Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy

Date of Reading: 09/12/2007

Author: Leo Tolstoy

Translation: Louise & Aylmer Maud

Publisher: Wordsworth Classics

Place: Great Britain

Year: 1999

           The debate around this all time favorite of  Tolstoy's is been going for years among my friends and teachers. Nature or Culture? Should we give vent to our natural feelings and live accordingly or is it better to live by the code which guarantee a problem free life? Author has obviously chosen the latter, making this the story of a fallen woman, a warning to those who dares to be adventurous.

           Anna is the beautiful wife of Alexis Alexandrovich Karenin, a high profile government official in Petersburg. As her husband is an inexpert lover, Anna's whole life revolves around her eight years old son Serezha. Her brother Oblonsky lives at Moscow with his wife Dolly and five children; his relationship with other women often spurts occasional quarrels between the couple and Anna then works as the mediator.

           

On such a journey to pacify Dolly, Anna meets Count Alexis Kirilich Vronsky who fall in love with this beauty instantly. Her marriage status won't pull him back and he follows her back to Petersburg. After several encounters Anna is yielded and she gets pregnant. All the while Karenin keeps a blind eye to the situation on fearing the damage that might fall to his reputation.

           Anna gives birth to baby Anna and on watching her alarming state after giving birth Karenin forgives the past and offers the old life back. This is unbearable for Anna and she decides to live with Vronsky. Karenin gets broken hearted at this and Countess Lydia takes advantage of this situation to make him her puppet.
           The fear of her social status forbids Anna to go for a divorce and it takes Vronsky several months to persuade her. But Karenin refuses to comply with this on Countess Lydia's influence. Vronsky's family considers him trapped in this and Anna feels that he is coming under their influence and is looking for another girl. In a desperate moment she jumps in front of the running train and ends her life. A desolated Vronsky joins army and Karenin looks after the baby Anna.

Leo Tolstoy

           Constantine Dmitrich Levin's story goes parallel to this and offers a high contrast to Anna's life. He is rejected by Kitty, Dolly's younger sister, as she preferred Vronsky. But on Anna's liaison with him, Kitty finds that her happiness lies with Levin. Novel ends when she gives birth to their first baby.