Hellooooooooooo, Boho Belle Bookclubbers!
Today, I am
coming to you live from a Greyhound bus, tying away on my Macbook while
travelling back to Connecticut. I’ve been in Cambridge for the weekend visiting
one of my good friends, Emma. I don’t think she reads this blog, but hi, Emma!
It was a fantastic time. We went on a historical tour, ate a ridiculously
amazing amount of Mexican food, and spent a good two hours in her favorite
bookstore. I picked up two very cool books regarding trauma and sociopaths,
respectively, and am excited to read and review them for you guys! But let’s
not get ahead of ourselves – I am about to attempt the very difficult task of
reviewing Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina.
Deemed “the
greatest novel ever written” by Time
Magazine and many celebrated authors, I was very excited the first time I
picked up a copy a few years ago. Despite the fact that I really did enjoy the
first few chapters, I would always inevitably get bored with the length and
wordiness and thus would stop reading after Part I. But this summer, I
rediscovered my copy of the novel and decided that I would actually finish Anna Karenina. It took me a month and
four days, but I did it! *victory lap*
Anna Karenina follows several different
storylines, but the major plotlines have to do with Anna Karenina, the novel’s
namesake, and Constatine Levin. Basically, everyone has a really long and
confusing Russian name that is impossible to remember, and they all have
affairs or are worrying about their husband/wife/friend/neighbor having
affairs. But deeper than that, Anna
Karenina is a story about passion, societal expectations, and acceptance. I
honestly am at a loss for words on how else I can describe this magnificent 954
pages of literature.
The
characters in this story are impeccably depicted throughout the entirety of the
novel. My favorite character would have to be Levin. This co-protagonist is not
your average Prince Charming. He’s awkward, unfazed by the glamour of the
luxurious life, and questioning love and his faith. He doesn’t fit into the
standard roles in Russian society, and instead searchingly paves his own path.
While he is awkward in many respects, Levin is certainly kind-hearted and
generous. Throughout the novel, readers watch the ever-endearing character
experience true love, tumultuous childbirth, and the discovery of true
happiness.
I also
learned a lot about Russia in the 19th century. Despite my sophomore
year in high school stint with AP European History, I’m genuinely pretty
clueless when it comes to the history of Russia. I was absolutely enthralled
with the enormous amount of social progress that was taking place during the
time period of the novel. Specifically, of course, I was very fascinated with
the theme of women’s rights laced throughout the pages. I appreciated watching
Kitty’s mother have difficulty with allowing her to choose her own husband,
needing to adjust to the more modern way of love in society. It was also
interesting to watch the potential process of divorce occur- how difficult it was
to get a divorce, with a woman having no chance of being able to successfully file
for divorce.
While I
really did enjoy the story, I seemed to have difficulty with the length of the
novel. Tolstoy is brilliant and every single word was a part of the masterpiece
that is Anna Karenina, but I was
frustrated knowing that he could have written the exact same story in about
half the words. Upon researching the format of the book a little more, I found
that Tolstoy published the novel in installments over a period of four years.
Once I found this out, I definitely appreciated the length a lot more than I
had previously.
I could
rant and rant about my personal pros and cons of Anna Karenina, but I attempted to summarize my feelings in a
somewhat concise fashion. If you’ve been debating whether or not to tackle the
long, long novel, I recommend taking the plunge and going for it. While slow at
some points, this book does truly deserve all of the praise it has been given
throughout the course of history. I’m giving it 4.5 stars. Perhaps if I revisit
the novel in the future, my rating will change. I’ll let you know!
xoxo,
Abby
No comments:
Post a Comment