ANNA KARENINA

ANNA KARENINA
LEO TOLSTOY
FIRST PUBLISHED: 1878

“All happy families resemble each other; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”

We all have books that imprint a lasting memory on us, not simply for the entertainment value, but rather for the way in which they communicate the truth of the human person. For me, Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is an exemplar in character development and as such presents an unparalleled disclosure of the human condition and the effects of both sin and virtue in the life of man. 

The story follows four individuals arranged as couples.  The first, for whom the novel is named, is Anna.  When she comes on the scene, she is nothing short of captivating: beautiful and mysterious in every way.  Anna is married, albeit unhappily.  As the story progresses, she falls into an illicit affair with the young Count Vronsky, who pursues her with both intensity and persistence.  The third is a young woman named Kitty.  At the start of the novel, Kitty is simple, even a bit superficial.  In short, I found her utterly uninteresting.  By the end of the story, Kitty is married to a man named Levin.  While their path towards this marriage was complicated, and each did their fair share of soul searching, they are to be the couple who stands apart in virtue from that of Anna and Vronsky, whose sin takes centre stage throughout much of the book.

The curious thing is not the evolution of Kitty and Levin, nor the devolution of Anna and Vronsky.  Rather, the curious thing is the interest in which the reader has for each couple. Anna begins the story as mysterious and captivating, by the end of her plot line, her path of self-destruction comes to fulfilment. In contrast, Kitty and Levin become much more complex and intriguing by the end.  Their fulfillment in virtue makes them interesting.  The message is clear: vice leads to self-destruction and lack of identity, and virtue leads to self-fulfillment.

The novel is a perfect exhibition of the three states in which the human can find himself: vice, natural virtue, and supernatural perfection.  Granted, we are never, this side of heaven, purely in one state, but the three states are real nonetheless.  The message of Tolstoy couldn’t be clearer: vice destroys, virtue perfects, but there is something else even beyond natural perfection, and that can only be brought about by self-abandonment, conversion, and grace.

Tolstoy does some daring things in Anna Karenina, many of which would be frowned upon nowadays by the guardians of literary orthodoxy. He takes us inside the minds of multiple characters, like twice we enter the consciousness of a dog. Tolstoy steps outside the story to tell us things the characters cannot know. He indulges in seeming digressions of inordinate length: lengthy passages about farming methods, social reform, the life of peasants. There are episodes of hunting that take place over days of diegetic time. His most celebrated feat is the stream of consciousness passage right at the end of the novel, when Anna begins her final, fateful journey. 

          To say nothing in 140 years has changed with regards to human emotions would be an understatement. This masterpiece portrays a myriad human weaknesses and traits, feelings and emotions such as love and betrayal, envy and jealousy, bouts of happiness and sadness, remorse and repentance. The times have changed but the societal fabric hasn't and that's what makes this book interesting. It is progressive in its own way and keeps you hooked. It also dwells in the modernization and progression of the erstwhile Soviet. A slice of history with love and loss as the background.