How does one follow a masterpiece like "War and Peace"? For Leo Tolstoy, it involved making a story nonetheless large in scope but more intimate in characterization. As one of the great works of realism, "Anna Karenina" paints a picture of two couples who seem similar at first but whose lives greatly divert as time goes on. Even the fact that the titular Anna is, by 19th century standards, reckless and unlikable, subverts expectations of this being a conventional romance novel. Instead, it's a larger commentary on Russian culture during a time where the classes were at odds with each other. Do the lavish have it better, or do the farmers who spend hours tending the fields?
Somewhere in the text, Tolstoy adds the most unexpected element to this realist drama: spiritualism. The paralleled narrative creates a discussion of predeterminism as a larger context. Are good people destined for good lives? Will they receive good fortune simply for just behavior? The larger answer is: no. Nothing is promised in this life. For as banal as that premise may sound, Tolstoy stacks the reader's experience with theoretical moments that finds his characters navigating an incredible world full of small epiphanies. The reader may be frustrated with the larger sense of ambiguity in its theme, but that's not to say that the road there is playful and even humorous at times. For an author known for lofty tomes, "Anna Karenina" ranks among the most human tales ever conceived, and one that feels relevant even centuries later.
The novel sounds a bit dull on paper. Who needs to dedicate a near thousand pages to a love story that revels in mundane detail about dances and ice skating? Who needs passages about farming technique? There's so much that sounds like it would be tertiary to making a forward-thinking novel. However, that is to ignore what made Tolstoy so revolutionary. By dedicating so much attention to the everyday, he captures what it meant to be alive. His attention to detail allows for readers to be entranced less by action and more emotion. For as much as there's thrilling moments that accentuate every few chapters, there's something greater about simply existing among the conversations that allow readers to understand what matters to these characters. Given that Tolstoy was also astute in his observations, a lot of the more arrogant behaviors feel timeless, finding men acting out in ways still relevant in the 21st century.
What this lacks in the scope of thousands of characters and grander ideas, Tolstoy's intimacy allows for a world that asks about the values of being alive. For as much as romance is at the center, it's also about the decisions one makes to live a valuable life. Should people be defined by a few bad decisions? As much as he torments the reader with sometimes unclear pathways, he still makes an intellectually honest tale that leaves the reader pondering why certain things happened. This isn't a book to simply brisk by. Like the characters, it's important to slow down and admire how he crafted a sentence and captured small glances in ways that ripple through the rest of their lives. By the end, there is a few shocking revelations that may be controversial to some, but only clues in to Tolstoy's views on predeterminism.
At the end of the day, "Anna Karenina" is a towering giant only matched by Tolstoy's other famous work. The intricacies and mundanity may be off-putting, but readers who ignore this will be doing themselves a great disservice. Compared to a lot of 19th century literature, this one captures the entire human experience in a matter of paragraphs. It's as heartbreaking as it is hilarious. It's as meaningless as it is profound. There's a lot of paradoxes even within the realm of realism. Few authors in their lifetime have ever captured as much insight into the human condition as Tolstoy did, and "Anna Karenina" serves as a masterpiece worthy of discussion. More than anything, it makes the readers feel alive, desiring to think of what their lives were and what they could be. Even if it's not necessarily an aspirational story, it's one that motivates one to think of their lives with a greater sense of meaning.
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