Anna Karenina

Made me face deeper parts of my mind. Attempted to answer some questions I had. Great story. Huge book. Historical fiction is something I like across languages.

on HN, 2023

An unassailable Mount Everest in the peaks of high literature. It's a spiritual journey I've taken repeatedly over the years.

on HN, 2008

I contend that you'd learn an awful lot more about love and relationships from a novel like Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina, than you ever will from 'non-fiction' like The Game (which you've mentioned up-thread).

on HN, 2013

Feels creepy how similar the people's lives in the 19th Century was to ours. Creepy but fun too.

on HN, 2012

it's full of wonderful observations of human character, even characters that Tolstoy was not particularly sympathetic to (e.g. Stiva, who chooses his opinions as he chooses his hat, from the selection available, or Anna, the tragic focal point of the novel) - there are no villains and no heroes, only bumbling humans dealing with problems entirely of their own creation.

on HN, 2015

Imagine the plot of three or four excellent movies woven together. It struck me how little human nature changes over time and across cultures. It also features some fascinating Russian history as a backdrop.

on HN, 2019