The only notes I made during reading Leo Tolstoy’s 800 page epic was a quote from Anna Karenina’s servant “What dress shall I prepare?” This is the end of a chapter where Anna is wrestling with a dilemma: to leave her husband and her son for her lover, or, to remain with her son and live a lie with her unsympathetic husband. She resolves she will visit her society friend- a princess – and after that her next concern is what to wear.
This is what I wanted from my first reading of this important classic. I wanted the dresses, the lace, the chokers, the pearls, the coiffures, the ruffles and all the romance. On this front, Anna Karenina delivers a beautiful and vivid portrayal of the Russian nineteenth aristocracy and the love story is set up perfectly. My favourite scene is the moment Anna’s train stops on her way home, when she steps outside in the wintry landscape for some fresh air, wrapped up, I can imagine, in the finest furs, and she finds out Vronsky is following her. The dialogue between them is sublime and continues the link between their relationship and the newly established train service.
However, if you are wanting a simple historical romance you may be unsatisfied. Anna Karenina is so much more than its namesake; for starters there are other characters and other plotlines.
There’s Levin, a conflicted philosopher, and the object of his affection, the sweet naive Kitty; Anna’s playboy brother Stefan and his long suffering wife Darya, Anna’s husband Count Alexei and Levin’s fallen brother Nikolai. All of these characters lives continue, despite the cavorting of Anna and Vronsky, and each add another dimension to Tolstoy’s world. A long list of subjects are also discussed, alongside the affair: the cultivation of crops and the training of the peasantry, the education and rights of women, the Balkan War, a freer press, religion and mysticism. All of them are contemporary issues of the day, and all of them would have been discussed by the book’s first readership.
I feel the use of the words “novel” or “depiction” and “portrayal” do not apply to Tolstoy’s realist extravaganza. Rather than a piece of prose, Anna Karenina lets the reader glimpse into the lives of a group of Russian nobility. It lets them been seen exactly as they are, or how Tolstoy saw them.
It is no wonder people revisit the text several times in their lives, as it would be impossible to take it all in, in one reading. Plus, considering there are so many different translations available, you can take your pick on what words or turns of phrase you would prefer to read. I went for the Peaver and Volokhonsky translation, simply because I liked the cover of woman holding the flowers, presumably waiting anxiously for her lover to call. The striped corset and the rings, promised me an escape into a world more lavish and romantic than my own, while I didn’t discover the love story I wanted, I found something far more real.
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