Anna Karenina 2024: FAQs

Hello dear reader, Ashleigh here. I’d like to welcome you to a corner of the internet where I encourage celebrating books and reading at every opportunity. 

It’s seventeen years ago now that I first read Anna Karenina. I was in high school and it was among the first classics I ever read. It’s a big part of why I still love the classics to this day, and a big part of why I feel devoted to literature above all other pursuits. There are many authors who inspire me to read and write but Tolstoy is probably at the forefront of those. 

I know what this book means to many people. It is beloved, even feared. It’s the source of wonder, mystification, consternation… whatever it has meant for you, whatever it may come to mean, I hope you’ll allow it to take up space in your imagination as we read it together this year.

In reading together we make this wonderfully rich, complex novel more accessible, meaningful and enjoyable.

1. I’ve never read Tolstoy before, is it OK to start with Anna Karenina?

In a word, yes! Of Tolstoy’s two great “novels” (because he never considered War and Peace a novel in the true sense), I think Anna is the better one to read first. You can, of course, choose to try his shorter stories or novellas first but it isn’t necessary. If you’re worried about the accessibility of Anna Karenina, you may find yourself pleasantly surprised. Apart from its considerable length, the text itself has everything to recommend it in terms of readability. The language itself is not particularly complicated and, despite its back and forth, asynchronous timeline, the events of the novel are surprisingly easy to follow.

If you would like to get a taste of Tolstoy’s writing before starting Anna Karenina, I highly recommend trying one or both of the Penguin Little Black Classics: the novella The Death of Ivan Ilyich, or the collection of two short stories: How Much Land Does a Man Need? Though different in tone and style, they will give you a good idea of some of the central themes in Tolstoy’s writing.

2. Why should I read Anna Karenina? 

“If the world could write itself, it would write like Tolstoy.” - Isaac Babel

Many famous authors and literary critics have been quoted on Tolstoy’s writing, but of them all I think this quote by Isaac Babel really sums up best why we still read and love Tolstoy today. In fact, I could simply leave that quote here as an answer to the question and allow your imagination to do the rest.

But I’ll go a bit further and say that what Tolstoy gives us is the complexity of his characters and the depth of their internal and relational struggles. You’ll notice that even the most lovable of his characters are never without fault, the most underhanded and loathsome are not simple caricatures of villainy but possess some weakness that we might recognise in ourselves or those close to us. Sometimes their fallibility is in itself redemptive. What makes them particularly memorable is not the period they come from or the manner in which they dress, it’s something more universal, something enduring.

It’s like stepping into a series of life-sized paintings and being able to clearly interpret the meaning behind every gesture, every expression, every colour tone. To read Tolstoy is to feel the harmony between art and life itself.

3. How does the readalong work? 

One chapter per day for six days of the week, with Sundays being a rest day, will take us to a nice, round 40 weeks in total. 

You can join in the discussion as often as you like or, if you prefer, just be a fly on the wall- lurkers are welcome, too. 😉

4. Can I read at my own pace?

Of course! The schedule is a guideline but you may want to do one reading per week of all six chapters, or put the book down for a few weeks and do a dozen chapters all in one go. The time frame of the readalong tries to encourage a slow reading experience, but you can choose what that looks like for you.

The chapters are short enough to make reading one per day more than achievable, but you’re not obliged to stick to this schedule.

5. Does listening to the audiobook count?

Absolutely! All formats count, as well as all translations. So whether you’re listening to an audiobook, reading an ebook or physical copy and if you’re reading any translation other than English, all readers are welcome! But of course the discussion posts will be held in English. 

6. Which translation should I read?

This is really a matter of personal preference and the best way to decide is by either going to a bookshop and trying extracts from a few different translations, or doing an internet search for the same. 

This website We Love Translations takes a closer look at the different options and gives an extract from Part 1, Chapter 1 for comparison in each case.

I am familiar with two translations:

1. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (Penguin Classics)

This is the one I read for the first time in 2007. I loved it and found the diction relatively easy to follow and understand. I would still generally recommend it but of course I didn’t have anything to compare it with at the time (I wasn’t looking closely into the different translations back then).

2. Louise and Aylmer Maude 

For this reading, I’ve been doing both the Pevear and Volokhonsky as well as the Maude translation. The Maudes visited Russia and knew Tolstoy personally, and their translations have the added recommendation of having been approved by Tolstoy himself. 

Overall I prefer the flow of the diction in this one, which feels ever so slightly more natural than the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. However, something small that I don’t enjoy is how the names have been anglicised. For example, where the P&V would refer to Matvei, Konstantin, Sergei and Nikolai, the Maudes would translate these as Matthew, Constantine, Sergius and Nicholas, respectively. I’m aware that this would probably not bother most readers and may even be preferable to some, but I like the names of characters to sound Russian when I’m reading a Russian novel (especially as I don’t have the option of reading it in the original language).

7. When does it start?

Our readalong officially starts on Monday 29th January 2024 and ends on Monday 4th November. 

8. How do I join?

There are three main ways to plug in: 

1. Follow me on Substack and subscribe to receive updates about the Anna Karenina readalong (do this by managing your subscription and selecting updates for the Anna Karenina page).

2. Join the daily chat threads on Substack to discuss each chapter as we go along.

3. Join the Instagram DM group where we’ll also be having daily discussions about the book.

Have any questions that weren’t answered in this post? Feel free to leave a comment or send me a message on Instagram. 

This is very much a labour of love but it does take time to create and organise, and your support is greatly appreciated. You can help keep this content by sharing with family and friends and, if you are able to, pledging to become a paid subscriber. 

Each pledge is helpful as with enough of them I’ll be able to open an account to start accepting paid subscribers to The Creative Life and create more literary content for you. 

Thank you again for your support and welcome to the Anna Karenina group read!

Best,

Ashleigh