I have just finished reading the above translation of Anna Karenina. It was on one week loan at the library, and that was not enough time to digest this tumbling novel. A grand love affair, an epic, and a fascinating study of human behaviour.

I could not help but despise Anna by the end of the novel. All the while she was painted as such an interesting and captivating person, but her choices were incredibly un-interesting, pedestrian and self-centered. You would think at that point in time, a woman would have had more sense to break away and live her life freely, running off to Paris, or even New York. Mind you, that opium addiction didn't help her situation one bit. However, if Tolstoy was adhering to the tenets of the time, then this was an accurate depiction of womens' powerlessness, at the whim of the husband. Could you even imagine! Ick. Little more than chattel. In this sense, I can have some sympathy for one who knows no other way that what is presented to her.

The whole structure of the novel, though, is for Tolstoy to explore his ideas about Russian society, commerce, agriculture and family. Every novel allows an author to express his views, but I found this was ever so obvious with Tolstoy's writing. As soon as his opinions were concluded, he did away with our heroine, in the most violent manner. And it is only after she is purged from the story that our other hero, Levin, can achieve his spiritual enlightenment. Even though Tolstoy explores alternative choices and lifestyles, in the end, he punishes the heroine, but only after her actions have driven the story forward. The feminist in me wishes for another ending. But what can we expect from 19th century man?