If you have read Anna Karenina

[Jane Elliot]

Regarding spoilers: Reading the annotation in WEM would have given the same spoiler that was given above, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I like what SWB says in the newest edition of WEM: "The annotations that follow are intended to help you enjoy your first reading more . . . The joy of these books is not found in the surprise of what happens . . . but rather in the ways that the authors develop and complicate ancient plot structures . . . If you'd rather be surprised, you can always skip the annotations and read them afterward" (87).

 

My dd couldn't believe I had never heard about the ending of Anna Karenina. She thought everyone knew the ending. But I do think I enjoyed that particular book more because I didn't know it. I usually skip the annotations because I like the surprise, but if I'm beginning to feel lost or like I'm missing something big I go back and read the annotation and it does increase my enjoyment of the book.

 

[Lady Florida.]

 

I liked Anna better than I liked Edna from The Awakening. I think I read the two books the same year. Anna's actions made more sense to me, even while I disagreed with her Tolstoy made me feel her emptiness, her surprised passion, her joy, her sorrow. So often other proto-feminist novels (The Awakening and Madame Bovary for instance) left me feeling completely cut off or frustrated with the main character. 

 

 

 

I agree. While I disagreed with Anna's choices I had more sympathy for her than I did for Edna or for Emma Bovary.

[Jane Elliot]

I think it was what the artistic / creative class of Russia, which romanticized peasant life, thought of the upper classes.

 

I don't think it was likely very representative, even if it was realistic for some individuals.

 

I think that it was written, as many Tolstoy novels were, as a cautionary tale regarding the dangers of city life, upper class life.

 

You're supposed to think, "Anna Karenina, too bad she fell prey to such a life. I guess I'll go sheave wheat and make pickles now, to avoid her fate."

 

And frankly it did kind of have that effect on me, LOL!

 

I like this analysis. It had the same effect on me. After reading it, I went on a long Wendell Berry binge. I think Tolstoy was the Wendell Berry of his time (or vice versa: Wendell Berry is the Tolstoy of our time?)

[Bluegoat]

I think it was what the artistic / creative class of Russia, which romanticized peasant life, thought of the upper classes.

 

I don't think it was likely very representative, even if it was realistic for some individuals.

 

I think that it was written, as many Tolstoy novels were, as a cautionary tale regarding the dangers of city life, upper class life.

 

You're supposed to think, "Anna Karenina, too bad she fell prey to such a life. I guess I'll go sheave wheat and make pickles now, to avoid her fate."

 

And frankly it did kind of have that effect on me, LOL!

 

I can see why this mght seem to make sense, but I wouldn't really place Tolstoy outside of the aristocratic class, even though he was an artist.

[shawthorne44]

Yeah, I would love to know more about this edition.

 

I am still going through the boxes of books from when we moved.   it is complicated by the fact that when DH built the library in our old house he shelved the books by height in order to maximize the number of shelves.   I flipped a lid, until he said he could retrieve any book I wanted.   That method did actually work, so saying "Library binding hardcover without protector, about 6" tall and 3" wide, probably dark green tape showing."   He could have found it within 30 seconds.   But now that they were boxed for moving ...    

 

When I find it, whenever that is, I will post an update.  Google isn't helpful.   

[Tsuga]

That's a pretty funny moral for the story (;

 

I keep trying to figure out how to say your forum names ? Is it said how it's spelled it is it like tea sugar?

I think that's the moral of every Tolstoy story.. Have you read Isaiah Berlin's the hedgehog and the fox about Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky? Really interesting essay.

 

The user name is "ts" as in tsk and uga at the end. Tsuga is a type of tree.