Anna Karenina: Introduction

Although it's been almost a week since I finished reading Anna Karenina, I've found I have a curious inability to decide how I feel about it. For those who don't know, "Anna Karenina" is a novel by Russian author Leo Tolstoy. It is often placed among the finest works of literary prose of all time. It's true that there are many highly regarded books that can bore the adolescent mind, and yet when I first heard the premise of Anna Karenina, I was instantly enticed, even though it was published in 1878 and its subject matter was foreign to me.

"Anna Karenina" focuses on, guess who, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina. She is a noblewoman, married to one of the most important statesman in Russia, Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin. The story tells of her fall from grace as she engages in an affair with the handsome Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky.
It also follows the life of Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin, another noble who prefers his country farm over the pleasures of modern living in the city. His story arc follows his journey to discover meaning in life, as well as pursuing his love interest, Ekaterina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya.

If you haven't ever read Russian literature, I'll bet you're already confused by the character's names. I know I sure was. Though I love the depth to which Russian novels explore their characters, I admit I do not always appreciate the depth to which they explore the character's names. Luckily, Russian novels tend to refer to their characters by shortened versions of their names. Of course, this raises the question: "Which part of the name do I use?" Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin for example, is known by three (there might be more that I can't recall) different names throughout the novel.

-Levin
-Konstantin Dmitrievich
-Kostya

For the sake of this post, I will pick one shortened name and stick with it. If you ever do decide to read "Anna Karenina" for yourself, know that characters will occasionally be referred to by different names than the ones I use.

So let's try this again.

"Anna Karenina" focuses on, guess who, Anna. She is a noblewoman, married to one of the most important statesman in Russia, Alexei. The story tells of her fall from grace as she engages in an affair with the handsome Vronsky.
It also follows the life of Levin, another noble who prefers his country farm over the pleasures of modern living in the city. His story arc follows his journey to discover meaning in life, as well as pursuing his love interest, Kitty.

These characters compose but a small fraction of the intertwined families detailed in Tolstoy's masterpiece. But with the major characters out of the way, hopefully I'll be able to communicate my thoughts more clearly in another post.