Instead of New Years resolutions, I make Reading Resolutions. In 2010, my goal was to read 100 books. I got to about 75. This year, my goal is to read 12 "Classics."
My definition of classics is pretty open, but the basic idea is to continue my education in spite of no longer being in school, admire the greats to improve my own writing, and to generally increase my writerly street cred. In general I'm allowing everything from stuff assigned in college literature classes to genre classics to books listed on those ubiquitous "best 50 books ever written" lists. I don't have a list set in stone, and generally just go surf the web until I find one that seems classic enough and interesting enough, and hop to it.
#1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
In January I got through the entire unabridged Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and was surprised by how much I liked it. I tried to read it a few years ago, but I think that back then I just wasn't ready to read it. Now that I'm older and married it touched a nerve with me that it didn't before when I was an overwhelmed, happily engaged college student
I've learned the hard way that with any non-English classic, the translation you read makes a huge difference. I read the new Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky version, which was very readable. It had endnotes instead of footnotes, which was annoying, but there weren't so many of them and they weren't of vital importance to understanding the story.
In order to get through the beginning, I had to keep a sticky marker on the "who's who" cast of characters list because all of the Russian names and nicknames were a killer to keep straight. I did come to understand the characters and their relationships and nicknames, but it took a good quarter of the book to figure out.
As for the overall story, I really liked it. I went into it thinking it would be boring, but it was anything but. The characters were dynamic, if sometimes frustrating. I liked the comparison between Anna's despair (self inflicted) and Levin's (unfounded) and how they each went about trying to get rid of it. I liked the three women and how each of them dealt with love, loss, and aristocracy.
Spoilers ahead! If there is such a thing for a book which was published over 100 years ago...
The moment that grabbed me in this book and convinced me it wasn't boring was when Vrosnky lost the race and his horse. In the beginning of the book everything goes well for him-he's charming and handsome and rich and generally gets whatever he wants. When he lost the race, I was shocked. Shocked! Suddenly I knew that this book had some serious stuff in store for these characters. It wasn't just going to be dancing and parties and philosophical discussions. Tolstoy was just setting us up.
Vrosnky and Anna hooking up wasn't actually my favorite part of the story. My favorite arc was the Kitty/Levin romance. It was brutally realistic and not sugar coated at all, but at the same time beautiful and fulfilling. They each had their conflicts to overcome, so when they did finally get together it was very satisfying. I also thought that Kitty was much more likeable than either Anna or Dolly, so I was rooting for her to be happy.
I wish that I hadn't known the ending when I started reading it, but alas, I was looking up movie versions on Netflix to see what sort of costumes they wore in Russia in that period, and one of the reviews mentioned the ending. I honestly wonder if I would have been surprised, but now I shall never know. Actually I probably I would have been surprised, because I'm not good at picking up on those themes and foreshadowings in literature. Of course because I was looking for it, I can see how that character got to that point very obviously.
Overall, I give it 5/5 stars. It might not be for everyone, but I like historical fiction, and Russia, and books about female characters in general. And within that category, I can see how it definitely deserves to be a classic. Thanks for a great read Tolstoy!
