Friday Favorites: Anna Karenina

I am still hovering at about 300 pages. But I do appreciate this book. Here are a few highlights for me so far

Favorite Setting: Darya/Dolly's ancestral home in the country. I love the chapters where she settles into the house, and then takes her 6 children to the bath and revels in their beauty and perfection, and her own pride in them. I love how Tolstoy describes her love for them as helping heal her profound sadness, in little bits.
Most Interesting Character: Levin
Favorite Character Name: Serpukhovskoy, come on it's just so fun to say!!
Most confusing Russian term: It took me forever to figure out what a samovar is, I had to ask some friends who are actually grad students in Russian. Of course I don't know why didn't just wiki it to begin with.
Most frustrating character: Anna (of course). A little too angst-y for me.

As I read Anna Karenina, I am reminded that what I really enjoy about Victorian-era novels is their morality. I like it when it takes some work to figure out things like what is the author's position on this behavior? How does he judge these characters and their decisions? My favorite authors are the ones like George Eliot who have genuine love and compassion for their characters, even when they make the worst mistakes. Sometimes her writing feels like, "Oh I hate to tell you this, but this person is about to do something really stupid." Tolstoy uses this tone too, for example in in the scenes leading up to and during Vronsky's horse race.

What keeps this book interesting to me is how I'm not sure how Tolstoy is ultimately going to judge his characters. He certainly has compassion for all of them, even while describing their limitations. I am looking forward to the final resolution (500 pages to go) and our discussion.