Anna Karenina is the book that made me love books. I read it at 17 in a moment when perhaps, as a young woman, I had "the emotional version of man flu" lol. Levin felt "quite me" and I adored the book so much. As I was embarking on adulthood, I found Levin's (aka Tolstoy's) version of Christianity and morality deeply formative. The book's jaded view of romantic love probably saved my sanity during various college flings. My cat is named Leo, after Tolstoy. I've read nearly everything he has written, occasionally in multiple translations. A Tolstoy quote was printed at the top of all our wedding programs... Needless to say, I've been so excited for this podcast!!
As you dove into how progressive and modern Tolstoy's writing is, I felt like pumping my fist. His characters are so rich! He loves them all so deeply! God I love him. Thank you for picking this book. Such a fun conversation! "OMG brb crying..." Also hard agree that we can cut out every moment of Vronsky talking about horses lol
Could you or Bobby share a link to the Guardian article he mentions?
I love this comment! Amazing to hear from someone whose life has been so shaped by Tolstoy. Did we mention a guardian article? I think I mentioned New Yorker or NY Times. I’ll ask Bobby brb
Bobby mentioned an article where they talk about how Tolstoy doesn't "show not tell", he "shows AND tells." Was curious to read more but no worries if you can't dig it up! Also sorry if my rambling comment was a touch unhinged hahah. I just got so excited!
I deeply love Anna Karenina, so thank you for this ♥️ I first read it in my early twenties and I remember expecting a "difficult" "serious" book and then being surprised how incredibly relatable it was. How our feelings are really the same, no matter the time or circumstances. It made me want to copy down every second sentence and to this day I regularly quote it in conversation (if you want to appear educated, quote Anna Karenina in conversation - to kind of ruin the vibe follow it up with "it's just SO RELATABLE! he described it so well!!!").
I love how every time I come back to it, I feel seen by another character or storyline - the book meets you where you're at ✨
Hello hello, and thank you two for reading this. I am surprised it's length is such an issue - as someone who has always torn up long books and read them bit by bit, so as not to have the great tomb to hold in bed - I think you can look on it as 5 parts - and it was written like that, as many novels were at that time. I think long is just a tweak of ones brain like marathon running is of the body (so I am told) . I think Anna had post natal depression - and that's why she doesn't seem to care about her children in the way that a mother could/would/should. I think that the horse passages -which I love and make me like Vronski more than I otherwise do - as he is just a hot wheels racing driver as far as I can see - are meant to be suggesting (oblique to the point of invisibly to us now) that he's a sexy stallion and a good lover etc etc - and that is the thing of it really - that Anna chose sexy stud over boring but reliable husband (understandable to every woman at some moment in her married life) and that did not work out in her world. Does it work out sometimes, or can we have both? Levin and Kitty are the double act pre-podcasters on that one, and they seem to settle for patchwork quilts, farming and billowing blouses in a very instagram worthy version of life. I loved that Maggie O Farrell by the way - After You'd Gone is one of the very few books I have read the last sentence of and in the same breath/beat/moment turned back to the beginning and started and read it all over again. Oddly enough, Anna Karenina is another.
I will share your writing with a dear friend for whom I bought a copy of Anna Karenina when I found out she'd never read Tolstoy. I shared that throughout my reading I would stop to contemplate the beauty of the work and the scene evoked, sometimes re-reading the bit over and over to re-experience the awe. Such a rare book experience.
I read AK at 19, while suffering an awful lupus flare at uni, and then again in January this year. And I really appreciated it more this time. I saw the brilliant stage production in Edinburgh last year and wept at the end and proceeded to weep all the way home. It was mortifying but cathartic, akin to my reading of Nobody is Talking About This. And I will always remember my philistine husband turning to be at the interval and whispering “this doesn’t end well, does it?”
I adored this. Good to hear someone else using the book plus audiobook approach for a big book (I highly recommend it for Hilary Mantel’s longer books).
I read this as an adult in a book group. Various members had previously read it as young adults. They had passionately loved Anna and Vronsky but as a mother I didn’t and had empathy with Kitty. I wonder how you felt as an adult?
I read Anna Karenina for an online adult ed book class a few years ago, so it was great to revisit it by listening to this chat.
The class was fine though the teacher, while very knowledgeable as a scholar, was not great at connecting with the class so it speaks very well for the book that it was still very “easy” to plow through for such a long, discursive book in six weeks.
One book I would recommend as a follow on for context about the making of the book is Bob Blaisdell’s “Creating Anna Karenina” which was fascinating for spelling out Tolstoy’s surprising lack of enthusiasm for his creation at first, and for his close friend and his wife’s critical roles in getting the book done.
Finally, I am just like Bobby in that I combine the audiobook with the physical book for at least the first couple of hundred pages to get me going. I usually finish the last half going exclusively with actual reading, but some books really do well with a great reader for some parts!
Really enjoyed this chat. I read this along with Madame Bovary and Jude the Obscure as part of my coursework for A Level English Literature. It was essay on how society treats intelligent women or something like that - don’t know who I thought I was and I’m sure I’d be embarrassed to read it now! I definitely skimmed over the agricultural stuff but did have quite the crush on Levin. Have re-read it since but not for a while so would be interesting to see if my opinions on characters have changed.
So looking forward to listening! I love the book (though also find the audiobook quite a good insomnia companion). Sorry to hear about your youngest - toddler accidents are so stressful. Possibly the most stressful aspect of having children! Hope all ok now x
I am so looking forward to listening to this when I have finally finished reading Anna Karenina. I started in January and still have ~300 pages left - I’m really enjoying it but it certainly is taking a long, long time!
Oh this is so helpful to know, honestly - I actually loved Levin's farming tangents, though I admit I skimmed a bit of Vronsky's military lifestyle chapters!
Anna Karenina is the book that made me love books. I read it at 17 in a moment when perhaps, as a young woman, I had "the emotional version of man flu" lol. Levin felt "quite me" and I adored the book so much. As I was embarking on adulthood, I found Levin's (aka Tolstoy's) version of Christianity and morality deeply formative. The book's jaded view of romantic love probably saved my sanity during various college flings. My cat is named Leo, after Tolstoy. I've read nearly everything he has written, occasionally in multiple translations. A Tolstoy quote was printed at the top of all our wedding programs... Needless to say, I've been so excited for this podcast!!
As you dove into how progressive and modern Tolstoy's writing is, I felt like pumping my fist. His characters are so rich! He loves them all so deeply! God I love him. Thank you for picking this book. Such a fun conversation! "OMG brb crying..." Also hard agree that we can cut out every moment of Vronsky talking about horses lol
Could you or Bobby share a link to the Guardian article he mentions?
I love this comment! Amazing to hear from someone whose life has been so shaped by Tolstoy. Did we mention a guardian article? I think I mentioned New Yorker or NY Times. I’ll ask Bobby brb
Bobby mentioned an article where they talk about how Tolstoy doesn't "show not tell", he "shows AND tells." Was curious to read more but no worries if you can't dig it up! Also sorry if my rambling comment was a touch unhinged hahah. I just got so excited!
It’s this one! https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/aug/31/rereading-anna-karenina-james-meek
I deeply love Anna Karenina, so thank you for this ♥️ I first read it in my early twenties and I remember expecting a "difficult" "serious" book and then being surprised how incredibly relatable it was. How our feelings are really the same, no matter the time or circumstances. It made me want to copy down every second sentence and to this day I regularly quote it in conversation (if you want to appear educated, quote Anna Karenina in conversation - to kind of ruin the vibe follow it up with "it's just SO RELATABLE! he described it so well!!!").
I love how every time I come back to it, I feel seen by another character or storyline - the book meets you where you're at ✨
Hello hello, and thank you two for reading this. I am surprised it's length is such an issue - as someone who has always torn up long books and read them bit by bit, so as not to have the great tomb to hold in bed - I think you can look on it as 5 parts - and it was written like that, as many novels were at that time. I think long is just a tweak of ones brain like marathon running is of the body (so I am told) . I think Anna had post natal depression - and that's why she doesn't seem to care about her children in the way that a mother could/would/should. I think that the horse passages -which I love and make me like Vronski more than I otherwise do - as he is just a hot wheels racing driver as far as I can see - are meant to be suggesting (oblique to the point of invisibly to us now) that he's a sexy stallion and a good lover etc etc - and that is the thing of it really - that Anna chose sexy stud over boring but reliable husband (understandable to every woman at some moment in her married life) and that did not work out in her world. Does it work out sometimes, or can we have both? Levin and Kitty are the double act pre-podcasters on that one, and they seem to settle for patchwork quilts, farming and billowing blouses in a very instagram worthy version of life. I loved that Maggie O Farrell by the way - After You'd Gone is one of the very few books I have read the last sentence of and in the same breath/beat/moment turned back to the beginning and started and read it all over again. Oddly enough, Anna Karenina is another.
I will share your writing with a dear friend for whom I bought a copy of Anna Karenina when I found out she'd never read Tolstoy. I shared that throughout my reading I would stop to contemplate the beauty of the work and the scene evoked, sometimes re-reading the bit over and over to re-experience the awe. Such a rare book experience.
I read AK at 19, while suffering an awful lupus flare at uni, and then again in January this year. And I really appreciated it more this time. I saw the brilliant stage production in Edinburgh last year and wept at the end and proceeded to weep all the way home. It was mortifying but cathartic, akin to my reading of Nobody is Talking About This. And I will always remember my philistine husband turning to be at the interval and whispering “this doesn’t end well, does it?”
Loved this ep. Please do Cloud Atlas at some point!
I adored this. Good to hear someone else using the book plus audiobook approach for a big book (I highly recommend it for Hilary Mantel’s longer books).
A Little Life next!
Hope you and the fam are doing ok P! I bought the snazzy version of AK to try and make me read it but then I got 200 other books. Maybe one day….
I find it hard sometimes when people ask what Anna Karenina is about. It’s so many things!
Hope your kiddo is ok! (I have not read Anna Karenina so have nothing to add!)
I read this as an adult in a book group. Various members had previously read it as young adults. They had passionately loved Anna and Vronsky but as a mother I didn’t and had empathy with Kitty. I wonder how you felt as an adult?
I think things worked out well for Kitty—her and Levin are a good match! Lucky escape etc etc
I read Anna Karenina for an online adult ed book class a few years ago, so it was great to revisit it by listening to this chat.
The class was fine though the teacher, while very knowledgeable as a scholar, was not great at connecting with the class so it speaks very well for the book that it was still very “easy” to plow through for such a long, discursive book in six weeks.
One book I would recommend as a follow on for context about the making of the book is Bob Blaisdell’s “Creating Anna Karenina” which was fascinating for spelling out Tolstoy’s surprising lack of enthusiasm for his creation at first, and for his close friend and his wife’s critical roles in getting the book done.
Finally, I am just like Bobby in that I combine the audiobook with the physical book for at least the first couple of hundred pages to get me going. I usually finish the last half going exclusively with actual reading, but some books really do well with a great reader for some parts!
Really enjoyed this chat. I read this along with Madame Bovary and Jude the Obscure as part of my coursework for A Level English Literature. It was essay on how society treats intelligent women or something like that - don’t know who I thought I was and I’m sure I’d be embarrassed to read it now! I definitely skimmed over the agricultural stuff but did have quite the crush on Levin. Have re-read it since but not for a while so would be interesting to see if my opinions on characters have changed.
So looking forward to listening! I love the book (though also find the audiobook quite a good insomnia companion). Sorry to hear about your youngest - toddler accidents are so stressful. Possibly the most stressful aspect of having children! Hope all ok now x
I am so looking forward to listening to this when I have finally finished reading Anna Karenina. I started in January and still have ~300 pages left - I’m really enjoying it but it certainly is taking a long, long time!
it is so so long but I did allow myself to skim over Levin's agriculture bits as it's just really not my portion
Oh this is so helpful to know, honestly - I actually loved Levin's farming tangents, though I admit I skimmed a bit of Vronsky's military lifestyle chapters!
The ending is so unexpected
do you think? i kind of feel like it couldn't have gone any other way... do you wish it had ended differently?