HONEST ANNA KARENINA BOOK REVIEW
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- čas přidán 5. 07. 2020
- I definitely wasn't planning on doing a book review for this, but after watching the movie "Anna Karenina" starring Keira Knightley and Jude Law, I had SO MANY THOUGHTS. Reading more classic fiction has been one of my "quarantine hobbies" and I'd LOVE to hear any opinions/ideas/book recommendations!
Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy!
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Such an awesome review. I love the parallels you drew between Levin and Anna in the sense that neither of them were the "ideal man/ woman" and how effortless their brief meeting was. Good stuff!
Your words remind me of the real Anna Karenina, Anna Stepanovna Pirogova. She was a concubine of Tolstoy's neighbor, Alexander Bibikov, who was a widower. They didn't and got married because Bibikov decided to keep their relationship that way, because Anna was single. Tolstoy's wife, Sophie, she had a good impression on Anna, who was a good and kind person. She killed herself because Bibikov abandoned her to marry a 19-year-old girl who was younger and more beautiful. In the end she was not valued for being a good and kind wife, preferring a younger and more beautiful woman. She committed suicide in a similar way as in the book.
"I think if there are as many minds as there are men, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts."
Loved your view. Specially the point you made about That Anna and levin are. ideal for each other , wouldn’t think about it own my own. When I finished the book I was kind of confused what to think of it . Got a lot of sense from your explanation
The Kiera Knightly movie version is my favorite movie of all time. First time I saw it, I didn't know the story, I didn't know what she was going to do. I've never been so taken by a film.
I thought that Levin's "Epiphany" at the end of the book was especially moving and powerful because it was revealed to him by a wise but simple, illiterate peasant. It was not revealed to him by a priest or a highly educated person.
Really enjoyed your point of view. thanks.
Nice! Kitty Scherbatsky (ESFJ), Konstantin Levin (INFJ) -- your thoughts?
Rho Heta I think you can make a very good argument that Kitty is an ESFJ. She had very nurturing instincts and knows how to behave in certain life milestones (like the death of Levin’s brother and her own childbirth). She takes control of Levin’s estate and seems at home in her “role” (indicating a very Fe + Si cognitive relationship). For Levin I think he’s closer to an INTJ. He feels satisfied by hard work and efficiency (Te) but he also battles internal philosophical and theological questions from a Ni-dominant and Fi-tertiary point-of-view. His friends seem to view things from a broader ethics perspective (more Extroverted Feeling focused) while he looks at things using an intuitive (Ni) and moral (Fi) lens.
@@jennajustman Very good. It's been a long time since I read it, but I'm reminded that the ESFJ-INTJ relationship has been called the Relationship of Conflict. Do we see that in the book?
Rho Heta We definitely do! Even though they had a very ideal picture of each other before getting married, their “newlywed phase” was one of conflict. I think they eventually found their groove after a while, but I’m not sure they truly understand each other’s motivations.
Wow! this is a very powerful review
Just finished this! I don’t understand whether Vronsky was really cheating with princess Sorokina, or was it all in Anna’s imagination? What is your understanding? Thank you
Hey! I’m actually not crystal clear on that part either. My guess is that Tolstoy wants to leave the reader hanging as we live in the doubts of Anna’s imagination. Whether he did or did not isn’t as important as the fact that Anna BELIEVES he did. By keeping the reader uncertain it helps us sympathize with Anna’s paranoid mental state.
@@jennajustman thanks for your insight. Waiting for your review of “War and Peace”. If you think AK was long wait till you read that.
100% in her imagination. Her position lead to complete delusion. If you've ever been in a suicidally dark place, you'd understand that Tolstoy captured this emotional experience perfectly. Tolstoy is widely considered the best author of the late 19th century "realism" style and moreover one of the greatest novelists of all time. Anna's demise is a perfect example of this. IMHO.
@@drew945101 thank you for your insight. I just finished the Kreutzer Sonata and that is somewhat similar, about marriage and position on the woman in marriage/society. Did you read it? If not, don’t read below, I don’t want to spoil it.
Same thing happens, it’s not clear if his wife is cheating or he’s just extremely jealous (I think she did cheat), and the ending is also tragic.
@@justme7920 interesting observation. I think he leaves it intentionally vague in order to stress the point that the story is not particularly about what is objectively happening, but instead it's about how life is perceived by the characters in regards to the complex network of circumstances that make up there position.
Vronsky loved Anna in a very different way than Anna loved Vronsky. Vronsky's love for Anna was what Tolstoy would have considered (in 1878) to be an honorable love. He wanted the situation to be reconciled so that they could be married freely in good society, so that his daughter could be his in the eyes of the law, where he could practice his passion for horse racing without concern of his wife's standing, ect.
Anna's love for Vronsky was a more desperate co-dependent love that grew progressively more toxic towards the end. Every separation between them filled her with spite and jealousy and because Vronsky didn't love her in the same toxic way, and she eventually resolved that he couldn't be in love with her at all.
And that's all without including how much the abandonment of her son factors into all of this....
It's really a fantastic book.
Just finished reading! I totally agree with your thoughts. The state of woman, in general, in society hasn’t actually changed much and its disheartening to write this statement. I loved Anna the most and her ending was quite fateful. She ends where it all began. But reading this whole book was torture. Oh! Those agricultural chapters. Did you skip some part or read it all the way? Speak truly 😉
Love your thoughts! I did read it all the way through 😂 But I gave myself a “page goal” everyday to get here, it definitely wasn’t easy!
@@jennajustman Same here. I set my goal of 20 pages a day. But after reading patiently for 700 to 800 pages, my mind was light-headed. Then I speed read Levin’s part and honestly, I'm not ashamed at all😬.
By the way, I loved your review.
@@ashishkumar-cy2kn yes no shame at all!! I think you can safely skim those sections and still get the most out of it!
I hated "Anna Karenina." The Bible is written by many authors and thus it is not included in the list, but obviously it is the best book in existence. I also do not call something a different story when the same world is used by the same author to create a story.
FAVORITE BOOKS.
1) "Verbal Behavior" by Dr. B. F. Skinner
2) "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3) "Fathers and Sons" by Ivan Turgenev
4) Myth Adventures - series by Robert Asprin
5) The Chronicles of Narnia - series by C. S. Lewis
6) "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy
7) "A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
8) "Roots" by Alex Haley
9) The Silmarillion - The Hobbit, or there and back again - The Lord of the Rings - Middle Earth stories by J. R. R. Tolkien
10) Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov
11) "Eugene Onegin" by Alexander Pushkin
12) "Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky
13) "Paris 1919: six months that changed the world" by Margaret MacMillian
14) "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen
15) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain
16) Old Mother West Wind series - wildlife series by Thornton Burgess
17) "Microbe Hunters" by Paul de Kruif
18) "Cancer Ward" by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
19) "Kon Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl
20) "From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman
21) "The Berdine Un-Theory of Evolution: and Other Scientific Studies Including Hunting, Fishing, and Sex" by William C. Berdine
It’s huge ahhh
Do not read this book- waste of time!
Such an overrated novel. Full of digressions about incredibly boring questions such as land management or decentralization in Russia.