Anna Karenina

This book is renowned as one of the great novels of war and romance. Written by a Russian Author by the name of Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina tells the story of a young woman forced into infidelity and secrecy through a series of lies, retributions and slanders that increase the chance of 'being found out' one step at a time. 

I remember reading this in my teens and thinking "why is this book so depressing!?" And then, I realised that literature is never depressing. It is just another part of the three dimensional human condition. I learned that little fact from literatureandhistory.com and the podcast of Episode 20: The Problem of Evil. A great podcast for learning about everything associated with literature and the historical context. Especially for us English university students who want to have a good time and be educationally enhanced. 

So, on with Anna Karenina. 


Characters:

I couldn't choose one favourite character; so I went with our eponymous protagonist. She is feisty, heroic, secret, isolated, rich, uplifted, idealistic, valuable, clever, witty and ultimately - she is tragic. That is all I have to say. She's so well constructed that her downfall seems almost confusing - her three dimensional nature just makes us, as readers, want to console her and tell her "everything's gonna be okay." Even though it'll probably turn out terrible in the end. 


Themes:

The theme of love and war are my favourites here. Soldiers and romance; something like Kiera Knightley and Cillian Murphy in The Edge of Love (2007).  I found some of the other themes, such as secrecy and depression - loss and grief, appearance and reality etc. a little underwhelming compared to the overpowering 'love and war' theme. An equal balance is key - but whether Tolstoy did this on purpose, I will never know. 


Storyline:

I'm not going to lie to you - the storyline was a little confusing with all the long names everywhere, people having similar names and then the story itself being that massive - I couldn't have possibly done it without some secondary reading at hand. But, after I did finally get through it a second time, without the secondary reading - I saw that it was beautifully crafted with violent and tragic uses of great extended metaphors and similes that resonate those of classic literature. So, congrats Tolstoy! Anna Karenina did for Love and War - what War and Peace did for Love and War. Brilliant. 


Verdict:

I give this book 7/9

100% for characters: I feel that the characters were all developed brilliantly - even though some were a little bit more confusing than others. The characters of Anna Karenina are all constructed from their own beautiful, yet tragic lies. 

2/3 for themes: This is purely for the inequality I felt when I was reading - sometimes themes would just appear and then never again for the rest of the book. I feel some themes for not treated equally. #ThemeLivesMatter 

2/3 for storyline: I feel that it was just a little generally confusing in places. Some of it sounded a little rushed, but be that as it may, the overall story was not something that could've been told better by a different author. Tolstoy really does know how to read us a tragic romance.