Book Review: Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I began Anna Karenina thinking it was a love story. There is a love story within the pages of this novel, but I don’t think it involves the title character. Perhaps I just came into this reading with incorrect preconceptions about what to expect. 

Anna Karenina is really the story of three relationships. There are Anna and Vronsky, Kitty and Levin, and Dolly and Stiva. The tangle of connections between these six people is what the novel is really about. As you’re introduced to more characters in the story you build up something like a family tree, literally for some of the characters, but it also shows the wider network of associations of who knows who and how. I find this gradual building up of complexity draws me into the novel and brings the world to life.

The biggest surprise in reading this was the precision with which Tolstoy conveyed the women’s emotions, especially when they had been, or thought they had been, betrayed by their partner. The opening section of the novel perfectly conveys Dolly’s despair at Stiva’s infidelity. The later chapters when Anna is losing her mind over what she thinks Vronsky is away doing follow the exact anxious thoughts that plague people in these situations. It was a surprise to me that a male author writing in the 1870’s could so perfectly encapsulate the exact things that had run through my mind when I had been in those circumstances years ago. While I was reading those passages I was back there, feeling my own despair along with the characters. 

I found Anna unlikeable. All she had to do was be honest, but instead, she was manipulative. Perhaps it’s just a personal dislike, but I can’t stand intentionally manipulative people, and Anna’s entire existence was based on manipulating people to do what she wanted and get what she wanted. But I’m perhaps being a little harsh on her. She obviously had mental health issues, certainly depression and anxiety, and her paranoia was maybe beyond what a suspicious lover should feel. 

The real love story here for me was Kitty and Levin. Their relationship showed how much they cared for one another and how they both worked to make it a stronger marriage when one of them behaved in a way that threatened it. They would make up after their fights by communicating and talking about their feelings.

Dolly and Stiva’s relationship, while far from perfect, showed maturity and growth. After the initial threat from Stiva’s infidelity, they managed to come together again and continued to live together as a married couple. I wasn’t happy that Stiva continued his affairs, and I think ultimately the marriage would have dissolved.

Anna and Vronsky’s relationship seemed to be initiated out of infatuation. Had they not been in such a precarious situation they wouldn’t have stayed together so long. They convinced themselves they were still in love long after the initial passion had faded because the alternative of actually dealing with the situation they had put themselves in was worse than staying in a toxic relationship.

It’s a cultural thing, and hopefully something I will get used to as I read more Russian works, but I did have a hard time getting my head around all the different names used for the same people. Stiva is also Oblonsky and Stepan Arkadyevich. I did get confused, especially with minor characters when they were introduced with their full name and then referred to with their nickname or family name. I also had no idea there were so many princes and princesses in Russia. I’ll have to do some research into the structure of the royal families of Russia during that period to better understand it. 

Be prepared for a lot of talk of Russian politics and farming. It does a lot to set the tone, but it doesn’t make for interesting plot developments. But sit tight through the dry bits and it does come good. 

My frustration with Anna and Vronsky, coupled with the numerous slower sections meant that I did spend a lot of time convincing myself to keep going just so I could finish it. The gradual building of the characters and their interconnections and their lives helped me through, and the standout for me was Tolstoy's understanding of what goes through a lover's mind when they've been betrayed or suspect betrayal.

3 out of 5 stars.

Anna Karenina meets criteria five for the 2018 Read Harder Challenge.

Have you read Anna Karenina? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below!