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Book Review of Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina
Author: Leo Tolstoy, David Magarshack (Translator)
Genre: Literature & Fiction
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
reviewed on + 3 more book reviews


This is a magnificent & beautiful book. A supreme work of art, it nourishes the heart... how I love Anna! how I have grown to love both of her Alexeys: Mr. Karenin & Count Vronsky! I'm frightened and saddened at the prospect that dear Anna cannot but be crushed by society for her "crime" of unequivocally embracing the felt experience of her heart. Indeed, Anna is extraordinary to me for the same reason as Levin: for both the problems of life can be distilled into the simple yet staggering prospect of being honest with oneself; living each moment in complete congruence with the heart.
Tolstoy's great genius is his great impartiality towards feeling, hurting, longing, and dreaming humanity. These are not characters in a book. They are all real people. They live -- and die -- so that we may learn and thereby honour them by accepting nothing less than Christ's logion that "the Truth will set you Free"