Finally finished this. It was a slog. All the sements about the conflict of Karenin/Anna/Wronski were really great. I also loved Kitty's and Ljewin's relationship. But aside from that... meh.
I don't get why Tolstoi went on about so many tangents. The election, the painting techniques in Europe etc. felt so irrelevant to the plot.
Also, fuck everyone in the book except for Ljewin. Although his suicidal thoughts because of religion felt a bit tacked on at the end, he was the best character.
I don't get why this is such a masterpiece. Is War and Peace similar in that Tolstoy feels the need to talk about 10000000 minor points irrelevant to main character/plot development?
It's even worse. Long tangents where Tolstoy explains his theories on history.
Also Levin was just a cringy self-insert.
Ian Wood
It resonates with men as he really seems to "get" women
Ayden Roberts
W&P is better, Anna Karenina is literally a trainwreck.
Josiah Sanders
Tolstoy spends several hundred pages of W&P outlining exactly why Napoleon was a hack. It's still a masterpiece and you're still a pleb, though
Aaron Russell
>I don't get why Tolstoi went on about so many tangents. The election, the painting techniques in Europe etc. felt so irrelevant to the plot. Unpopular opinion, this is my favourite part of Tolstoy. It's like an old grandfather telling you a story by the fireside. He creates a sense of time and place better than Dosto or Chekhov (who I both adore)
Bentley Gutierrez
the tangents are great. I feel they have the same effect as the tangents in moby dick
Samuel James
No other character in lit makes me cringe as much as Levin, wtf is wrong with you
Gavin Bennett
why
Jeremiah Rivera
War and Peace is even more like that, just ridiculously convoluted, but I like it much better than AK.
Gavin Myers
>Is War and Peace similar in that Tolstoy feels the need to talk about 10000000 minor points irrelevant to main character/plot development? If you read dickens you'd understand how much hes really lowering the bar
Jaxon Wood
>convoluted do you mean his philosophies?
Jeremiah Long
because he had to use this stupid chalk game to propose Kitty because he's a loser *oh wait it's fiction, let's say the girl loves him after all*
Gavin Lewis
>t. coping incel
Matthew Bell
>stupid chalk game to propose Kitty I love Tolstoy, but it’s funny that one of the greatest writers also wrote one of the absolute worst scenes in all literature.
Sebastian Robinson
Haven't read Anna Karenina, but I love the tangents in Les Miserables
Jason Parker
there's nothing wrong with it. you're just a bunch of irony poisoned retards who can't appreciate a sweet scene where two characters awkwardly express their love for one another.
Ryan Brooks
This guy gets it. War & Peace is the only good work from him, everything after Anna Karenina is too didactic to have any literary merit. Levin's spiritual revelation at the end comes out of nowhere and feels forced, Karenin's moment of magnanimity is ultimately inconsequencial and doesn't last long, and Anna attempts to make her life like that of a heroine by rejecting Karenin's offer since happy relationships are poor material for fiction.
Ryder Morris
This faggot didn't read The Death of Ivan Illyich, Tolstoy's greatest work
Blake Powell
>literally a trainwreck. Underrated post.
Ian Long
>tangents RETARD detected, everything in AK serves and advances the main plot and/or themes. Try connecting the election to Anna's monologue shortly before her death, and the discussion on painting techniques to the nature of Vronsky's love for her And this scene is a blatant comment on Tolstoy's motif of "absolute language" and the inferiority of explicit speech compared to spiritual knowing It's like you tards read for the plot and plot alone. That's tasty and all, but it's not even half of what a good book has to offer.
Brody Harris
this. just get comfy faggot and keep reading. immerse yourself in that shit
Isaac Diaz
Kek
Dominic Garcia
>And this scene is a blatant comment on Tolstoy's motif of "absolute language" and the inferiority of explicit speech compared to spiritual knowing >It's like you tards read for the plot and plot alone. That's tasty and all, but it's not even half of what a good book has to offer. Well it depends on the book. When the author is such a faggot I wish he could stick to 'plot only'. I didn't think of Nietzsche while reading Tolstoy but I guess I was under nietzschean influence in some way. Levin was just being pathetic.
I agree that from the top, Levin's revelation seems forced, but Tolstoy writes enough convincingly to feel that its not.
Oliver Powell
Funny. This is one of the few books I felt come alive in my hands while reading it. I thought it was fantastic.
Caleb Davis
Tolstoi? More like Toosoi. I’m including that in my novel so no one repeat this.
Jayden Rivera
guess search for meaning is pathetic
Wyatt Davis
Read it as well, the pink pouffe scene was almost as ridiculous as Levin and Kitty's secret messages. Could have easily communicated how much of a waste Ivan Ilyich's life was without entirely negating every aspect of it, and the descriptions of his spiritual transformation failed to move me.
Zachary Clark
Iirc it's how he actually proposed to his wife. It's cute and believable, I don't really see your beef with it.
Zachary Johnson
>12983637 Jesus you're dumb piece of unintegrated shit! Kys or get out of the basement you fat fuck!
William Young
hell yeah friends i felt nothing but comfy and satisfied throughout the whole book. i’m glad we can enjoy it together in such a way