This Anna Karenina book review breaks down the details of this popular classic book. It’s considered by many to be the best novel of all time. Below, you’ll learn why and get helpful reading tips, a character guide, and more to help you easily work through the novel’s 800+ pages. Let’s get literary!
Quick Anna Karenina Book Review
Full Book Review
Plot
Anna Karenina begins with the extramarital affair of the titular character’s brother, Stiva, who is married to Dolly. This foreshadows Anna’s future.
The main plot of Anna Karenina is about the love affair of the married titular character, a socialite in 19th-century Russia. She falls in love with the wealthy Count Vronsky, who wishes for her to leave her husband, Alexei Karenin, a senior statesman in St. Petersburg. They face life-changing societal and personal struggles as a result of this affair.
Secondary is another plot about a wealthy landowner named Konstantin Levin, through whom the reader learns much about culture in Russia, particularly farming. He seeks to marry Kitty, a distant relative of Anna. The struggles of their relationship are also explored.
Main Characters
- Anna Karenina: an unhappily married socialite in 19th-century Russia
- Count Vronsky: a wealthy military officer with whom Anna has an extra-marital affair
- Alexei Karenin: Anna’s husband, a St. Petersburg statesman
- Levin: a philosophical countryside landowner
- Kitty: a distant relative of Anna; a young and kind woman who is the object of Levin’s love
- Stiva: Anna’s unfaithful brother
- Dolly: Stiva’s faithful wife and Kitty’s older sister
Analysis
Anna Karenina explores the complexities of love, family, social expectations, and the consequences of straying from social norms.
If you’ve already read the 19th-century Russian classic romance novel, then you know that, unlike the title suggests, it’s not just about the protagonist and her tragic love affair. While this Winter-themed novel explores themes like society and class, Russian politics, and morality, it remains a book about family and love, told through the eyes of several characters.
From the famous opening line of this book, Tolstoy references the unique unhappiness each family may experience and, wrapped up in this, are societal notions of love and marriage at the time and place of Anna Karenina:
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Read More: Quotes From Anna Karenina
Throughout 800+ pages, the reader learns exactly how love and family make for happiness or, more commonly, unhappiness.
(I’ve heard people say the book can be described in one sentence as “Russian people making each other unhappy.”)
The families in the novel share common ideals of love and happiness, but each character takes a unique path of unhappiness in striving to achieve it.
The saga begins as an unhappily married Anna Karenina meets Count Vronsky at a train station, where a drunken guard is killed by a train. How’s that for an ominous “meet cute”?!
The train scene symbolizes Russia’s transition into a more industrial, capitalist system, and Anna’s transition from an unhappy marriage to Alexei Karenin to a passionate love affair with Vronsky.
(The symbolism doesn’t end there: As you may know, late in the novel, the train plays another pivotal role in Anna’s life, not to go unnoticed, but also not to be spoiled here.)
Besides these characters, love and family are explored primarily through the parallel storyline of Levin, Kitty, Stiva, and Dolly.
The sections on Russian farming make it dense, but the intensely passionate, all-or-nothing love affairs set against this backdrop keep it intriguing and well worth the read.
Anna Karenina herself remains one of the most memorable flawed characters in all of literature.
Ultimately, Anna Karenina shares that personal happiness and fulfillment are deeply intertwined with societal norms and personal choices.
Reading Tips
Anna Karenina can be hard to read because it’s long, dense, translated from Russian, and includes a lot of complex historical context. So, here are great ways to start reading the classics, particularly this one:
TIPS
Read a great translation. (I read and recommend the Oprah’s Book Club edition, which won the PEN/Book of the Month Translation Prize.)
If you want to get this book for free, check out a free classic book site like Project Gutenberg.
Read a few pages at a time. (I read 10 per day.)
Use a character chart. (Check the front of your book.)
Read alongside summaries and analyses. (I read one after each chapter. They particularly help with explaining the Russian history discussed.)
Watch an adaptation. (The “Keira Knightley version,” featured above, was very good. It primarily follows Anna’s love story and leaves out much of the book’s more meaty context.)
Read a modern re-telling. (I read and recommend Anna K by Jenny Lee. It has a Gossip Girl vibe.)
Watch alongside Gilmore Girls. (It’s one of Rory Gilmore’s favorite books and mentioned in Rory’s graduation speech in season 3, episode 22.)
Final Thoughts
To conclude this Anna Karenina book review, I reiterate that it’s a book well worth reading for fans of the best classic books that don’t mind a challenge. But be sure to use my reading tips, such as reading only a few pages per day and using a guide, to make the most of your reading experience.
remember, it’s a good day to read a book. – jules
Thanks for this. I love the tips! You’ve inspired me to read this one.
You’re welcome!! 🙂