend this book to any person who has things to do and people to see, it just didn't hold my attention and I didn't care about any of the characters because they were plausable and real.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A novel that is definitely worth thinking about
Review: This classic novel is definitely Tolstoy's masterpiece. Once, you read "Anna Karenina" ,you will begin to figure out that Tolstoy is one of the greatest men the world has ever seen.The story of the ruin of a young and charming woman called Anna, will definitely set you thinking about the meaning of holy matrimony. Unhappy with her marriage, Anna seeks a way out of her loveless life. She finds the love she yearned for with Count Vronsky. However, that illegal love takes away her son, her status in society ,and in the end , her life.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: something missing...
Review: "Anna Karenina" is quite masterful in depicting the importance of social context in giving shape and meaning to our lives. Levin, on the one hand, stumbles across all of the seemingly boring accoutrements of the happy home life (in-laws, worrying about the baby, etc) and in so doing finds perfect fulfillment and his place in the universe. Anna, on the other hand, cuts herself off from this world in her outlaw pursuit of a romance with Vronsky. Her life spirals out of control and leads to the well known denouement.

But there is a problem here: Tolstoy never really explains why Anna would make this choice in the first place. Anna was surely not the only woman in 19th century Russia married to a boring man. Why did her marriage not work? Why was she, of all people, brash enough to leave her husband and her son? What caused her to turn her back not just on them but on her entire world? In the end, I felt as if Tolstoy himself never had any real feel for Anna but rather was using her as a tool in a psychological experiment: what happens when you cut someone off completely from the society from which she sprang.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: don't argue.
Review: The best novel ever written. Period. The Maude translation. No more needs to be said.


<< 1 .. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 .. 22 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates