C'est fini.

Ladies, I fasted from all other forms of entertainment for a couple of weeks and managed to sail straight through Anna Karenina.  I couldn't put it down.  I was completely absorbed in the lives of these people!  Of course, by writing this now, I do not intend to put any pressure on you to read the book faster than you are, but rather I want to write down my initial thoughts before I forget them. Don't worry, there will not be any spoilers in this post.

I honestly think that I have never read a book with such convincing characters.  They were so perfect (well, very imperfect, but completely real to me).  I felt that way not only about the main characters (Anna and Levin), but also the supporting characters as well.  Haven't we all met a foppish socialite like Vronsky, or a carefree (yet disturbingly unconcerned for the future) Stepan Arkadyich?  How many real women have had the same feelings as Dolly?  (I found her ruminations on the physical and psychological changes a woman experiences as she becomes a mother somewhat sad, yet so poignant, and above all, so real.) I loved watching the changes take place in Kitty's heart.  I felt so caught up in Levin's deep spiritual thought process.  Even though sometimes I thought the long passages about farming and peasants were tedious, I was so impressed by Levin's intense interest in it.  Isn't that how it is?  Passionate people are so fascinating, even if what they are passionate about isn't interesting to us.  This book was just so real and so moving.  Even as we see Anna decline into the lonely world of her own vain imaginations (ok, how about downright selfishness and self-delusion?), I found it all completely believable.

No matter what praise I give this book, it will be an understatement.  People have written volumes and volumes on why it is a work of genius.  For me, the main message of the book was how happiness in life comes not from external influences or even other people, but from within.  We decide to be happy and cannot depend on any one external thing to make us happy.  Two very small quotes stuck out to me from the entire book.  One is where Levin is discussing life and happiness with his lackey, Yegor, and he explains that "happiness exists only in oneself." (Book 4, ch. 14, pg. 401 in the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation)

Later in the book, Vronsky realizes that even though he has "what he had desired for so long, he was not fully happy.  He soon felt that the realization of his desire had given him only a grain of the mountain of happiness he had expected.  It showed him the eternal error people make in imagining that happiness is the realization of desires." (Book 5, chapter 8, pg. 465 in the P/V translation)

Although the source of this oft-used quote is disputed, many do quote Tolstoy as saying, "If you want to be happy, be."  Once both major characters in the book had what they really wanted, they still had to decide to be happy.  One of them did, and the other didn't.  The consequences of that are so significant, not only for them, but for so many others around them as well.  Truly, generations are influenced by their decision to be or not to be happy.

This is a superbly written novel.  I hope you are all enjoying it.  I loved it so much and can't wait to talk about it with you!