Considering how long Anna Karenina is, it probably wasn't the smartest book to read during my pinkie swear but I'm glad I did. Last year I had listened to the beginning of the book on cd that I borrowed from the library but it was 38 hours long and some jackass put a hold on it so I could only have it for 3 weeks. I've been thinking about finishing it ever since and it was eligible as I had downloaded it for free onto my Kindle prior to the start of the pinkie swear. Long, yes, worth it? Also yes. Despite some frustrating verbal tendencies and some long winded boring stretches the book was excellent.
Anna Karenina was set in Russia in the late 1800's, love triangles galore, Russian society, politics, religion, farming & country vs. city life as the major themes. There is not possible way I could sum up all the social interconnectedness but the 2 main love triangles are;
Anna is married to Alexei Alexandrovich and who falls in love and has an affair with Alexei Vronsky. This is further complicated as Anna's sister in law Kitty was being courted by Vronsky & Konstantin Levin right before Vronsky met Anna. Levin asked Kitty to marry her but was denied as she was in love with Vronsky who obviously chose Anna over Kitty. Levin is one of my favorite characters as he's a good natured but quickly angered man from the country. He eventually reconnects with Kitty and they get happily married.
Some of my favorite scenes are ones where Levin is working on his farm in rural Russia or hunting with his friends. The book had a decent flow to it, the descriptions of Russian society was interesting although the politics tended to be a little boring. I found myself getting a little exasperated at how everyone would go from manic highs fine to manic lows to fine was ridiculous. Couples fell in and out of love repeatedly on almost every page. Tolsoy was also kind of fascinated by white teeth, me mentioned them a ton. And thanks to the magic of the kindle I discovered that blush or some variation was mentioned a whopping 62 times throughout the novel. I'm up in the air if I want to read War & Peace but I'm thinking Android Karenina is definitely on my new post pinkie swear reading list.
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