Russian Life & People Digest
Question by Tweek: Is Anna Karenina an easy or difficult book to read?
Answers and Views:
Answer by ckmclements
It’s pretty rough. Lord love Tolstoy, but he writes some DENSE material, and lots of it. Still, I enjoyed it and should probably read it again as an adult. It took me a week or 2 when I was in the 8th grade.
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empress says
Well, it's much easier in English than in Russian. 🙂
Seriously, Russian names can be very intimidating for readers who are new to Russian literature. I would suggest that you photocopy the page at the beginning of the book (there should be a list of characters to help you) with all of the characters' names. That way, you can refer to the list of characters more easily if you get confused.
If you are unfamiliar with Russian history and culture, it might help to read a little bit about those topics and/or about Tolstoy somewhere (e.g. Wikipedia).
In terms of theme, imagery and language, AK is not as challenging to read as Dostoevsky's novels, in my opinion. Have fun!
tigertrot1986 says
It's thick, full of hard words, complicated, and has lots of very hard-to-pronounce Russian names. It also deals with the complexities of human relationships.
If you can deal with that, read away! Leo Tolstoy is famous as a writer for a very good reason.
vulcan_m says
A K is not exactly a difficult book 2 read but u may feel confused while reading it as it has a lot of characters…but the story is gud .as far as the story is concerned it falls in the catagory of madame bovary by flaubert.do read both these books if u have time.