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Anna Karenina

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Anna Karenina

By: Leo Tolstoy
Narrated by: Davina Porter
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About this listen

 "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." This is the famous opening sentence of Tolstoi's epic love story between Anna Arkadyevna Karenina and her Count Vronsky. Anna Karenina (1877) by Leo Tolstoy is a classic story of love and tragedy against the backdrop of pre-revolutionary Russia. The extravagant and dramatic story of Anna Karenina who risks everything for passion is intertwined with the quiet story of Levin (an autobiographical character) and his own quest for true love and personal fulfillment. This psychological masterpiece is considered to be one of the greatest novels of world literature.(P)1990 Recorded Books Classics Fiction Historical Historical Fiction Russia Soviet Union
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Who can resist Tolstoy? From his famous opening sentence, he sweeps us into a world, different from our own, but full of human beings that we recognise immediately. They grapple with the complexities of their own lives. they talk to themseves, kick themselves mentally, delude themselves and swing from optimism to pessimism in ways that engage our sympathies at once.
The energy of Tolstoy's writing is amazing. In the first day of the story, all the main characters (except Anna) appear.They are new to us, but they seem to have been living their lives long before we meet them. Oblonsky, his wife Dolly, her sister Kitty, friend Levin and stranger Vronsky, are all at turning points in their lives. Oblonsky grapples with his wife's knowledge of his infidelity,Dolly contemplates leaving her husband, Levin proposes, Kitty rejects him and Vronsky pursues Kitty. Anna arrives on the next day, to be a catalyst in all their stories and to be compelled towards her own destruction.

Who can resist?

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Tolstoy creates a world of complex characters whom one gets to know and understand and with whom one develops great empathy as the events unfold. The analysis of chatacters' motivation is supreme as Tolstoy demonstates enormous insights into the dilemmas they face as they seek happiness and meaning in their lives. Some fail, some achieve a measure of success, some deceive themselves, some aim low, some aim high.
This book is deeply moving because of its sympathy with humanity.
It is so well written that you cannot put it down but it demands time and concentration.
It is the greatest novel that I have ever read.
If you read only one novel in your life, read Anna Karenina!
Davina Porter judges her reading beautifully

The Greatest Novel Ever Written ?

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I first read this many years ago, at the age of 19, and was probably too young for it. I was only interested in what I saw as the high romance of Anna's love affair, and am ashamed to say I skipped most of Levin's philosophising, which I dismissed as boring. The good thing about an audio book is that it's difficult to skip bits, so you listen to it all - and I loved all 36-plus hours of it! This time round, I realised that Anna was silly, thoughtless and selfish, and found myself much more interested in Levin's story: yes, all the details about agriculture and local politics that I'd found so tedious before. It was beautifully read, too.
Nice to think that at last I am old enough for Tolstoy!

What a treat!

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