Anna Karenina

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Summary: An meaningful book focusing on the importance of love.
Review: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina gripped me by the heart from the moment I sat down and started to read it. The thoughts of Levin, Dolly, Kitty, and Vronsky are all ones we have shared at some point in our lives. Throughout the novel, Tolstoy constantly brings up that eternal question of "Is it better to have money or is it better to have love?" When reading, pay close attention to Levin's and Dolly's encounterings with the working peasants. As in so many of Tolstoy's writings, he brings up important social commentaries about the increasingly familiar socialistic attitude pervading Russia. This is an important book from this aspect but it is more important in that it tells of the human experience in terms that anyone who has ever been in love, and felt that undescribable feeling, can understand and relive. I encourage everyone to read Anna Karenina and relish its 950+ pages.

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Summary: Perfectly crafted and very human
Review: I was pleasantly surprised when I read this book. I set myself the task as one of those "must read when I have the time" classics. The novel is very warm. The characters are so wonderful and human without being necessarily good or bad. The gentle and respectful way these characters were presented made an enormous impression on me. Descriptions of family relations, social relations and even people's innermost feelings seemed very insightful and marvellously put. I realise this was translated from the Russian, but I have rarely read such well written prose, so perfectly crafted. I am glad to just know that such literature exists. It was a real joy to read on so many levels.

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Summary: Not for the weak of heart!
Review: The work of Leo Tolstoy and other Russian authors has always been slightly misunderstood. Generally this was attributed to the fact that Russia and America used to be on unfriendly terms. All of that beside, Dostoevsky himself once called Anna Karenin(a) "a perfect work of art," and Tolstoy "the god of art." The novel is full of drama and heartbreaking moments, I warn those who are lovesick or recently dumped: you will expierience the full effect of Anna Karenina. Tolstoy himself was very emotional and in this novel he opens a virtual waterfall of complex emotions and portrays them with astonishing detail. In short, a must read!

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Summary: A great inroduction to Tolstoy
Review: Anna Karenina is the first Tolstoy book I've read, and it left me thirsty for more. A combination of intrigue, romance, ethical dilemma and the wonderful Russian society. You certainly don't find writers like this nowadays, an unfortunate truth of our times and culture. I encourage anyone and everyone to pick this one up. It may take a little time and patience (especially if your not used to older writing), but worth every bit of the effort.

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Summary: I was so disappointed
Review: I have heard and read so much about this book and its author before that I had very high exception of Anna Karenina. It is needless to say that I was greatly disappointed not so much in style of the book but with the content and its characters. I have read others' reviews and found it astonishing to believe that people actually felt sorry for Anna Karenina. She was nothing but selfish and deceitful character that made everyone else miserable to ensure her own happiness. She is the main reason that I was so greatly disappointed with the book. I could hardly believe that people thought this was the greatest love story of all. Her behavior and attitude showed nothing but her selfishness and wantonness. The book might have been accurate in providing what it was like in 19th century Russia's high society but other than that it was horrid example of tasteless and contemptible adulterous affair between two very selfish and undeserving people. It poorly measured up to its reputation and praises.

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Summary: fabulous
Review: I have to say that I loved Anna Karenina. One good thing about it is that there are no villains, no one-sided characters, who are only out to get the heroines and heroes. Everyone is flawed and everyone is likeable. I found the ending very sad, the Anna ending that is, because you get the feeling she is changing her mind at the last minute and there is nothing she can do about it. At first I didn't like Vronsky, but because I was seeing him through Levin's eyes, but later you get a more rounded view of him. Tolstoy weaves his ideas (philosophical etc.) into the story much better than in War and Peace, where the ideas sometimes came from nowhere, though that too is a brilliant book, in different ways. Anna Karenina is always readable, as well as being fabulous literature

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Summary: Great book, but this is for the guy who wrote another novel:
Review: Hey buddy, nobody wanted you to summarize the book! We don't read these things to learn the plot of the story, just to get a general flavor for the book. Here's a little tip for you: Nobody reads the reviews when they're longer than about six lines anyway. When your review covers the entire page everyone's definitely going to skip the whole thing! Just tell us whether you liked it or not and why next time, OK?

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Summary: I never thought I'd get through 800 pages in 1 week!!!
Review: I started reading this book as a challenge to myself...and found myself getting completely caught up in its fascinating characters and fast-moving plotlines. The story is timeless (although a background in 19th century Russian history would have made some of the political themes and the social pressures felt by the characters more meaningful to me). Its so easy to be captivated by the characters. At times they are so flawed and so disillusioned that you want to jump inside the pages and kick some sense into them! But this was a wonderful novel--don't be frightened by its length!!

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Summary: Wonderfully Complex!
Review: As I read Anna Karenina I could not help but feel that the story line involving Anna is merely a way to get people involved in his novel and that the message Tolstoy really wanted heard was told in his lesser character of Levin. All along I felt that even though his characters were brilliant, I kept looking for more than a story of the social values of 19th century Russia. Certain their was more, I was very depressed when Anna killed herself and there were only 30 pages left. After all 900 pages, what was missing that could be said in such a short time? Not knowing of Tolstoy's own spiritual life at the time, I was thrilled to read the vividly descriptive struggle that Levin had in the end between faith and intellect! Although this was hinted at throughout, it was shaded by the titilating main character of Anna. Throughout the book I commented that the writing style reminded me of Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, who clokes her true message in a search for the illustrious John Galt. Readers who found this book to be like a soap opera only skimmed the surface. Although tedious at times, it was in the tedium that I searched for Tolstoy's true self to be revealed. I was not disappointed!

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Summary: Pretty good
Review: I read this book for school, it was on a book list. I wasn't sure that I would like it, but it turned out good. I heard that Tulsa Ballet made a ballet out of it, (I'm a dancer) and I think that's great! Its like a Russian soap opera. :-)