Review: Anna Karenina

Title: Anna Karenina
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Nationality: Russian
Year: 1877, translated by Constance Garnett
Publisher: Project Gutenberg
Rating: 8/10
Summary: A novel of two halves

The outline

Widely proclaimed as one of the greatest novels of all-time, Anna Karenina follows the eponymous heroine’s adulterous affair in the Russian high society of the 1870s.

Sample

With the insight of a man of the world, from one glance at this lady's appearance Vronsky classified her as belonging to the best society. He begged pardon, and was getting into the carriage, but felt he must glance at her once more; not that she was very beautiful, not on account of the elegance and modest grace which were apparent in her whole figure, but because in the expression of her charming face, as she passed close by him, there was something peculiarly caressing and soft. As he looked round, she too turned her head. Her shining gray eyes, that looked dark from the thick lashes, rested with friendly attention on his face, as though she were recognizing him, and then promptly turned away to the passing crowd, as though seeking someone. In that brief look Vronsky had time to notice the suppressed eagerness which played over her face, and flitted between the brilliant eyes and the faint smile that curved her red lips. It was as though her nature were so brimming over with something that against her will it showed itself now in the flash of her eyes, and now in her smile. Deliberately she shrouded the light in her eyes, but it shone against her will in the faintly perceptible smile.

The verdict

Anna Karenina is a wonderful novel. Its tragic tale of adulterous love in 1870s Russia is deservedly a classic the world over. Tolstoy excels at grasping the psychology of his characters and his depiction of Anna and Vronsky’s love affair is moving and captivating as a result. He also wraps into that affair a cutting commentary on the society of his day, which is what separates a great novel from a merely good one.

However, as much as I liked Anna Karenina’s story, the novel as a whole was let down for me by its parallel narrative following the trials and tribulations of countryside landowner, Levin. The sections involving Levin, a proxy for Tolstoy, are preachy and long-winded. Levin can do no wrong in Tolstoy’s eyes and it’s easy to get irritated by his idealistic views of peasant life and his sentimental courtship of saccharine Kitty.

The Levin sections, which take up around half the novel, cause the story to drag in places which is why I felt I couldn’t award it a perfect score. Anna’s story may be a great one, but as a whole novel it failed to live up to other nineteenth-century stories of adultery, Madame Bovary and The Scarlet Letter.