Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy = DONE

I finished it.

FINISHED IT!

And it was amazing. A bit excruciating at times, but overall totally worth it. I learned some new words…like apiary (a collection of managed bee colonies), sated (fed beyond capacity or desire), dilettante (one with superficial interest in the arts), insouciance(carefreeness), and succor (relief or aid in times of trouble).

Man, I love Google.

And here is officially the best quote of the entire book, in my opinion. Maybe top 3 but no others come to mind right now. Again, this pearl is brought to us by Konstantin Dimitrich Levin, who is possibly the best character in all the books I’ve read. And I thought nothing could top John Kelly.

“Was it through reason that I arrived at the necessity of loving my neighbor and not throttling him? I was told it as a child, and I joyfully believed it, because they told me what was in my soul. And who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence and the law which demands that everyone who hinders the satisfaction of my desires should be throttled. That is the conclusion of reason. Reason could not discover love for the other, because it is unreasonable.”

Tolstoy = master.

Auuggghh

This will officially be the longest book I’ve ever read. I can sit down and read for a few hours and it hardly seems to make a dent! (Though I am at page 587 of 817 pages…)

That’s why all posts have been about this lately…it’s a monster of a book. At least I’ve decided to look for some different pictures instead of just the book cover, so it’s not so monotonous =P

Auggghhh, I want it to be over. I want to find out how all the major conflicts will be resolved and not have all these hunting days, farming days, trifles with making jam, and visits to local artists get in the way of that.

 Auuuggghhh.

I mean, it still is an amazingly written book, I’m glad I’m reading it, but I’ll also be glad when it’s over.

Excerpt

“Vronsky meanwhile, despite the full realization of what he had desired for so long, was not fully happy. He soon felt that the realization of his desire had given him only a grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected. It showed him the eternal error people make in imagining that happiness is the realization of desires.”

-from Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Something good finally happened in Anna Karenina

I am so happy! Why? Because Levin is happy! For so long he had been so depressing and thinking about death all the time…but not anymore!

“So it’s no longer time to die?” said Stepan Arkadyich, pressing Levin’s hand affectionately.
“No-o-o!” said Levin.

I literally grinned ear to ear when I read that.

I havn’t done much reading in the past few days but I’m past the halfway point…I’m at page 453. I’m already trying to think of what books I should read next. I wish I were a faster reader sometimes…my list is huge.

I figure it’s a good idea to read two books at a time. One for when I’m on the train and such, and the other for spending a few hours in my room completely immersed. Here are books that I own but havn’t read yet. I need to read all the books I actually own before going out and buying more. Some of these I bought a year ago!

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Almost halfway there…Page 335.

Another interesting thing about this book is not only do you see the characters do very normal everyday things, you hear their normal everyday conversations. Again using Levin as an example, not every single conversation will be about the primary obstacle in the story, his love for Kitty. He will do accounting and discuss the value of a wood, debate the zemstvo institutions with his brother, and converse about farming techniques and the emancipation of the serfs with other landowners. It’s what a reality show would be like if you showed all the “boring” stuff in between the primary dilemmas.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I really like Levin, he’s so awesome. I said earlier that I saw a lot of myself in him, but that’s not quite true anymore. He’s very different…a bit darker.

Anyways, here are some interesting quotes from Vronsky’s conversation with his friend Serpukhovskoy.

Mostly Levin…and I miss Tom Clancy

Well, last post on Anna Karenina I was at 114, now I’m at 283. I see what others mean when they say Tolstoy’s characters are not exaggerated, but very real and normal, doing normal every day things. For instance, he spends almost ten pages describing Konstantin Levin’s day mowing fields with the peasants. Ten pages!

I think this could be why everyone considers this to be such a great novel, because it is “real,” down to the details.

I have a hard time deciding whether I like Levin or not. I think I do…but he seems at times to be too self absorbed. In one conversation his older brother, who hold a position in office, tries to convince Levin to think of the common good, while Levin only wants to be concerned with what will affect him directly.

Are they arguing about beurocracy* somewhere in there too? To me, when I hear “zemstvo” which means an “elective provincial council for purposes of local administration” I think “beurocracy.” I could be wrong. But if I’m right and that is what they are talking about, I agree with Levin, ‘cause beurocracies** suck.

Anyways, here are some excerpts I thought were interesting. The first is Levin’s thoughts on his older brother. The second is Levin’s reasoning against participating in the zemstvo, and the third is…just Levin.

The “Ridiculous” and the “Real”

I’ve progressed to page 114 and it still holds my interest. Good show, good show.

I really love this line when Anna returns home to Petersburg from Moscow: “And the son, just like the husband, produced in Anna a feeling akin to dissapointment. She had imagined him better than he was in reality. She had to descend into reality to enjoy him as he was.”

It’s almost a shameful feeling to relate to…but doubtless we’ve all felt that way about another person at some point, and someone has felt it about us. It’s a grass-is-greener effect. Count Vronsky held such great appeal and thus dulled the image of her husband and son.

Also, this passage was prime, regarding Count Vronsky and his friends:

“In his Petersburg world, all people were divided into two completely opposite sorts. One was the inferior sort: the banal, the stupid and, above all, ridiculous people who believed that one husband should live with one wife, whom he has married in church, that a girl should be innocent, a women modest, a man manly, temperate and firm, that one should raise children, earn one’s bread,  pay one’s debts, and other such stupidities. This was an old-fashioned and ridiculous sort of people. But there was another sort of people, the real ones, to which they all belonged, and for whom one had, above all, to be elegant, handsome, magnanimous, bold, gay, to give oneself to every passion without blushing and laugh at everything else.”

(emphasis added)

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

I’m at about page 75. Hopefully I can finish by the end of January, but that might be a stretch. Perhaps February 15th would be more realistic…

The book opens with the line, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

…From what I have observed and experienced in the world, I gather it to be true, though I could be wrong. Perhaps there is solely one root cause of all unhappy families, such as selfishness, but that the selfishness is manifested in various ways, thus making each family’s unhappiness unique. Hmm.

 Already I greatly enjoy this book, and so far I love the character Levin. I see so much of my manners and thoughts in him at times…but we will see how truthful that remains as the story progresses.