Rating: 
Summary: Lifestyles of the Noble!!!
Review: You really must have complete concentration for this book,
and complete concentration is one thing I don't have.
There were good parts, like the horse race, which ended disasterously, and Anna's illness, which also ended disasterously. But I'm sorry, I don't see how anyone could call this the best love story ever.
And if it was translated, why did they keep all of the
bumpy Russian names. It took me two weeks to get through this book, and it was mainly due to the names.
But I take great pleasure in saying I finished this
book, so if anyone asks me I can say BEEN THERE,DONE THAT!!!
Having read Anna Karenina, I give it 3.5 stars...
Rating: 
Summary: Anna Karenina
Review: Anna Karenina is a rich, young, beautiful socialite. She has a successful, respected husband, a large group of wealthy and influential friends, and an intelligent young son. Yet she is bored, and feels as though her life is empty because she has never known love. While visiting her brother, she meets the dashing Count Vronsky, and an affair begins that deeply affects her family and the people around her.
The novel, Anna Karenina, is founded on a problem that by today's standards would not be as destructive as it was in 1880s Russian society. When the Vronsky-Anna affair deepens from a merely physical attraction to love and eventual pregnancy, the main problem for the principal characters lies in the difficulty of divorce in Russia, a problem which has no equivalent in today's looser society. As such, Anna's plight unfortunately loses a lot of its weight, and we are forced instead to treat the novel as a social statement, a cross section of Russian morality and thought, a glimpse at a way of life long since gone.
Because of Tolstoy's impressive range and ability to portray each character in an almost totally unbiased manner, this is not so much of a problem. Levin, the somber land owning aristocrat, given to farming and pining for the woman Vronsky spurned to be with Anna, is arguably the novel's other primary focus. His storyline deals with the difficulties the landed aristocracy faced as wealthy commoners began to prove themselves capable of making a profit using American capitalism as a tool, something the nobility had rejected as vulgar. It is through Levin that most of the ideas of the novel are explored: That of religion, serfdom and nobility, elections, the 'new' morality of the younger aristocrats, and so on.
A flaw of the novel - although I will put it down to social differences rather than technical mistakes, as Tolstoy shows no lack of talent in most areas - is that Anna is not very sympathetic. I did not care for her problems, and found her a vapid, irritating character. She complains, she whines, she pouts. She is horribly jealous. She did not care at all for her second child, nor was she interesting in anyone else's interests, problem or desires. Yes, we the reader are made aware that she is beautiful and interesting and intelligent, but in all of her dealings with the other characters, she comes across as either selfishly manipulative or airily vacuous.
However. The 'Levin' sections of the novel are wonderful. Levin, the helpful introduction informs me, is Tolstoy's greatest self portrait. They shared the same occupation, the same wife, the same ideas. On Tolstoy's wedding day, he forgot his shirt, so too does Levin. Perhaps this is why the character of Levin is so realised, so sympathetic, so endearing. Of course, he has his unpleasant moments, but these serve to round out his character, rather than annoy. There was a scene, about five hundred pages into the novel, when a gun was accidentally fired by one of the characters. At the time, I stopped reading, put the book down for a moment, and felt a sense of dread that one of my favourite characters might have died. They hadn't, but I think this is one of the greatest recommendations for the novel that I have to offer. I genuinely cared about this man - Levin - and I did not want to see him come to harm. The same could not be said of Anna.
As a social statement, Anna Karenina is amazing. While I found the 'problem' of divorce a difficulty to reconcile with my own social upbringing, the way it was discussed, argued, condemned and praised within the wealthy circles of Russia was extremely interesting. All of Tolstoy's characters were intelligent and articulate, able to give reasoned, attractive arguments to either the positive or negative side of Anna's actions.
Is Anna Karenina to be recommended? Yes, a thousand times yes. There is a richness, a full, created identity of the world in which the characters live that is difficult to find in another piece of art. Tolstoy's world is fully realised, because it is the world - or was. A problem in many works of fiction is that it is hard - if not impossible - to believe that the characters and situations could exist once the pages have finished turning and the story is over. Not so with Anna Karenina. The characters, and most importantly, the settings, are allowed to breathe and live. It is as though we are seeing a slice of a full, coherent reality, and while it is not necessarily the most important slice of life for everyone, it is a significant piece. Before and after this slice, the characters live, even though we do not see it, and this is felt within the pages.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Novel in History
Review: Anna Karenina is arguably the best work of fiction ever written. It is very long, and, at least for me, was not the kind of book you can read 50 pages at a time, like a contemporary work of fiction. Anna K. is more like a book you have to savor, a few pages at a time.
Although this book is about romance to a degree, as one who can't stand books or movies with romantic themes I can say that those who don't like romance should read it anyway, because romance is not the dominant theme, despite some appearances. Rather, this is a book about life, and it takes in the whole of life for Russia during the late Tsarist period. History rather than literature is my primary interest, and those who are historically-minded will find this book a treasure.
Despite being a tale of adultery between Anna K. and Vronsky, a young aristocrat, it is a morally uplifting book which emphasizes the joy and satisfaction that Levin and "Kitty"
(Katya/Yekaterina/Catherine) have in their marriage and their simple life at the estate. I heartily recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: Not your average Oprah's Book
Review: First of all, to anyone reading these reviews, I'd HIGHLY recommend also reading the reviews of the non-Oprah's Book Club edition. The reviewer pool of the regular edition should be, shall we say, slightly different from this one.Despite its slightly lackluster plot and rather excessive length, Anna Karenina remains one of my favorite books of all time. So very often when reading passages in this book I would think to myself, "Yes, exactly! That's it exactly!" There seems to be no thought pattern, no emotional subtlety, no tumultuous inner conflict - in short, no condition of being human, however complex - that Tolstoy cannot perfectly elucidate in description and metaphor. It is these magnificent insights into the human experience, presented with a clarity that will take your breath away, which for me made this book well worth reading. Anyone looking for a quick read or uplifting storyline should probably look elsewhere (so I'm not exactly sure how this book ended up in Oprah's Book Club), but for those wishing to try and disentangle some of the more complex threads of the human condition, I could not recommend it more highly!
Rating: 
Summary: Read with a purpose
Review: Granted, Tolstoy is a phenomenal writer - unfortunately I can't in good conscience give this book five stars. For every one who thought that Tolstoy's books are difficult to decipher, put your mind at rest; his style is lucid and intelligent allowing for a highly readable book. That's the good news. The bad news is that, as a fiction novel, this book will dissapoint. It's great to read for historical purposes: it presents many philisophical questions that are conversation worthy and evinces the many tribulations of the Russian people. However, the book fails to have a significant plot. Nothing ever comes together. Instead, what is presented is a rambling - or one could even say musing - of each character's thoughts and feelings; and these thoughts and feelings never remotely approach towards a result. It's like reading someone's journal: you have to read about everything the character did that day and how the character felt about it...it drags on and is becomes pretty boring, to say the least.
The book is not even about Anna Karenina for the most part: her story occupied maybe 200 to 300 pages, at the most, of an 800 page novel. The character Levin took up most of the story. Additionally, it seems that there are an incessant amount of characters introduced to no purpose. I never got to know them or care about them and their overall presence seemed superfluous to the story.
I would compare Tolstoy's Anna Karenina to Don Delillo's White Noise. They each have the same idea: ignore the plot and reveal the materialistic and utter pointless aspects of life. Tolstoy is of course a far better writer than Delillo - and more phlisophically inclined - but his style essentially subverts what has come to be the traditional plot based fiction novel.
Overall, I was happy to learn more about Russia in the nineteenth century - but I would not go so far as to say that this book was an incredible ground breaking read. There is some humor and there are some parts of the book that are interesting. As a whole,however, the book failed to hold my interest. I finished it only because I am in the habit of finishing novels that I start.
Rating:
Summary: Anna Karenina, A Critical View of a Monumental Work.
Review: I am ecstatic that Ms. Winfrey chose to re-start her Book Club with "The Classics." She continues from One Hundred Years of Solitude with Anna Karenina, a book that I love about an affluent woman who's driven to adultery with a soldier and the tragic consequences of her inability to deal with loneliness. It was an especially scandulous topic considering the morees of the 19th century and the religious background of Count Tolstoy.
I especially recommend this edition, because of the translators, the husband and wife team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. They're extremely well known and have received numerous award for their translations of Russian literature, especially the unparalleled translations of Dostoevsky's novels, Notes From Underground, Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and in particular, Demons.
Their translation of Demons and the introduction ("The Foreward") is the most intriguing essay ever written about an author and the background to the work. There is much to say about Anna Karenina and Tolstoy. Both were (strangely enough) favored by Mark Twain as opposed to his great dislike of Tolstoy's contemporary, Dostoevsky. To paraphrase Twain, from his essay "Fennimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," Tolstoy captures a realistic portrait of the human condition, and not drawn away by romantic fantasies. I didn't agree with Twain negative description of Dostoevsky and Victor Hugo, but 19th Century observation was what it was. *If I may recommend, the foremost series of classic literature is found in The Norton Critical Edition series.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC TRANSLATION!
Review: I picked up a copy of this book during the summer and remained glued for one week. I could not believe how wonderful this translation was. I read this book a few years ago and though I loved the story, remained dissatisfied with the translation. This is a superb example of retelling Tolstoy's great work.
Rating:
Summary: No expert - But read tons of Russina lit
Review: I'll say it here, I am no expert on Russian literature, even though I have read tons of it and have quite a library both in Russian and English.
I, so far, have loved (and have bought) everything by Richard Pevear (Translator) and Larissa Volokhonsky (Translator). You can't buy another version better than theirs. Readable, lyrical, a quick and interesting read if one be permitted to say that about a Russian author! Finally a translator that speaks English yet keeps the Russian 'feel' so that you 'know' this family by the time you're only a few pages into the book.
Buy this book, read it and then go find another one by the same translators.
You will not be disappointed. An easy five stars whether Oprah recommended it or not!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: If this is not thre greatest novel ever written, it's certainly in the top 10. Tolstoy addresses a multitude of themes in Anna Karenina: infidelity, faith in God, love, politics, and more. It's scope is wider and more ambitious than almost any novel you will find. What's more amazing is that Tolstoy makes it all work. The main characters are all well developed, particularly Levin. I will admit that the book does drag in spots, and the multitude of names gets confusing at times, but keep going! It is well worth the effort. A must read.
Rating:
Summary: Tolstoy degraded
Review: It is a great book and a good reason why we should read more and watch the trash on TV as little as possible. So it is totally insidious when a leading TV personality recommends this masterpiece. In seeking to elevate herself by pretending to understand Tolstoy ("one of the greatest love stories of all time" rah-rah), she is degrading the book. First East of Eden, now Anna Karenina, what will be the next victim? I wish she would stick to recommending cookbooks and diet books. It reminds me of when some of the biggest polluting companies pretend in their commercials to be environmentally-friendly. Truly disgusting!
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