Anna Karenina (Oxford World's Classics)

Very highly recommended.


the most reliable travel companion   April 6, 2002
alexis.lambourne@queens.ox.ac.uk (Oxford England)
8 out of 10 found this review helpful

I was given this book as a graduation gift, and for a month or two it sat and gathered dust. However once I picked it up and began to read it became ever harder to tear myself away. Oblonsky, Levin, Anna et al became indispensable companions as I travelled round South America. I laughed, cried, empathised and pitied; in short, shared all possible emotions as Tolstoy took me through the complexity and emotional turmoil of Russian high society life. I will never forget the companionship this book offered me, or the sense of loss when I finished it.
Wherever you are going; jam it in your rucksack, squeeze it in your suitcase...you can't fail to be moved by this book.


19th Century literature; 21st Century reality   July 16, 2001
3 out of 5 found this review helpful

Tolstoy's 'Anna Karenina' is often described as the best novel ever written, which I confess was almost sufficient to ensure that I never considered reading it for the simple reason that "intelectually-stimulating" pieces rarely entertain. However this masterpiece not only fascinates those interested in Tsarist Russia at the time of Alexander II's sweeping reforms, but those interested in questions of mortality and humanity generally, which are brought out by Tolstoy's interwoving characters and storylines, and particularly through the thoughts of Levin. There is little doubt that this Russian noble reflects succinctly Tolstoy's own dilemma, and indeed that of any thinking person: philosophical scruples and angst clashing with the realities of our world. His conclusion, reached after almost 900 pages of deliberation, suggests that it is better just to live and allow consciously one's instincts to take over rather than to torture oneself with intellectual blackholes and questions to which there are no answers. Initially it may thus seem that the preceeding 900 pages (full of philosophical questions)were a waste of the reader's time, but despite Tolstoy's (purposeful) failure to provide a moral teaching to the reader, all the intriguing and entertaining storylines lead to the final message resounding clearly: we are all mortal and flawed, but while self-improvement is crucial, so is getting on with one's life. How can such questions be seen as irrelevant in the modern day? Above all, this book engulfs the reader in the best love story ever told, and the ideas raised by Tolstoy with such effortless ease will never leave you.