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Summary: Ignore the themes, enjoy the story.
Review: Anna Karenin is my favorite novel (although I would rank several others as literary equals), and I recommend it to anyone who reads for the sheer joy of a great story---the themes are rather obvious and quotidian, so there is no reason to overintellectualize them. Rather than give my synopsis and analysis, I'd like to also recommend Vladimir Nabokov's "Lectures on Russian Literature", which contains a long section devoted to Anna Karenin. Nabokov's study increased my appreciation for Anna Karenin immeasurably (it is an analysis with an artist's eye for detail rather than an academic's penchant for pedantry). I'd also like to point out that there are different translations available, and not all of them are good. I can recommend the one by Rosemary Edmonds; And, I have heard that the Maude translation is also good, but I have not yet read this one. I am not an expert, so you might want to visit a well-stocked bookstore or library and compare for yourself. P.S. Nabokov's "Lectures on Literature" is also a pleasure to read. --Happy reading!
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Summary: An Absolute Must Read for the Thoughtful
Review: The question whether love can rise above social condition is the contradiction that has puzzled the world for centuries. Even in modern fairytales like The Bridge of Madison County and Horse Whisper, the paradox manifests itself in readers' imaginations with two different strands of solutions trying to unite. Tears are shed when passion indeed thrives but social constraint separates the hungry hearts, but when one focuses on the other side of that paradox, we see tragedy in both Emma Bovary and Anna Karenina. When Anna deserts her husband, a sophisticated bureaucrat, and her young son, ultimately her status to succumb to her desires for the dashing Vronsky, society abandons her as well. She is moved by Vronsky's words that solve the mystery of her unhappy marriage life, "But how often the happiness of marriages founded on reason crumbles to dust because the very passion that was disregarded makes itself felt later". Running in parallel with Anna Karenina's adultery is Levin's, a young nobleman a.k.a. Tolstoy's fictional counterpart, quest for truth in love and in religion. What he seeks in life manifests the same physical and mental burden as he struggles to gain control of a life that is indeed under the dominance of social status. What puzzles me is if Anna's tragedy is to be presented in a modern setting with fewer social constraint, how the outcome would differ. Morality of society alters while morality of mankind alters little; that statement itself may create some obstacle in a replay, but perhaps more freedom is indeed allowed in the modern world which explains the frequency of divorce and of course, crimes. No one can abide the law according to Tolstoy, and that certain doesn't change with time and progress. Love cannot exist free of social influences, but passion could. Yet at the end, love thrives over social boundaries while passions dies tamed perhaps by the iron claws of systematic limitations.
Rating:
Summary: It feels funny to "rate" this greatest of all...
Review: I love amazon.com because we get to comment on old books as well as new. Thank you, management, for being there. As one person has said here, I, too, felt terribly sorry for Seryozha, Anna's little son. In fact, I have always thought someone should write a sequel to the book, (if they had the nerve), about the child's future life. I detested Anna's husband; when I read the book again years later I did not despise Vronsky - he's just weak and frankly, it was a no-win situation. In any case, I have often, as a woman, referenced back to Anna's situation, both from my own as well as friends' experiences. Despite the author's maddening relationship with his wife and other women, he really "got it" when it came to Anna. All in all, a divine creation that can never be surpassed.
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Summary: In his later life, Tolstoy rejected novel-writing ...
Review: When Tolstoy turned 50, he took a look at his life and what he had accomplished and didn't like what he saw. The famous author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina thought he had wasted his time on writing trash. He thought his novels had done society a disservice, because they glamorized the frivolous aspects of life and pandered to his readers' superficial wish to be amused. So what did he think was worth his readers' time in his later years? If you respect the mind that wrote Anna Karenina, you ought to read his later works on the meaning of life.
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Summary: I think this book is one of the most greatest novels.
Review: The novel "Anna Karnina" through a feminstic point of view makes me quite angrey.How come that a women cannot have an affair and a men can? Why do society look diffrently on women and men? and why did Vornsky had to be such a kreep?
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but no "War and Peace" either.
Review: I was very excited to read "Anna Karenina", especially after reading "War and Peace". Unfortunately, though, I was disappointed. Not a bad book by any stretch of the imagination; I just found it a little disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: One of the most amazing books of all times!!!
Review: What a great reason to learn Russian -- the book is much better in its native language. However, even the English version is rather beyound words. This true masterpiece of literature is worth rereading many times. Tolstoy has an amazing insite into human nature; his characters and far more than 3 dimentional -- the palate of detailed nuances that Tolstoy supplies his readers is unmatched by its completness. The scale of the book is grandiose and it rather indescribable. You simply MUST read it and experience for yourself -- you will NOT be sorry!
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Summary: She still generates controversy!
Review: I loved this book so much I wanted to name my daughter after Anna. When my wife watched the movie and discivered her fate, she thought I was out of my mind. "Suppose our daughter ends up like her? It's a bad omen!" Anyway, after some heated debates, we reached a compromise and came up with the name "Hannah-Kay." It just goes to show the kind of influence this great novel continues to have on people. Tolstoy's psychological probing into Anna's conscience excruciating. By the end of the book, I felt I knew Anna better than Karenin and Vronksy combined.
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Summary: For the critics
Review: To say AK is a bad book because one does not like the characters is absurd. The book is superb in its depth of feeling and its honesty. If the same honesty was manifest in those who dislike it, then they would see the 'reasons' are internal to them and not the book.
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Summary: Read it, but with both eyes open.
Review: Tolstoy was my favorite author during my late teen-age years. Recently (after 25 years) I re-read Anna Karenina. I still say Tolstoy was a great thinker and a great writer. But I also have to say, my understanding deepened by my own religous experences and by being a husband and father, that most of the characters in Anna Karenina are not people I would like to associate with. In fact, they have serious mental and character problems, especially Anna and Constantine Levin, who is modeled after Tolstoy himself. My advice: Read it. It's a great book. Learn something about human nature and human weaknesses and also about traditional Russian society, which of course came to such a sad end in 1918.
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