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Brittanie: I have always wanted to read this book and would really like to enjoy it
Why did you want to read this book, and what did you think you would enjoy about it? When I read it I kept waiting for the 'most charming heroine in all of literature' of the back cover blurb to emerge, and that (for me at least) simply never happened. So if you are reading it because you think you will engage with Anna, I can't really offer any hope.
On the other hand, if you think you are going to like anything else at all about it, it's worth persevering with. It's such a massive book (obviously you haven't omitted to notice that) that anything else you like about novels or reading is going to be there. I don't think it gets easier to read - it is a dense book, there's a lot going on at once - but it certainly gets more rewarding as you get feel for the characters and their situations. I got a lot out of Levin's story and his angst about his relationship with almost everyone else in the book (but I was younger when I read it so might have been projeccting a bit). It would probably be a mistake to focus on Anna's story to the exclusion of everyone else's.
I don't know if that is going to be helpful - Tolstoy's style tends to be 'everything in the world happening to everyone in Russia', and that does continue throughout. I'd be interested to hear what you want or expect to get out of it, though, and the way in which it's currently disappointing you. |
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