Reading Tolstoy can be intimidating. I used to love to say that War and Peace is 1441 pages in the Norton edition. (Perhaps I should check whether my memory is correct.) His wife Sonia recopied that manuscript for him seven times. It is ironic that what Tolstoy most valued in relationships with people was wordless communication, and yet the man used a lot of words!
On the left you see Russian painter Ilya Repin's famous 1901 portrait of Tolstoy. What do you think?
As you may have noticed, sometimes old white men can be annoying. But there's something about this old white man... Plus he wasn't actually that old when he wrote Anna Karenina. Born in 1828, he died in 1910, so he saw a lot of changes in Russia, a lot of history. He wrote AK from 1873 to 1877, so he was only 45 when he began the novel. Perhaps old by 19th century standards -- not that old today. And for Tolstoy it was just over halfway through his long life.
So think of him as something of a late bloomer, not as that old, venerable guy standing barefoot in the forest (unless it helps to imagine him in the pine forest -- doesn't he look like he would fit right in here in Yellow Springs?). As you get to know Tolstoy, you will appreciate his wisdom, his passion, his vivid descriptions of places, emotions, even the lace on the collar of a dress. Treasure his words. (Even when there are a lot of them.)
Tolstoy is a bundle of contradictions: a count who embraced simple living; a lusty, passionate man who longed for chastity and denied himself many of the pleasures of the flesh -- meat, alcohol, tobacco. At times as you get to know more about him, he may seem hypocritical, but then often he is just so right on that you know he is merely human, merely complex, like all of the rest of us. And more so.
I have taught Anna Karenina probably a dozen times and I hope I will serve as a worthy guide for you the first time you read it. Ask me questions, point out the things you notice, dive into Tolstoy's world. And don't let those Russian names get in your way. (It helps that some of the other important women in the novel have Anglophone nicknames: Kitty, Dolly... Yes, their real names are Ekaterina and Darya. Make a chart while you read and you won't get overwhelmed.)
I'll leave you with one thought. Even though we all know that Anna Karenina is about love and marriage and family and betrayal and technology, from farm machinery to railroads, and we will certainly discuss those topics as we read and think about the novel, Tolstoy said something else that might surprise you. To paraphrase roughly, he said: "What I am most proud of in the novel Anna Karenina is its architecture."
It may seem like a brick to you, but think about this idea of the architecture of a novel as you begin to read. What might Tolstoy have meant?
Happy beginnings.
On the left you see Russian painter Ilya Repin's famous 1901 portrait of Tolstoy. What do you think?
As you may have noticed, sometimes old white men can be annoying. But there's something about this old white man... Plus he wasn't actually that old when he wrote Anna Karenina. Born in 1828, he died in 1910, so he saw a lot of changes in Russia, a lot of history. He wrote AK from 1873 to 1877, so he was only 45 when he began the novel. Perhaps old by 19th century standards -- not that old today. And for Tolstoy it was just over halfway through his long life.
So think of him as something of a late bloomer, not as that old, venerable guy standing barefoot in the forest (unless it helps to imagine him in the pine forest -- doesn't he look like he would fit right in here in Yellow Springs?). As you get to know Tolstoy, you will appreciate his wisdom, his passion, his vivid descriptions of places, emotions, even the lace on the collar of a dress. Treasure his words. (Even when there are a lot of them.)
Tolstoy is a bundle of contradictions: a count who embraced simple living; a lusty, passionate man who longed for chastity and denied himself many of the pleasures of the flesh -- meat, alcohol, tobacco. At times as you get to know more about him, he may seem hypocritical, but then often he is just so right on that you know he is merely human, merely complex, like all of the rest of us. And more so.
I have taught Anna Karenina probably a dozen times and I hope I will serve as a worthy guide for you the first time you read it. Ask me questions, point out the things you notice, dive into Tolstoy's world. And don't let those Russian names get in your way. (It helps that some of the other important women in the novel have Anglophone nicknames: Kitty, Dolly... Yes, their real names are Ekaterina and Darya. Make a chart while you read and you won't get overwhelmed.)
I'll leave you with one thought. Even though we all know that Anna Karenina is about love and marriage and family and betrayal and technology, from farm machinery to railroads, and we will certainly discuss those topics as we read and think about the novel, Tolstoy said something else that might surprise you. To paraphrase roughly, he said: "What I am most proud of in the novel Anna Karenina is its architecture."
It may seem like a brick to you, but think about this idea of the architecture of a novel as you begin to read. What might Tolstoy have meant?
Happy beginnings.