Penguin Classics Clothbound Anna Karenina Book

The book arrived damaged

The cover was slightly damaged as usual but that is the nature of Penguin Clothbound Editions. They are ravishing but they are delicate and easily hurt :( if you are looking for something that will last longer then get the Everyman's library edition.The packaging wasn't good.

Please note, I will not be reviewing the substance of Tolstoy’s work, merely the quality of this copy. If you want comprehensive reviews of books go to GoodReads, not amazon.This book aesthetically is extremely pleasant. I had been reading the book prior on my phone and because I was enjoying it so must decided to invest in a physical copy. The text is rather small but this is most likely due to the fact it is an extremely dense novel. However, personally I do not like the translation as I think they have really taken away from the charm of Tolstoy’s writing. See this sentence that struck me for comparison:This book - “Her face glowed with a bright glow; but this glow was not happy - it was like the terrible glow of a fire on a dark night”My online version - “Her face was brilliant and glowing; but this glow was not one of brightness, it suggested the fearful glow of a conflagration in the midst of a dark night”Personally I much prefer the latter as it is more visually rich, and therefore I actually would not recommend this book other than for the fact it’s cover looks nice. If you wish to have the language dulled down so as to make for a somewhat quicker read, then perhaps this version would best suit you.

After reading War and Peace last year, I though this would be a walk in the park. How wrong was I? There are many similar themes running through the 2 books; a loving family, a passionate unrequited first love, a young man struggling to find his meaning in life; a love of nature and observations about the fascinating minutiae of Russian society.But heavens this book is dense. I found an hour's reading yielded 25 pages or so. And in those pages was a substantial amount of detail. Consider how many thoughts you have in one single day. How they veer around like a drunken bumper car. How, if you've had a knotty problem or an issue with someone that every action, reaction and course of action will be considered and ascribed meaning. Now put all that into a novel and you will understand just how dense this novel is.If I never learn the many ways of harvesting hay, it will be too soon. At times this was more agricultural text book than 'The Archers' and I was bored.Of course there are some wonderful moments - we see Russian society at its most political, it's bitchiest in its response to Anna. Anna, herself, is a wonderful character, beautiful and intelligent who eventually tears herself apart in considering the ways that Vronsky doesn't love her, ignoring that in fact he clearly does adore her.But there are other elements of Anna's character that are not fleshed out - why does she pay no attention to her daughter? What causes self-possessed Anna to have such a crisis of confidence? This for me was never explained.Instead Tolstoy chooses to focus on Levin, apparently a self-portrait and a man who thinks too damn much! Consider having won Kitty's affections and about to be married, has an introspective melt-down about the right shirt not being available and nearly calls the whole thing off. Thankfully he comes to his senses and spares the reader some 400 pages of soul-searching.Sometimes books lose their hold on you as the years pass. For me the spell of Anna Karenina has been well and truly broken.

I know it’s a classic - I’ve seen “Anna Karenina” plays, movies, ballet, opera and loved them all but this is just tedious and boring writing despite the gripping subject matter. It has not stood the test of time and the references to Russian struggles of the society at the time are largely lost as it contains no footnotes to explain the political situation and terminology to a 21-century reader. I couldn’t finish it.

Anna Karenina, what a testing individual... Very difficult to like or admire. As perhaps true of many of the characters in the novel - chiefly, pampered aristocrats and landowners indulging their petty urges. It's an uncompromising study of character and personality; all human pride, vanity and frailty exposed in forensic detail to the faintest thought and gesture. Written with the candour and insight of a privileged insider.There are a number of universal personality types on display, which immediately offer the reader easy access. Oblonsky: superficial, fun-loving, sentimental, morally bankrupt; Vronsky: dashing army officer, successful, loved and admired, fatefully lovestruck; Karenin: serious, austere, respected bureaucrat, cuckold (emotionally stunted then traumatised); Koznyshev: the high-minded scholar, unsentimental, insular; Levin: the common man, often selfish and small-minded, beset by spiritual questions, socially awkward - yet, perhaps the most decent... And that's just the men.The novel principally revolves around two romantic storylines, that of Levin/Kitty and Anna/Vronsky. It's emotionally charged throughout. The emotion is not always happy but it does feel authentic, if sometimes unremitting. Having said that, there are some deeply moving passages which do warrant all the attention Tolstoy lavishes on them: Nikolai Dmitrich's slow death; Levin and Kitty's wedding, for instance. I confess that I did find some sections a little laboured and surplus, such as the workings of Levin's farm - the threshing season. Also, the provincial Marshal elections Vronsky attends. I guess it's all part of the epic depiction of Russian life across the class divides though.Ultimately, a highly readable, engaging novel. For such an epic it's strangely intimate. You really get inside the characters, especially the evolving ones (Levin, Karenin, Anna). And in Anna Karenina herself, Tolstoy has created a truly perplexing, infuriating and mysterious heroine.

Anna Karenina is definitely my favourite of leo Tolstoys books , absolutely love this beautiful edition looks lovely on my bookshelf