I’ve finished Anna Karenina! I thoroughly enjoyed it! I do love reading classic literature and this translation of Anna is very well done. It’s amazing to me how similar even today the struggle of marriage and family and relationships compare. The treatment of Anna by society for her choices and the treatment of her brother Stiva for the same choices vastly different due to the fact one is male and one is female still goes on. The themes of hypocrisy, jealousy, faith and religion, fidelity, family, marriage, society, the rights of women, love for the city or love for the land are all part of the narrative. All part of what makes the book so beautiful and so relatable. All these situations still happen today. The treatment of Anna for her decisions made her even more likable to me, I have been ostracized for decisions I’ve made 30 years ago and 25 years ago, it amazes me how long people will keep their hypocritical judgement. This book explores all sides of that. Getting the narrative of all the many characters was very crucial to putting you into the story. I enjoyed reading the story this way. One of the books more famous quotes “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Also helps summarize it. My favorite quote is “I think… if it is true that there are as many minds as there are heads, then there are as many kinds of love as there are hearts.”
I have been wanting to try to accomplish War and Peace by Tolstoy. This journey through with Anna Karenina makes me believe I can indeed make it through! I plan to start on January 1, 2018. I plan to follow the 27 pages a day set by a couple of people who have read it recently. Since I am usually doing other reading this seems to be a good pace to set for my goal. I will most likely read this early morning with coffee, so my mind is truly alert! I have found War and Peace in the same translation as the Anna Karenina I have just finished. I believe this will also help me in my goal.
I intend to read through the classics I have not read for all of 2018. I have fallen in love with the styling and lyrical prose of it. I will still be reading 6 book club books as well, those are determined by vote. But other than that I will be exploring classics I have not read. I look forward to the adventure of it all!
Now to watch the movie of Anna Karenina! I can’t wait to see how my mind’s picture compares to Hollywood’s idea!
Peace.
