The Greatest Novel of All Time?
What Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina has to teach us about living and loving.
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How often to you find yourself in the happy situation of engaging in meaningful discussion or wrestling through ideas with others? It is especially fun when this occurs amongst a group of people who are mutually respected on the basis of character and knowledge because the conversation remains both civil and sophisticated. Part of what we want to foster here in our Think On These Things content is the whetting of appetites to do just that.*
Recently, at a book club I attend, I enjoyed such a pleasure. A fellow member reminded me of an important concept in the realm of learning—the more one engages in excellent content, the more one uncovers other benchmark works that deserve attention. C.S. Lewis noted this related to literature. As one reads great works of classic literature, one inevitably uncovers references to other great works of classic literature…and on and on. This is true of the company we keep, as well. If we spend time with those who are reading, discussing, and engaging in high quality material and conversation, we will likely end up doing the same. There is an old Proverb that beautifully describes this truth: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
When we immerse ourselves in great literature, we have an opportunity to elevate our thinking, expand our knowledge, and increase our understanding of all sorts of things: words, historical context, literary references, techniques, styles, cultures, geographic regions, economic influences, political climates, family dynamics, social classes through the ages, and on and on. (If you’ve picked up the Hamilton biography that we referenced in an earlier edition, you may have come across two of my recent favorite words that jumped off the pages: vituperative and calumny!)
This edition, we step foot into such great literature with none other than Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910). Along with his contemporary, Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881), he remains one of the most celebrated and beloved Russian authors of all time. Alongside his comprehensive masterpiece, War and Peace, the story of Anna Karenina is regarded as one of the greatest novels of all time—and rightly so.
Setting the Context
Tolstoy’s life and work played out during a fascinating period in history. Born into aristocracy, he experienced the “old world” of Russia before a time when changing ideas, political thought, and societal positions shifted the landscape—including the abolition of serfdom in 1861 and the following decades of building tension that lead up to the Russian Revolutions in 1905 and then in 1917. What followed, of course, was the Soviet Union and the devastating rise of communism.
In Anna Karenina (1875 – 1877), positioned before the revolutionary activities, we experience an era where traditions and expectations of aristocracy were firmly in place, but where indications of what would follow are evident. Significant portions of the story take place in the cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow, where Tolstoy reveals what high society was like.
“The highest Petersburg society is essentially one: in it everyone knows everyone else, everyone even visits everyone else. But this great set has its subdivisions. Anna Arkadyevna Karenina had friends and close ties in three different circles of this highest society. One circle was her husband’s government official set, consisting of his colleagues and subordinates, brought together in the most various and capricious manner, and belonging to different social strata…
Another little set with which Anna was in close relations was the one by means of which Alexey Alexandrovitch had made his career. The center of this circle was the Countess Lidia Ivanovna. It was a set made up of elderly, ugly, benevolent, and godly women, and clever, learned, and ambitious men. One of the clever people belonging to the set had called it ‘the conscience of Petersburg society.’ Alexey Alexandrovitch had the highest esteem for this circle, and Anna with her special gift for getting on with everyone, had in the early days of her life in Petersburg made friends in this circle also. Now, since her return from Moscow, she had come to feel this set insufferable. It seemed to her that both she and all of them were insincere, and she felt so bored and ill at ease in that world that she went to see the Countess Lidia Ivanovna as little as possible…
The third circle with which Anna had ties was preeminently the fashionable world—the world of balls, of dinners, of sumptuous dresses, the world that hung onto the court with one hand, so as to avoid sinking to the level of the demi-monde. For the demi-monde the members of that fashionable world believed that they despised, though their tastes were not merely similar, but in fact identical.”
It sounds tiresome, does it not? Perhaps it is heightened in this excerpt, as Anna is navigating the added layers of pressure that are building amidst her secrecy. Nonetheless, it still reveals a glimpse of the Russian social order and its cultural norms amongst those in powerful circles.
By contrast, we also see change afoot in the life and character of Konstantin Levin, who is thought by most scholars to be autobiographical for Tolstoy. In a scene that is captivating on many levels, we see Levin as the landowner joining forces with the peasants to mow fields of grass. There were no automatic lawnmowers at the time—it was all done by hand with scythes, manually, by groups of men who walked the field row by row, swing by swing, until each blade had been cut. What’s more, Levin steps away from hosting his elder brother, a scholar and philosopher, to spend time working his land. The juxtaposed scene to what Anna describes in the city above is an important depiction of several themes throughout the book, contrasting life in the city versus life in the country, or the conventions of the aristocracy versus the innovations and constraints of those those impacted by political and social changes.
“He [Levin] felt as he swung his scythe that he was at the very end of his strength, and was making up his mind to ask Tit to stop. But at that very moment Tit stopped of his own accord, and stooping down picked up some grass, rubbed his scythe, and began whetting it. Levin straightened himself, and drawing a deep breath looked round. Behind him came a peasant, and he too was evidently tired, for he stopped at once without waiting to mow up to Levin, and began whetting his scythe. Tit sharpened his scythe and Levin’s, and they went on…
So they mowed the first row. And this long row seemed particularly hard work to Levin; but when the end was reached and Tit, shouldering his scythe, began with deliberate stride returning on the tracks left by his heels in the cut grass, and Levin walked back in the same way over the space he had cut, in spite of the sweat that ran in streams over his face and fell in drops down his nose, and drenched his back as though he had been soaked in water, he felt very happy. What delighted him particularly was that now he knew he would be able to hold out…
He thought of nothing, wished for nothing, but not to be left behind the peasants, and to do his work as well as possible…
Levin untied his horse and rode home to his coffee. Sergey Ivanovitch was only just getting up. When he had drunk his coffee, Levin rode back again to the mowing before Sergey Ivanovitch had time to dress and come down to the dining room.”
What follows is an unlikely sense of camaraderie between landowner and peasants—and even some jovial competition about tackling the next field as they promise, “there’ll be some vodka”!
Levin’s character repeatedly demonstrates a practical approach to resisting the conventions of political norms and expectations, not through activism or political power, but through his own realm of influence, authority, and impact—his land and work. Despite, or perhaps because of, his position of land ownership, he is disgusted with the narratives that regularly come out of the intellectual elite and the political spaces. Those in seats of power and influence repeatedly talk about education and addressing the “low stage or rational and moral development” amongst the peasants, when Levin (who has spent time working alongside them) asserts that the first step in bettering their condition is directly tied to proper incentives in their work. Certainly, this harkens back to what we have discussed from an economic standpoint with insights from Thomas Sowell and others about the economic impact of incentives.
Thematic Counterpoint
Throughout the novel, Tolstoy masterfully weaves together stories that juxtapose the choices, traits, positions, lifestyles, and priorities of his characters against one another. The story follows three primary families, emphasizing the various couples. Without spoiling key moments in the plot, here are a few elements that you might notice or look for when you pick up this novel for yourself. As with many great works of literature, it doesn’t take long for the reader to begin identifying key character traits that remind us of the various struggles encountered in one’s own life. While we may not all have stories as dramatic as those in the pages of Anna Karenina, we don’t have to look far to see thoughts, doubts, temptations, questions, or struggles that have formed in our own minds. Like holding up a mirror of one’s own image, the reader sees elements of each character’s tendencies similar to one’s own.
City/Country
Duty/Self
Thinking/Doing
Convention/Modernization
Secrecy/Honesty
Loyalty/Infidelity
Stubbornness/Forgiveness
Faith/Doubt
Repentance/Destruction
Contentment/Comparison
And consequences…lots of consequences, both good and bad.
Other fascinating thematic currents manifest through extensive passages of inner monologue—particularly for Anna and Levin—Anna as she wrestles with decisions and Levin as he wrestles with the meaning of life. This leads us to some of the most powerful moments of the novel.
*Spoiler Alert!*
We must issue a brief disclaimer here for those who have not yet read the novel and do not want any spoilers. Here is your alert – you can stop here and circle back once you’ve read this extraordinary work. If not, carry on!
Powerful Moments
It would be impossible to talk about Anna Karenina without noting some of the most impactful moments in the story—not simply the plot, but more importantly, the moments that cause this story to resonate so deeply with its readers. No doubt, each reader will identify many powerful moments that stand out. Here are just a few.
The Opening:
A good opening line can be one of the most powerful moments of a great novel. Think about some of the most well-known lines that may be familiar, ones like: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens) or “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen). Anna Karenina does not disappoint with its opening line:
“Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
Even amidst our small book club, there were varying interpretations of this line. Does it speak to the clear lines of functional versus dysfunctional families? Does it tease with sarcasm that seemingly “happy” families are just keeping up appearances, but secretly have their own unique iterations of unhappiness beneath the surface? Or, perhaps, it goes even deeper—that true happiness has a clear and consistent mark of joy, where by contrast, unhappiness comes in infinite forms of destruction, discontent, and disharmony. Certainly, the novel in its entirety helps to color one’s understanding of this simple opening line, but part of its genius is its complexity beneath the surface.
Anna and Vronsky:
The first encounter: One of the most brilliant elements of this story is Tolstoy’s treatment of Anna’s character. She meets Count Vronsky at the train when she is returning home after visiting the Oblonskys. The encounter is pregnant with anticipation of what is to come. And the encounters continue. The first glance, the initial attraction, the subtle yet irresistible desire, the increasing jealousy that festers, the playful interactions in public…and finally the affair itself.
The unraveling: This first encounter gives way to incremental steps toward destruction. From the moment of Anna and Vronsky’s act of infidelity, the pace at which Anna spirals mentally, emotionally, and physically out of control is alarming. Tolstoy’s ability to allow the reader into her mind, simultaneously hearing her absurdity while also identifying with elements of her panic as her life unravels is incredibly powerful. Anna’s thoughts, fears, and “what if” scenarios play over and over again in her inner monologue. We see the destruction that comes from Anna’s actions, but almost more stark is her singular focus on herself. When fully steeped, the outcome is as dramatic as her mind made it out to be. Her story ultimately ends in a parallel moment at the train, when she throws herself onto the tracks to end her life. It is only in the split second after this fateful decision that she has a change of heart. But it is too late.
It is too tempting to resist sharing a musical correlation to the drama of Anna’s unraveling. Schubert (1797 - 1828) set the poetry of Goethe’s (1749 - 1832) Gretchen am Spinnrade with a hauntingly beautiful depiction of a woman at the spinning wheel as her lost love plagues her mind over and over again. If Anna’s words were set to music, perhaps they would sound a bit like this (below are two artists’ performances of Schubert’s - one singer and one pianist). It is helpful to read the poetry, which you can do here. Some of the translation includes phrases like “my peace is gone, my heart is heavy” and “my poor head is crazed, my poor mind shattered.”
Lest we digress too far into music, we shall return to our final portion of powerful moments from the novel.
Kitty and Levin:
The reconciliation: The most tender story in the novel is that of Kitty and Levin’s love. What starts as a case of anticipated engagement quickly becomes one of harsh refusal and disappointment for Levin. After Kitty experiences an equally devastating dismissal from Vronsky, she is left in despair. After much time and forgiveness, and a softening of hearts, they finally make their way back to one another—and what follows is their genuine—more seasoned—approach to love. It is not without its challenges, but they both practice tangible ways of putting the other first. Kitty grows from a young, naïve, girl who is smitten with the charming and teasing Count Vronsky to a thoughtful, loyal and content young lady to marry her farmer. Levin grows from a proud, stubborn, and hurt man to a humbled, honest, and loving husband to his true love.
The conversions: Both Kitty and Levin have powerful faith conversions. For Kitty, at a time when she is sick with disappointment and depression after Vronsky’s disappearing act, she encounters an older woman who is devout in her Christian faith, full of joy, and generous in spirit. Kitty quickly sees something different in how this woman lives her life and eagerly wants what she has. It transforms her—and plays an instrumental role in Levin’s own conversion story later. For Levin, he wrestles through most of the story with the meaning of life, his purpose in it, and all of life’s usual big questions. Several moments build up to his sudden and dramatic conversion. For example, we read: “Ever since, by his beloved brother’s deathbed, Levin had first glanced into the questions of life and death in the light of these new convictions, as he called them, which had during the period from his twentieth to his thirty-fourth year imperceptibly replaced his childish and youthful beliefs—he had been stricken with horror, not so much of death, as of life, without any knowledge of whence, and why, and how, and what it was.” Levin continues on his journey and we won’t account the many conversations, encounters, and moments of clarity that lead to his eventual faith conversion. However, as with his treatment of Anna’s unravelling, Tolstoy equally allows his reader to enter into Levin’s wrestling. It is moving—and one finds oneself rooting for him to finally resolve his wrestling.
Perhaps above all, Anna Karenina is so powerful because of Tolstoy’s ability to plumb the depths of each character’s soul, depicting for his readers moments that are raw and real. One of the ways he does this so well is through his use of both internal monologues and external dialogues. His works are lengthy, but they are well worth the read. Ultimately, his stories tell the truth about people, about societies, about power, about love, and about all the rest, like every good story.
I hope you will consider delving into this classic work—it is, indeed, one of the greatest of all time.
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