Anna hasn't even appeared in the book yet and it's always ludicrously good

>>24560128 (OP)
***ALREADY wtf

>>24560128 (OP)
I hate anna, I just wanted her to be murdered

>>24560229
I liked Anna, she had that proto-girlboss spirit in her.
>>24560128 (OP)
Anna is a great!

>>24560128 (OP)
It gets even better when shorty appears

Anna Karenina is just one of those books; what great characters. With Russian literature in general your at the mercy of the translator as to how much you enjoy the writing, but the translation I read anyways I quite enjoyed. Dostoyevsky doesn't quite have the descriptive power of Tolstoy; both authors are good in different ways. Anyways good pick. Obviously there's other Russian writers I'm missing, but you can't go wrong with Tolstoy:)

>>24560229
If you didn't like Anna then you obviously aren't a real feminist. Anna was a radical character for the time. She was one of the first female characters to be three dimensional and to dare to be "flawed" (for the standards of her time) and to dare to want more than the patriarchal society of her time was willing to give her. She was a feminist heroine through and through.

>>24560128 (OP)
Contrary to what the tittle may suggest, Anna isn't the sole protagonist of the book, and arguably she's slightly, but very slightly, less important than Levin.

>>24560271
What strikes me is that so far the events of the book only take place over the course of 3 days in-universe. The book lets you get immersed into the world so thoroughly, every detail enriches the characters from their fingernails to the kind of politics they read in the newspaper. The real action hasn’t even started yet but it’s as if these characters are living and breathing while the book is closed. I find myself getting into their mind and wondering what goes on in their mind that isn’t written on the page

>>24560279
Spot on analysis.
>>24560285
Levin represented the patriarchal structure of the time. His “sexual relations” shall we say were really rapes, especially the one where he age gapped the little girl by ~15 years!

>>24560271
I feel like both authors have a habit of blah blah blahing for too long. Dostoevsky’s books are a bit too similar to one another, having similar themes and characters. One can read The Brothers Karamazov and can more or less get the gist of the characters present in his other book. Tolstoy’s stories drag on for a bit too long, but in general I feel like he is a step above Dostoevsky. My other criticisms of Anna Karenina are dissolved by the fact that he was writing during his time and place, so he did about the best he could have. Bulgakov is better because I just bought the master & margarita.

>>24560314
>Bulgakov is better because I just bought the master & margarita.
If you go with high expectations then be ready to be somewhat disappointed. One of the most uneven books I've ever read. But make sure to read untill the end, because despite some sections being, for my money, terrible, the ending is sublime and manages to tie everything together perfectly.

>>24560303
>She was 18 you sick fuck

>>24560299
100% I will correct you and say the book takes place over the span of, like two or three years, but your other points still stand. You really get to know these characters intimately and get to know how they work in and out; these characters get more nuance in a single page than some characters do in whole novels. I'm sure the Parker novels, for instance are really good ( read a comic adaptation of the first novel), but you really don't know a whole lot about the Parker character anyways: its not that kind of writing, and the joy of Tolstoy is how little he sugar coats the characters or how much he tries to write the characters as multifaceted beings with moral ambiguities and complexities. Even Tolstoy wanted to go further and wasn't satisfied with his writing, but, as far as I'm concerned he did a pretty damn good job representing some semblance of reality. maybe that was the whole point of the realist movement (in Russian paintings too, around that time, painters seemed to put more stock in portraying Russian life as free of pretense as they could get it). The world, like you say, feels lived in, and that a quality that can really draw you into a book like this and wonder about the character's motivations, routines, or otherwise:)

>>24560128 (OP)
Most surprising thing to me was how easy the book is to read. You’d think these are tough books because they’re long as fuck. But Tolstoy writes like he’s telling you a fairy tale. Very simple vocabulary, nothing woozy about his writing at all, it’s just super immerse and clear.

>>24560324
And how old was Levin? She was an immature girl and he a seasoned whore fucker. He literally violated her. Yes in patriarchal Russia it was the norm but nowadays it’s obviously rape.

>>24560279
>>24560303
>you obviously aren't a real feminist
>patriarchal structure
absurd posts, do you know where you are retard?

>>24560358
Levin's character arc is the cuck's revenge against Chad. He can do whatever he wants

>>24561399
I’m on a literature board discussing literature I’ve read
>>24562117
lol levin’s arch really does read like an incel getting revenge on Chad