Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Book Intro - Anna Karenina




Please excuse my gushing this week but I'm am falling hard for Anna Karenina. I can't believe I've waited so long to finally get on with reading it! I'm 300 pages in and already claimed it as my favourite book of the year and possibly even of all time. The writing is incredibly superb; once I'm finished this I would like to seek out and acquire every other possible piece of writing with Tolstoy's name on it.


First paragraph:



All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

All was confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had found out that the husband was having an affair with their former French governess, and had announced to the husband that she could not live in the same house with him. This situation had continued for three days now, and was painfully felt by the couple themselves, as well as by all the members of the family and household. They felt that there was no sense in their living together and that people who meet accidentally at any inn have more connection with each other that they, the members of the family and household of the Oblonskys. The wife would not leave her rooms, the husband was away for the third day. The children were running all over the house as if lost; the English governess quarrelled with the housekeeper and wrote a note to a friend, asking her to find her a new place; the cook had already left the premises the day before, at dinner-time; the kitchen-maid and coachman had given notice. pg 1

This is one of the most compelling introductions to a story I've ever read. And it just keeps on going like that! Doesn't it just make you want to take the phone off the hook, lock the doors, draw the blinds and just read until you're done?

Tuesday Intro is hosted by Diane @ Bibliophile by the Sea

13 comments:

JoAnn said...

This is one of my favorite intros ever! I really want to reread this book soon... hope you're enjoying!

grammajudyb said...

Can you believe I'm 66 years old and have never read Anna Krenina. Everyone is talking about the movie, and not you have given high praise to the book. I must go find it. Thank you
My Tuesday Intro is here

Trish said...

JoAnn - I'm thoroughly enjoying it!

grammajudyb - Yes, the movie! I wanted to read the book first and then see the movie. The book is amazing mainly because of the spot-on writing and compelling story; the movie will be amazing because of all the incredible visuals. I'm having one of those reading dilemmas where I want to race through it because it's so good but I want to slow down and savour it too because I'm just having such a good time. Either way, once I'm done, I'll still have the movie to look forward to. And I'm quite excited to see it too.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

It has been years since I read this book, but I must reread it! I remember loving it, and this is an absolutely wonderful opener.

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Sim Carter said...

Isn't that a great opening line! I imagine you'll see the movie - it's opening there in a few days - the 30th I believe. I'll be curious to know what you think!
Thanks so much for stopping by my blog.

Trish said...

Laurel-Rain - I can imagine wanting to reread this again sometime too. It's such a fabulous book.

Sim - Yes, I'm definitely going to see the movie as soon as I'm done reading. I can't wait to put a picture to all the grand palaces and carriages and banquets. As much as I love getting inside the characters' heads when reading a book, I also like to really SEE them in action. So cool!

Kimberlee said...

I've been wanting to read this for forever and hearing you gush about it makes me want to read it right now. Will have to move it up on my tbr list I suppose.

Kimberlee
http://girllostinabook.blogspot.com

Sam (Tiny Library) said...

So glad you are loving this book because I adore it :)

I've already seen the movie as it's been out here for a while and for me it was a disappointment, just completely wrong. I hope it works out better for you.

Paulita said...

I read this in college in a Russian literature class, but I definitely need to read it again now that I'm a grown up and no one is making me read it. I'm sure I'd love it too. Here’s mine

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

Love the intro - loved the book, enjoy!

Nise' said...

So glad you are enjoying the book!

Margot said...

Excellent intro. I want to reread this before the movie comes out. Glad you are enjoying it so much.

Trish said...

Kimberlee - I hope you get to it soon. It's been sitting on my shelf for years, but wow! Now that I'm in the middle of it I can hardly believe how good it is.

Sam - Yes, I'm afraid of it being somewhat 'different' but I think I'll with idea of just seeing the grandeur of the era. The book is so much inside the character's heads that I can't imagine being able to put that accurately on the screen.

Paulita - I read this too as a summer reading requirement for school and totally didn't get it. I think that's why it's taken me so long to pick it up again. It's such a great book!

Diane & Nise - Thanks! Yes I will.

Margot - That was my plan too. I'm looking forward to actually seeing some of the scenes.