Within recent memory, I read Anna Karenina, and then later watched the recent movie version. Like what seems to happen many times when I read a book, I found connections between my life and the book. So, I would like to share my thoughts.
1st, a couple of warnings. One, I will probably jump around with my discussion, sometimes perhaps with no segues, so I apologize; and suck it up. Two, there may be spoilers, assuming I can even spoil a novel that began in 1875 and has had many movies made of it. You can pretty much suck that up too.
As a fan of 1800's literature, I very much enjoyed reading the book. But for those of you not keen on reading 700+ pages, I recommend the new movie. Or an old movie I haven't seen. It's a great story, however you experience it. But if you choose to experience it in book form, you definitely get a lot extra. "What extra?" you may ask. Well, a lot of the book focuses on Tolstoy's views about farming, through the character of Levin, and how to get the peasants involved to make the land more productive. I'd even venture to say you read more about this than you do about ol' Anna herself, which for a history nerd, I'm okay with. Not to mention my feelings for the titular character, which you will soon get the full feeling of.
As a warning, I found the names confusing. This is not the 1st time I have read literature translated from Russian (if you consider the Night Watch series literature, and if you know what those are, 5 stars for you!), and still don't really get the whole Russian naming thing. Many of the characters in the novel have 2, 3, 16, 75 names that they go by. I guess it's similar to how like in England the fancy people have their given names and then a completely different fancy title name, like how John Smith is also Duke of Wellington, or whatever. Only in Russian there's like 15 extra letter w/ no vowels. Then there are the nicknames people get, which sometimes make no sense from the formal name, and are sometimes much longer. But then, I don't get how "Jack" is a nickname for "John," but I digress. Another naming issue is not only do some people have multiple names, but people have similar names, sometimes to the point that you go, pages later, "Oh, it's not that guy, but that other guy!" And what does it say about Anna, or Tolstoy, that both her husband and her love are named Alexey? I guess that keeps away the awkwardness of accidentally calling you husband your lover's name, or vice versa, but it's confusing to me.
I guess since I've rambled awhile now, I should actually get on to my thoughts about the actual story. As you may have figured out from my above comments, or perhaps the title of this piece, I don't particularly like Anna Karenina. She's a crazy drama queen bitch! There, I've said it. She's a bitch. I wondered at times whether I was supposed to feel sorry for her at all. I mean, I can get why her predicament is tragic. She is trapped in a marriage with a husband who loves his work more than anything, divorce is much harder to come by than nowadays, not to mention the social disgrace that comes with an affair or a divorce, how she would lose her son, and the general powerlessness she has a woman in those days. It get it, it's terrible. I'm just saying I would feel bad about it if all the terribleness wasn't happening to such a dislikable woman.
Maybe the problem is that I am too practical, and I cannot really see the problems with her marriage. Maybe as someone who's never fallen head-over-heels, madly in love, I don't get the draw of throwing it all away. In the beginning, I can see perhaps why a woman might not want to be married to Alexey Alexandrovitch (Anna's husband, who will be Alexey from now on). He's very devoted to work, too much so I supposed. But I don't see the problem in that. It could be that I might be like that too, or maybe it's because I don't know what it's like to live in a world where a woman hasn't the same luxury to get caught up in her career. But later, he shows he really cares. He is willing to forgive Anna, he loves her love child with another man, and he even offers to fake an affair just so she can be the "victim" in a divorce. But no, she's too caught up in the drama to care.
But to be honest, I formed the above thoughts after I already hated her. And really, it all happened because of one scene. So, as you may or may not know, Anna falls for a man, his name being Alexey Vronsky (who, for clarity sake, will be Vronsky from hereon in), and drama ensues for HUNDREDS OF PAGES!!! But in the very beginning, Vronsky is flirting with Kitty, who is Anna's brother's wife's younger sister (everyone seems to be interconnected, there should be diagrams). Well, everyone, that is everyone except Vronsky, expects Vronsky to eventually propose to Kitty and it'll be all happily ever after from there. But then, duh, duh, duh, he meets that terrible woman at the train station. BOO!!! So, later, there is this ball, because in the 1800's there's always this ball. And at this ball Kitty spends the night giddily anticipating spending the evening in sweet rapture dancing with Vronsky in their beautiful new love. But no. He spends the entire evening stuck to Anna, who's married, but not above flirting shamelessly anyway. Bitch! Suddenly, I'm in Kitty's shoes. I know how that feels, to sit by while the person you pinned your hopes to spends the night paying attention to someone else. And just as suddenly a picture of my own life comes to mind.
And that's why I don't like Anna Karenina, or at least why I don't like her to begin with. There are plenty other reasons to not like her later. Maybe if I was more like her, a flirty vivacious woman with more to offer romance than I was getting from my husband, then maybe I would be able to feel bad for her. But I am such a Kitty, naive at romance and getting hurt because of women with more experience, more personality than I have.
However, later you realize what a crazy psycho she is anyway. She's got Vronsky on one hand, willing to shot himself over his love for her, willing to marry her and make their daughter legitimate. On the other, she has Alexey willing to divorce her, forgive her, whatever. But all she wants to do is wallow in self pity, flaunt her situation at society, and act like a crazy jealous person. OMG! Had Anna been a woman today, I bet you'd know someone like her. She's the really pretty, flirty girl that gets all the guys' attention, and you think she's all charming a great when the romance and flirting is new. But then, she starts to get jealous. She starts checking your cell phone, your Twitter, your Facebook. She purposely picks a fight with you every time you talk to another woman because she thinks you're cheating, and then breaks into sobs that she can't lose you and cannot live without you. Not to mention, that although she's insanely jealous, she purposely tries to get other guys to fall for her, but heaven forbid her man even look at another woman! And the 1875 character is exactly like this!! You know, minus the Twitter, etc. Only, nowadays, when she probably wouldn't even be married, she'd just bounce from man to man, in an endless cycle of flirting to psycho, and back again. So, you can see why I have little sympathy, the normal sane woman that I am.
Now, I was excited that randomly someone was releasing a film of Anna Karenina close to after I had finished the book. I was interested to see who was casted for these character. I think that the movie makers did an excellent job casting, even though I was unfamiliar with many of the actors. I was particularly pleased with the casting of Levin, since I spent the book hoping he'd finally get Kitty, despite early disappointments for both. I am partial to gingers, and he also made a very cute Bill Weasley. :^) I was also pleased with the casting of Jude Law as Alexey Alexandrovitch. I was hoping they'd cast someone who could play the job focused husband bit, but wasn't unlikeable, since I happened to like Alexey.
And, I even enjoyed the casting of Anna herself. Now, for those that may know a thing or two about me, that statement might seem odd. This being due to my complete dislike of Keira Knightly. Granted, she'd a good actress, but something about be her I just cannot stand. But I thought the casting fit. Since I hated the character, I thought it only right Anna be played by someone I can't stand. I think my feelings about it all were neatly summed up by my statement to my mom upon deciding to see the movie. I saw that it was playing and the 1st words out of my mouth weren't "Let's go see 'Anna Karenina.'" They were "Let's go see Keira Knightly get hit by a train!" spoken in a very jovial tone of voice.
So, those are my thoughts. I may have more, but it's late and I'm going to bed. :^)
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