Ratings369
Average rating4
It is brilliant... but I had forgotten that Tolstoy was very Christian.
So - Anna goes mad and accidentally kills herself, but Levin gets his religion on, so all if well.
This is really not a love story between Anna and Vronsky. Levin is the MC here. But - I suppose if people were aware of it, a lot of people wouldn't read this book :-D
BTW, I hate AnnaI found her extremely selfish, stupid, mean, entitled bitch. Even her death... sigh Stupid bitch!
I feel so bad for Seryozha. I can't imagine how Anna Alexeyich's life is going to be, being brought up by Karenin, who hated both her parents. I can imagine how Seryozha hates his little sister who is a symbol of what took his mother away from him. I wish Anna had taken Seryozha and run away when she wanted to. Never mind Karenin's letter and wishes. Obviously she didn't really care about what he thought.
I was expecting Anna to be more judged, but people weren't really that nasty to her. One incident, which she should have expected to happen. I mean, how would she not understand people see her as the marriage breaker, when she is the only one who was unfaithful to her spouse? Vronsky was unmarried, Karenin never cheated on anyone.
And Vronsky really loved her and tried to do what was best for her. She was just so f-ing wound up with herself that she didn't even hear him. And, no, I don't accept the way the society and her husband treated her as any excuse. She refused to divorce him, and then she started whining because he changed his mind. After all, she lost her son when she chose Vronsky... even when Karenin had seen to that she could have a respectable life as a wife and mother, AND all the love and sex with Vronsky. I can only assume she was sick (like bipolar or something), and that, I suppose, is excuse enough. But I still don't like her.
I also love the description of Levin and the birth of his son :-D
I was a bit surprised by all the politics going on in the book. I didn't know about that.