I went into this book with a lot of trepidation knowing the general thought on Russian literature as being "difficult." In general, I didn't find this difficult to read. It was much like Dickens. Lots of words and description, but if you're paying attention, easy enough. I did find that I had to focus though. I couldn't just sit and read for hours. This was a spend maybe 20 minutes reading a day type of book.
Having never seen any of the movies and knowing only that the story involves Anna Karenina going outside her marriage with a man name Vronsky, I wasn't sure what I was going to read. I was not expecting the giant treatises on farming from Levin.
In general, I really enjoyed the early part of the book. While I didn't necessarily agree with the various characters, it was pretty fun. Around the halfway point, I found the book to be more of a slog. While I don't mind morally corrupt characters, there usually has to be some other quality in the book to keep me interested in the story. This one, I just found it to be frustrating a dull.
I especially hated now Anna was a horrible person for going outside her marriage, but her brother was hardly knocked down every time he cheated. Clearly that was a main part of the novel, but I still hated it. I can see why many people don't enjoy reading classics as you see a lot of those double standards. (I'm thinking Tess of the D'Ubervilles...)
Glad I read this, but I likely won't read it ever again.
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