Lately, I read Anna Karenin by Leo Tolstoy. This is a wonderful book. It’s quite prolific. It took me several months to read it and I savored it. It was a joy to read and was very uplifting. Tolstoy has a wonderful way with language and it shows in this book. I was quite impressed by the flow of the language and its literary style. The book was immensely enjoyable- and while it relates to a romantic obsession or fascination with Anna, it is a treatise on human thought and action. Tolstoy is a natural gifted writer who can weave a story so rich that it captures the imagination- and its vividness brings to life an old culture or old customs. Tolstoy brings the aristocratic life of Moscow into brilliant focus- from the beginning- crafting a story of epic proportions and rooted in the daily customs and tastes of midlevel Russia. It is truly a masterpiece and simply transports the reader into a world of refinement and elegance. We are simply drawn into the text- written by Tolstoy in Russian and translated here- by way of descriptiveness, narrative and dialogue- that enables us to see Tolstoy’s world so clearly. Not only that- Tolstoy who was a count in real life and lived a very privileged life before he became a writer- is a Renaissance man who uses imagery, language, cultural tropes, and a sense of the old World, to create a picturesque novel that lives on in the memory as alive and real. He is serious, authoritative, versed in French and Latin, and is a quite a universal man. Who is also funny at times, and light-hearted, humble and practical, such as Tolstoy himself who lived as a farmer late in life and sympathized with the working classes. He is truly one of the greatest who also gives life to his novel with his brilliant and innate knowledge and wisdom, humour and wit, that dazzles and captivates the mind like no other writer. It is a formidable book that simply reigns as one of the best-lived books of all time, that elevates the modern woman in Anna Karenin as a symbol of virtue, beauty and grace.
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