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    Anna Karenina
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    Anna Karenina
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    Anna Karenina
    Audiobook41 hours

    Anna Karenina

    Written by Leo Tolstoi

    Narrated by Kate Lock

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Anna Karenina is beautiful, married to a successful man, and has a son whom she adores. But a chance meeting at a train station in Moscow sets her passionate heart alight, and she is defenceless in the face of Count Vronsky’s adoration. Having defied the rules of nineteenth-century Russian society, Anna is forced to pay a heavy price. Human nature, with all its failings, is the fabric of which this great and intense work is composed. Anna Karenina has been described as the perfect Russian novel. Translated by Aylmer and Louise Maude.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNaxos Audiobooks
    Release dateMar 1, 2010
    ISBN9789629549343
    Author

    Leo Tolstoi

    Leo Tolstoy grew up in Russia, raised by a elderly aunt and educated by French tutors while studying at Kazen University before giving up on his education and volunteering for military duty. When writing his greatest works, War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy drew upon his diaries for material. At eighty-two, while away from home, he suffered from declining health and died in Astapovo, Riazan in 1910.

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    Reviews for Anna Karenina

    4/5

    427 ratings280 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This book was not for me! I listened to the audio book and had to check it out multiple times in order to get through it. I even sped up the track to get through it faster. I didn't like any of the characters and I didn't enjoy any of the politics. I know some people love this book but, again, it wasn't for me. I pushed through it just because it is on the "Must Read" lists.
    • 4/5
      If your only acquaintance with Anna Karenina in the movies, just be aware that she is NOT the heroine of this very long book. Anna is the example of what a woman should bot be.. Instead, the real heroine is Princess Kitty, the young woman who is initially in love with Count Vronsky, but ultimately marries Levin who is clearly Tolstoy's alter ego as Tolstoy has Levin spouting page after page of Tolstoy's own half-baked theories on the superiority of rural over urban life and the superiority of the peasants over the aristocrats.Kitty comes to realize that she needs to exchange her city luxuries for the simpler country life and in caring for Levin's tubercular. brother at the end of his life, Levin comes to recognize her superior nature.Anna, in her obsessive love of Vronsky becomes a harridan, and in the end, outcast from polite society, ends her life. Once you wade through all of Tolstoy's philosophy, you realize why the movies boiled the story down to its tragic essence.
    • 3/5
      ** spoiler alert ** We all know Tolstoy could write. His prose is beautiful, giving you glimpses into the minds and feelings of his characters and creating settings that feel real and tangible. The narrative builds in an engaging and entertaining way with progressions that make sense and seem realistic, even at our historical remove.That being said: my goodness, this book was unwieldy. I blazed through the first half and then slowly dragged my way through the rest. Excellent writing only carries me so far, particularly when I find it so difficult to connect with any of the characters in a serious way. Levin was endlessly irritating and self-important. Anna is an immensely sympathetic character, her internal monologue is one of the most realistic representations of severe depression I’ve ever read. That being said, I find it hard not to feel Vronsky and Anna are the architects of their own destruction. I guess that’s the point, but I still struggled with them both.I hated the decision to continue the book after Anna’s death. I couldn’t help but feel the emotional impact of her death was lost by refocusing on Levin. Those final chapters feel superfluous and disruptive to the symmetry of the story. Frankly, it seems a disservice to Anna. To me, the book is her narrative and closing it out with her last thoughts would have been a more appropriate conclusion to the story that bears her name.
    • 5/5
      great way to kick off '09. loved it. probably in my top 10 favorite books ever if i kept a list like that..
    • 3/5
      I ended up not liking AK all that much, the constant philosophical debates, and introspective musings, got on my nerves big time. Really? All those pages for all that?I gave it three stars as it is a classic, Tolstoy certain can write well, and there are some redeeming qualities in terms of character development and the plot lines. But "frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn".
    • 4/5
      This is a great translation with wonderful notes.
    • 4/5
      I have always enjoyed crime and action novels, but having reached the age of 75 feel that it is time to catch up on the classics. Leo Tolstoy is one of my targets at the moment and AK seemed to be the best place to start. It was long (even on my Kindle!) and philosophical, but I enjoyed Tolstoy's views on life, love and Russian politics. He uses the character Levin to out pour his rather verbose view on religion and life and I found this a bit trying to get through at times. His story could have ended with the demise of Anna, but unfortunately carried on for too many more pages. I am glad that I have mastered this classic!
    • 4/5
      Epic, certainly. I felt confused for the first half of the novel as to why it is considered such a great book but the second half was so incredibly engaging. I developed strong feelings for the characters (not necessarily of love) and questioned my own understanding of relationships, society's morality, and faith. I'm still reeling a bit from the philosophy and questions of the character Levin and have continued to feel no sympathy or warmth for the novel's namesake, Anna Karenina. What an interesting book.
    • 3/5
      I read this for a book club. I almost quit immediately as it starts out with a political meeting and discussion. I found these to be least appealing parts of the book, and the mowing, and Levin's philosophing on religion.

      Other than those areas, I enjoyed the character development and various storylines.

      I did expect much more to happen than it actually did. It's not an "eventful" piece but worth reading nonetheless.
    • 2/5
      Alright, I may get thrown lettuce and tomatoes for this comment but I did not like this book. Like I said for my previous book, it’s just not my cup of tea. This seems to be a trend for me. Most of the literary classics I read I don’t like all that much. I can’t say why exactly. I must not like life stories all that much. I’m much more into adventure and action I guess. I’m a fantasy fan foremost. And unfortunately I don’t think that will ever change. I do however want to broaden my horizons, which is why I joined the group read in the first place. If I hadn’t be part of the group read and felt a sort of obligation I might not have finished this book. As it was I spent many hours cross-stitching and listening to this book and hoping it would end soon. There is a great deal of patience needed to listen to or read this book. There is tons of detail here. I mean a lot. It’s over a thousand pages. I guess I didn’t mind the plot and the inherent warnings/lessons/however you want to take it, but the amount of time it took to get the story out was very long. It certainly gave me time to get to like the characters. The only problem was, I didn’t much like any of them. Maybe I just couldn’t individually relate to them. I’m young and I grew up in the twenty-first century. My world is very different from the time and setting in this book. I also like strong female protagonists. And for me, Anna was not an independent or very strong woman. I did not understand why she let love and lack of love control her so much. Again this could just be because I’m young but I don’t relate all that well with protagonists who let things like love control their actions. I’ll admit that I don’t know what choices women did have in those days, but I still wished for something different. Anyways, all of this combined made for a book that I couldn’t get into. I’m not sure I could have got through it so quickly if I hadn’t been alternating it with another audio book. But I’m sure that other readers very well may love the book. I on the other hand am glad I finally finished it.
    • 5/5
      There's nothing original I could add to the volumes of scholarly study devoted to one of Tolstoy's famous literary masterpieces. I will, however, say the multiple forms of the various names, especially the royal males, was tedious and made the book a somewhat laborious read for this English speaking reader. The story was so beautiful it was certainly worth slogging through the continuously shifting, alphabet-swallowing names designated to each character, but it wasn't easy, even for a passionate reader. I would recommend this book to just about anyone except a new student/inexperienced reader I was hoping to hook on the classics.
    • 5/5
      Continuing on a quest to read all some of the classics I missed out on in my younger years, I recently finished the book that has been called, by people more learned than myself, the greatest novel ever written. I can’t say they’re wrong. I had the advantage of reading the newest translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky and the smoothness of the narrative, I believe, added to the great enjoyment obtained from the reading.As well known as this book is, I wasn’t really aware of the story line but I won’t bore you by going into too much detail other than saying it was part love story, part family story, part adulterous affair and an emotional rollercoaster from beginning to end. Multiple storylines told by a core group of characters, pretty much all related in one way or another. This all worked well to form what I found to be a riveting narrative. And it all worked to make the book’s opening sentence, ”All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” serve as the opening salvo for everything that happens in the story. In addition, Tolstoy offers up through the narrative, the idea that we are all the victims of our choices.Eight hundred pages is a lot of book for an author to maintain a high level of interest and my attention did flag when Tolstoy went on and on about religion and philosophy but he did it through the novel’s most charismatic and compassionate character, Levin, an autobiographical character, with whom I was alternately in love with and pounding him vicariously on the chest in frustration. It was also through Levin’s eyes that Tolstoy wrote his most beautiful passages about farming and hunting and the muzhiks in Russia.Tolstoy claimed to have created a sympathetic character in Anna, who committed a crime that people today would find laughable (adultery) but at that time in Russia, a woman in an adulterous affair gave up any rights to her children and the option to remarry. Divorce was only possible if the husband wanted it. But I had a hard time sympathizing with a woman who abandoned one child and decided she didn’t care much for the child she had with her lover. Even at the end, when she was obviously losing her mind, I had a hard time ramping up any compassion for what was to me an unlikable character. In spite of the fact that the main protagonist was unlikable, I absolutely loved the book and highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      I won't bother trying to summarise Anna Karenina, as that's probably been done way too many times by people who do it much better than me. Falling in love, falling out of love, jealousy, finding meaning in life, losing the meaning in ones life, the meaning of religion, etc. etc. It's all in there. Various philosophies of farming is even covered in rather considerable debt. That is also part of the problem with this book. I don't mind long books, in fact, I rather like them, but this one just got a little too long.Mind you, it is easy to see why it is long. The story is very much driven by the characters in it, making it necessary to spend a long time describing the characters and their thoughts. This results in my favourite aspect of the book: the character's actions are very believable most of the time. Because the reader knows the characters rather well, the way in which they react to situations seems natural. The characters are all quite different, and much time is spent describing their outlook on life, their thoughts on the world and other important matters. During most of the book this becomes a natural part of the story, as, after all, the story is driven based on the character's outlooks on these very things.Unfortunately the book ends a little too late. I didn't mind it going on for a bit after the obvious place in which it could have ended, but personally I feel like the ending, in a sense, resolved something which I think would have been better left unresolved. It doesn't help matters that the only justification for the last 60 pages seemed to be the author's desire to make the very point I didn't want to see made. Overall though, I rather liked Anna Karenina, but it is possible that I might have liked an abridged version better. And this is the first time I have thought that about a book.
    • 5/5
      This book is much more than a look at adultery. Tolstoy wrote a novel around eight characters that develop throughout the novel. Their stories entwine and grow with interest that will keep you engaged the whole time. I really enjoyed the ability of Tolstoy to capture characters that struggle with their relationships and why they actually act in ways counter to their desires. So true to life.A warning that there are chapters focused on politics and philosophy of labor, that may be unattractive to the general reader.By far one of my top 50 novels of all time.
    • 4/5
      SPOILERS APLENTY Don't read this if you're worried about spoilers. It's not really a review, but some thoughts that came up from reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.Maybe because I'm cold and heartless, I found Anna's high-pitched emotionality grating. Once she got on the Vronsky train, she gradually (or not so gradually) transformed from an elegant, composed, thoughtful woman into a caterwaul. Obviously, a major reason for this was the tension caused by her complete obsession with Vronsky - he was her only hope, as she says more than once - and the disapproval of society wherever they went. (An idyll in Italy is the exception, but they find it unsatisfying). By the end, Anna's obsessive jealousy and desperate need for more of his love has her destroying their relationship. Vronsky isn't exactly admirable, so dumping him would have been fine, but of course the only solution she finds is to commit suicide by throwing herself under a train.Levin (someone said he's an autobiographical character for Tolstoy) and Kitty, with their measured, thoughtful and largely graceful love, were a huge relief throughout for me from the Anna-Vronsky high-pitched passion. Tolstoy of course works that contrast in dramatic ways through much of the book. Levin and Kitty for some reason made me think of Louisa May Alcott's books. The plane they operated on was beautiful to read about. Also, Jane Austen came to mind, as Kitty first foolishly turns down Levin's proposal due to an infatuation with Vronsky, and learns to regret it before she and Levin finally are reunited.What kept running through my mind was, what would Anna be like today in this situation? Would pharmaceuticals help alleviate her anxiety, and enable her to deal more rationally with her life? Soften that irrepressible hatred for Karenin, allow her to visit more reasonably with her son, help her avoid her irrational desperation toward Vronsky and find a way to happiness? What about easy, no-fault divorce? Instead of the sturm and drang with Karenin, just go your separate ways, marry that putz Vronsky, and carry on. How about a more progressive society, with much less of the shunning?I know, she's the title character, very important, look at all we'd lose. But would we? If a more sensible Anna made more sensible choices in a more sensible world, would we still care about her? I'd be willing to find out, if only to get some relief from her clanging emotions, particularly toward the end. (I'm fine with emotional characters generally, but the increasingly falling apart Anna I'd had enough of). And maybe a more sensible Anna would mean we could get more of Levin and Kitty's story, which would be fine with me. (I could do with a whole lot less of Levin's religious and philosophical questioning, by the way, but we'll leave that for another day). We might end up with Alcott-like or Austen-like characters sorting it out. If we wanted to keep a similar dynamic, Anna could be a Lydia-equivalent I suppose, with Vronsky as Wickham.All right, enough carping. The Maude translation was smooth and engaging. There were beautiful stretches in the book, like Levin mowing with the peasants, and the birth of Levin and Kitty's son, with Levin desperately frightened that Kitty might not survive. The latter was well-contrasted with Anna wishing she had died in childbirth, as that would have "solved everything." I was also struck at the end by Vronsky's trying to remember Anna as she was at the beginning of their relationship, rather than the "cruelly vindictive" (from his POV) Anna at the end.I'm glad I read Anna Karenina, but you can tell it will never be up there as a favorite for me.
    • 4/5
      Really well written. I wish authors today would create books this epic - I think Tolstoy really shows a lot of things that modern authors would be content to tell, in a major way.
    • 5/5
      What I love about this novel is, although it was published over a hundred years before I was born, takes place in a country different from my own and is written (though translated) in a different language, I can relate to the characters so closely as they struggle with insecurity similar to my own. Though the logistics are not quite the same, Tolstoy gets to the heart of issues and in doing so makes his characters and their problems timeless. He has a knack for describing perfectly the way they think and feel. In each character you can see how God's presence or absence in their life affects the way they relate to others.This novel made me extremely grateful for friendship. There are two characters whose interactions with each other are seen but twice in the novel, but have left an impression on me. One says to the other "I've always loved you, and when you love someone, you love the whole person, and not as you like them to be". I am fortunate to have a few friends in my life to whom I feel I can share anything and they will not love me any differently.
    • 4/5
      I will not attempt to summarize this work of literature. The plot is well-known and other reviewers have done an excellent job doing so. Themes of the book are adultery, including the church's attitude toward it. the political changes occurring in Russia at the time, and attitudes toward religion. Anna was not that likeable of a character. She abandoned her child. She would ask for something to happen and then refuse it when the opportunity presented itself. I enjoyed many of the descriptions, particularly those set on the farm. Tolstoy did a great job in developing characters. The book still has relevance for today's readers and is why it is still considered to be one of literature's all-time classics.
    • 3/5
      This is a review of the BBC audio dramatisation.I was very much looking forward to listening to this dramatisation of Tolstoy’s famous and powerful love story. Having read the book many years ago (when I was young and romantic!) and been very emotionally affected by it, I was looking forward to sharing the experience with my 16 year old daughter.I have to acknowledge that it must be a fearsome challenge to attempt to reduce an 800 page novel into a 3 CD dramatisation. And I have tons of respect for the scriptwriters, producers and actors who contributed to this undertaking. Disappointingly, however, this dramatisation doesn’t manage to put across the passion and power of Tolstoy’s love story. There just isn’t time, I suppose, to develop the main characters sufficiently so that we can understand how their actions are driven by their characters.Anna, in particular, is poorly scripted and over-acted – coming across as spoilt, immature, self-obsessed, and increasingly hysterical towards the end (whereas I wanted to be shown how she was driven to desperate action through her mounting despair). Karenin is portrayed as a pompous “stuffed shirt”, civil servant. And Vronsky is so shallowly drawn that we don’t get much insight into his motivations or his real feelings for Anna until the very end.Having said that, this is a beautifully executed dramatisation (as you would expect from the BBC) and has provided entertaining in-car listening for the family. Hence 3*s.
    • 3/5
      Wonderful literature, gives the feel of old Russian days. The novel sometimes gets over stretched but the author is not to be blamed, coz during the older era people preferred weighty tomes over short novels. More than Anna, I liked the character of Lavin. Anna Karenina is believed to be Leo Tolstoy's autobiographical kind of work for many details of Levin resembles the life of Tolstoy himself.
      All in all, a must read for classic lovers.
    • 4/5
      Can be a bit daunting of a read since there are so many intertwined characters the story bounces back and forth between. However, truly a classic romantic, historical fiction novel.
    • 4/5
      This book has two stories. Those of Anna and Lenin. Anna is searching for meaning in life through love. Lenin is searching for meaning through love and work. Both suffer in their quest as they grapple with the demands of social norms and their own intellectual and emotional inner conflicts. The moral of the story seems to be that earthly love is not enough to soothe the human soul, but a connection with a greater good is required to find true value in life. This is an elephant-length book that is broken into easy bite-sized pieces.
    • 4/5
      To seek happiness Anna left the proper and dull Karenin for the dashing and exciting Vronsky, but in the end, committed suicide to end her misery. Rather than a comment on morality, Tolstoy through Anna Karenina, as in War and Peace, sought to contrast those who like Anna ignored or opposed the ubiquitous force which direct the destiny of individuals and nations and those who like Levin flowed with it. Both Anna and Levin, unlike Stiva and Dolly, could not passively regurgitate accepted behavior to satisfy social conventions and accept a banal existence, but they paved their paths one to the north and the other to the south.Passion directed Anna to oppose social conventions and with all a rebel’s defiance pursued in Vronsky’s arms the happiness that Karenin could not provide. They would love as if the whole world belonged to them. But in the end she could not live like Robinson Crusoe and was not strong enough to fend off social forces, which proclaimed reality’s omnipresence. Levin sought to transform himself and love Kitty as social conventions could only imitate. He sought to transcend social conventions, which were not in sync with the force that directed destinies, to attune to a higher melody, one that resonates wit the natural order of things.The diametrically opposing destinies of Anna and Levin revealed, as in War and Peace, Tolstoy’s search to harmonize with a natural force greater than reason, passion or will. For him, to raise the sword against that force would be to embrace the inferno.
    • 3/5
      Often incredibly dull, filled with characters you don't care about and details you don't need - but then it's almost worth it for the few moments that really matter and pull you in. That and being able to say you've read the bloody thing.
    • 5/5
      The only thing I don't like about this book is that it's not long enough!
    • 5/5
      There were great swathes of this book where I thought it would be better titled Levin--while Anna may be the novel's great tragedy, I can't help but feel that she's better seen as a counterpoint to Levin's great struggles and triumph through grace. This is a novel in the classic sense, a mighty simulation, a social experiment: wind them up, feed in your preoccupations, and let them go, let the magisterial insight and craft of the author-as-Prospero (Tolstoy hated Shakespeare, by the way) learn us a few things about what fools we be. (How lucky we are to have had a Tolstoy to make experiments on this scale possible--certainly he looks a bit like God himself, doesn't he?--without, like, the necessity to liquidate the kulaks.)And because that's the project, and Tolstoy's arc bends toward justice (although justice of a particularly grim and sad and emotionally hard-won kind), I can't help but see Anna as a dark shadow rather than a tragic protagonist. She is chewed up by social mores--ultimately, of course, by patriarchy, hence the killing irony that she never escapes Karenin's name and, at the end, he also takes possession of her and Vronsky's daughter. She spends the whole book getting weaker, trying to understand how the system is undermining her for stepping out of line when neither her nor anybody else can really perceive it happening. All her strength--real as it is, much as it helps her be magnificent and help people in the early part of the novel--is founded on lies: the pretense that she loves her husband, and then the desperate hope that the power of love is greater than the total squalid capitulation to awful feelings that the name of love always seems to imply.It's weird for a novel this carefully planned and balanced to seem messier than War and Peace but that's just probably a function of that reality that suffuses it. These people are messy, and they change, in real and unexpected and wasteful ways, and they and the reader can still find meaning in those changes (and they'd better, if they want to make it from one end of life to another). Vronsky was good for me. I think I habitually see myself as a Stiva, and Vronsky made me realize it's not that simple, and understand that some people might see some of my mistakes and foibles differently if they see them as coming out of not a fundamental bonhomie but a fundamental arrogance. Dolly was good for me--a reminder that the bestowal of epic narrative arcs on some of us but not others is the most fundamental class divide. It was good to see Tolstoy write about real people--he's magnificent at it, and since the characters in Anna Oblonsky and Friends don't have the weight of a whole ponderous philosophy of history on their heads, they teach us more relevant lessons more unceremoniously: Don't cheat. Be kind. Trust yourself. Build something. Take leisure. Believe.
    • 5/5
      Another Tolstoy masterpiece! The only reason I rate it 4 and 1/2 rather than 5 stars is because I was disappointed in the ending. My favourite character in the novel seemed to change his personality a bit towards the end, and I sort of felt like he sold out. It seemed very uncharacteristic.Nevertheless, this was an absolutely incredible novel. It is right up there with War And Peace.
    • 4/5
      Anna KareninaBy Leo TolstoyYes, I read it from cover to cover. I graduated from college in 1988 – it was the first novel I sat down to read without being told to – and the first time in four years I didn’t have a blue book test to think about. I relished the novel and I relish the memory. The reason for this book review this late in the day – so to speak is that ever since I’ve read that novel I’ve been aghast at the way Anna is betrayed – by readers. I firmly believe that the worst person on a woman is another woman. I happen to have a nephew I’ve adored since he was born – and when it comes to my son – look out. So I know what I am saying – my nephew’s wife is okay – as long as he is head over heels in love with her and Spencer had best stay a bachelor – that’s a joke – I need and desire grandsons. Anyway back to Anna. My first encounter was soon after I was out of college – one of my professors was doing a reading from her recently published novel – I wanted to attend. I did. I found and old acquaintance and we began a discussion and I off hand, stated I read Anna Karenina and enjoyed it. The look on her face was pleasant enough, and the next thing out of her mouth – “wasn’t she awful?”I disagreed and stated my case and we moved on to other things – agreeing to disagree. Through the years, I have heard over and over again – wasn’t she awful?Umm, No. No. And most decidedly – NO.I’m not going to make a big deal of this but let’s make Anna a man – he leaves a loveless marriage because it is LOVELESS. But there is no story is there? Of course not. Because his loveless wife is expected to stay with the children, preside over dinners and late night supers after the opera, dress well and be grateful. He’s fine with his kept woman fully immersed in her love and companionship – perhaps a little heartbroken that she is not his wife but – well there may be class barriers and the like. Certainly nothing worth walking in front of a train over, he has the best of both worlds.“She abandoned her children.” Holy Cow! Is that right, she abandoned her children? Did that happen? Wait a minute – her children – nothing belongs to her – especially her children. And of course her martyred husband would take on the responsibilities of her daughter – what could he do? You know perhaps Tolstoy wrote the work as a meandering river – this woman moving from one disaster to another, no saving her, and the ending with the moral of the story being…woman should remain a slave and shut up, especially those well dressed and taken care of in a high fashion society.And it that’s the case – I’m not applauding.
    • 4/5
      I still prefer the Constance Garnett translation over this, but I can see how this translation brings the classic text closer to this generation. It's a whole lot easier to read, but so much grandeur is lost, I think. With its long descriptions of working in the fields, riding a horse (quite unforgettable), and food (these parts are just lovely and will make you starve), plus the rounds of vodka and scotch, the many characters' joys and tragedies are paralleled in the everyday
    • 4/5
      This could be seen as my first foray into classic Russian literature and all in all, I would say it's not a bad introduction.

      The book is wordy but not callenging. In fact I found the style surprisingly simple. I'm not sure if this was due to the translation I read, or Tolstoy just isn't as daunting as I'd built him up to be!

      What the book is, is long, but actually it works. You are fully immersed in this world and the pages fly by.

      I was also surprised at how little Anna Karenina and Vronsky are actually in this book. I found I was more drawn to the story of Levin and Kitty.

      All in all I was surprised and delighted with this book. Perhaps it won't take me so long to pick up my next Russian classic.