Anna Karenina

(1877)
Leo Tolstoy

Finished Reading: 04.2010

Tolstoy presents a wide landscape of characters and sets them divinely into these 870 pages. Anna Karenina along with the epic War and Peace reveals Tolstoy to be the master of describing regular people who do normal everyday things, simply living their lives and taking way too many pages to do it. We see both the grand ball at some magnificent estate where the young ladies are blushing for attention, ready to dance; as well as the open country and the farms where men hunt wild birds from the tall muddy grasses, surrounded by barking dogs.

Some characters are more at home in the elegant world of culture, and others feel most comfortable outdoors under the sun, although all find themselves adapting to new situations. The descriptions are rich and all personalities, thoughts, and intentions are finely related. Scenes are drawn with a finely sharpened pencil. We see the dew as it clings to the grass under a quickly rising sun, hear a distant herd of lowing cattle, and observe a clever observation - the "dilated nostrils" of a horse said to be "transparent as a bats wing." Along with the beautiful descriptions of nature, the interaction between characters is positively enjoyable.

While this book isn't really about anything in particular, that is, there is no particular quest or highly sought achievement, there are certainly prevalent themes. It is foremost a book about love, relationships, and marriage - quite broad, imprecise topics. The tales of various lovers are unfolded, and many of these associations cross paths. One relationship between timid admirers gathers momentum and blossoms, while another relationship between a weary pair fizzles out. Men are often looking around at the fine young women of society, and women wonder if they can trust any man, including their own husbands. Some couples have what it takes to make a successful marriage, and some do not. The scales are tipping in a precarious balance with the difference often being a little less forgiveness, communication or reconciliation than will keep a relationship steady.

Anna Arkadyevna Karenina is a troubled lover who at first is the very center of Russian society, calmly elegant as in the eye of the storm. She is torn between her husband (Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin) whom she does not love but with whom she shares a young son, and her lover (Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky) a younger man with whom she falls in love. Anna and Vronsky run away and are shunned by proper Russian society. Anna endures a painful change from respected woman above suspicion, talented in the consolation of other troubled women, to a disrespectful and selfish adulteress caught in a difficult tension between two men and the opposite sides of society they represent - official and outcast. Anna finds herself in a void, unable to receive love from either man, though they both claim her. Proper female virtue turns on its head for the whims of forbidden love and tragedy.

Konstantin Dmitrievitch Levin is a quiet man who prefers to keep others at arms distance, wanting much but having no real direction or life goals. He is a nobleman farmer who goes to great trouble with the best way to farm his land because it is easier than talking to people at parties or looking for a wife. He is unlucky in love and lacks the determination to remedy his heartache, but thanks to a lucky though impulsive decision, he finds a wife and begins a family. Not really knowing anything about family life, he fumbles through and keeps his heart in the right place, trying to love his wife Kitty. He rises from the gloom of bachelorhood to the happiness of excited love, and though it isn't always easy Levin makes a good life for himself.

"All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." The novel begins with this line and reveals the primary theme of the book as the increasing happiness of one family and the decreasing happiness of some others.  

The paths of these two central characters are on an inverse course throughout the book. As profiled above, Anna starts off as the center of Russian society, elegantly respected, a caring mother. Over time she becomes more and more self-centered, disrespected, and ceases to care for either of her children, one from each man. She is swindled by lust and crushed by her break from society. She becomes impulsive and confused, finding it difficult to make decisions and blames Vronsky and everyone else for her misfortunes. Anna is boldly defiant of any wrong on her part and does not seek answers beyond herself until the very end, choosing an unconventional method of conflict resolution.

Conversely, Levin begins detached and confused. He doesn't really know what he wants but after he marries Kitty he begins to find a comfortable place in proper society, participates in local politics, commerce and discussion; and gains a strong self-respect. He becomes a fuller person and even seeks  truth beyond himself, finding solace in religion. His struggle with God allows him to love other people and a significant difference in the Levin's relationship is that their attempts to communicate and understand one another draw them closer, whereas Anna and Vronsky lack the ability to communicate and thus push further apart in their own selfishness.

Besides this compelling pair of opposites (Anna and Levin) who barely meet face to face but share a common extended family and a segment of society, I enjoyed Tolstoy's use of character conversations to create an interesting  dialogue of the political and societal issues of late 19th Century Russia. The people of the day were interested in the best way to farm land, the importance of new farming machinery, the status of former serfs now working as low-wage laborers, the accepted status of an adulterous married woman, the importance of contributing to another man's foreign war, the favored styles of art, and even the best way to make jam - with water or without.