Anna Karenina is set in nineteenth-century Russia, exploring relationships, death and controversy between tradition and freethinking.
A crucial theme in Leo Tolstoy’s works is adultery. In Moscow, Anna Karenina meets the charming Vronsky, and together they indulge in an affair despite her husband Karenin. One might argue that Anna is selfish in her passionate romance, having to choose between Vronsky and her young son. Nevertheless, I can’t help but pity her desperate actions as she is trapped in a marriage full of emotionless conventionality.
Alongside this intense relationship, there are many more characters cleverly intertwined, which gives the reader a deep insight into different aspects of the time. While Anna is hopelessly trying to keep Vronsky a secret, Levin travels on a philosophical journey, Kitty starts broken-hearted, Dolly struggles to keep the Oblonsky family together and Karenin is lost. The raw reality of the characters’ lives is fascinating. Furthermore, Leo Tolstoy entertainingly provides several characters’ perspectives, resulting in empathy for those who I would least expect!
Anna Karenina begins by saying,
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
How will she end?
- Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop
