Book Review: Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy

Today is Leo Tolstoy’s 186^th birthday, so it seems timely to post my review of Anna Karenina. My grandparents bought me the book for my 23^rd birthday, but I didn’t actually read it until this year. I say read – I devoured it on holiday and on every work lunch break until I finished it.

 

Published in instalments between 1873 and 1877, the novel documents Anna’s ill-fated affair with Count Vronsky. Contrasted with this is the story of Levin, a pensive man who’s searching for meaning in his life.

First, let me give you a bit of history – I watched the Kiera Knightley version of the film a few years ago and, while I was quite disappointed, I became curious about the book. In the film, Levin’s story felt like a random addition rather than an important part of the story, so I wanted to know what significance he held in Tolstoy’s novel.

 

Anna Karenina opens with Anna’s brother, Stephan Oblonsky, in trouble with his wife, Dolly, for having an affair with the children’s nanny. Anna comes to their residence in Moscow to resolve the dispute and keep the marriage together. Levin, Oblonsky’s friend, also travels to Moscow from his farming estate in the country to propose to Dolly’s youngest sister, Kitty. 

 

He learns that Kitty is being courted by Alexei Vronsky – Kitty turns down Levin but, at an important ball, she realises Vronsky has fallen in love with Anna and won’t marry her. Anna and Vronsky met briefly when Anna arrived in Moscow, after travelling with Vronsky’s mother. 

 

Anna is shaken by her reaction to Vronsky – who declares his love for her – and realises, when she returns to St. Petersburg, that she does not love her husband. She remains devoted, however, to her son, Seryozha.

She does, eventually, leave Alexei for Vronsky, and so the drama unfolds...

 

AK is rich in issues of class, gender, politics, religion... but, overall, I felt the main theme was social inequality – particularly the differences between men and women, and rich and poor.

 

I thought I would find Anna a strong, admirable character, but as her affair progresses with Vronsky, she changes from confident and respected to jealous, volatile and manipulative. I can’t say I felt sad for her at the end. However, it is deeply unfair how Vronsky is still welcomed in society and the political arena, while Anna is wholly rejected by society and her supposed friends. Twinned with this is Alexei’s loss of respect and power because of Anna’s affair – deemed unmanly for not being able to keep his wife, he, too, suffers. The affair demonstrates the rigid social expectations of men and women in 19^th century Russia, which I found fascinating and a little disturbing.

 

While Anna is acting out her own ruin in the cities, Levin escapes back to the country after his failed proposal to Kitty. I found him bad-tempered and a little self-absorbed, but his narrative gave the novel a more philosophical edge – he questions how to make changes to farming, and how to make his workers more effective, but their adversity to change and his inability to implement it seems to be a wider reflection on 19^th century Russia as a whole.

 

I was fond of Stephan Oblonsky - he is a bit of a rogue, not paying his debts and being unfaithful to his wife, but his actions do provide light relief. I laughed out loud when Levin, Vronsky, Oblonsky and a few others are voting in Parliament, and the vote counters pull out a nut and a button from the ballot box. It was so unexpected that it really made me giggle!  

Anna Karenina is an intelligent read and a true classic; I can’t wait to read more of Tolstoy’s work.

Happy birthday Tolstoy!

August Round Up

This update comes a little late, but I have got lots to tell you (some of it crosses over into this month but whatever)...

Career

I have an announcement to make. After careful and prolonged consideration, I am leaving publishing to pursue teaching. This is not a decision I have made lightly, and I can tell you it was a genuine shock when I realised… I really miss teaching. I like my job, but it doesn’t give me that sense of joy that comes from being in the classroom – I thought, when I was teaching, that working in publishing would give me that spark, but it seems I had it all along. I’m sad because I spent so long trying to get into the industry, and of course I’ve considered if it is this role specifically, but even the idea of editing doesn’t fill me with excitement anymore. I know many people will have a strong view on my decision, and it’s the same as when I went to Uni in 2008 and dropped out – at the time it was terrifying, but it was the best thing I could have done. So, the studying begins again… 

Hair

Still no dye! It’s been 10 months now. My hair is so much healthier from lack of colouring and chopping off a large chunk of it – I’m not saying I’ll never dye it again, but I’ll certainly be more fussy about the dyes I use. I haven’t missed ‘fading anxiety’ (I made that up but serial hair-dyers will understand). 

French

Maxx and I came back from the World Equestrian Games last week (blog post to come), which meant spending every evening with his family, so I had plenty of chances to practice my Franglais. Although my French isn’t perfect, I’m certainly more confident when speaking.

SJ competitions

I finally had an SJ lesson! Ernest was a little unfit at the time so we only did 25 minutes - instead of 45 - but it was fun! I felt all wobbly and unsure of my riding after such a long time off, but Ernest still sailed through the air like Pegasus. Since my lesson, I’ve been upping Ernest’s exercise to get him back on form, not that he minds cantering around fields. I’ve entered 3 dressage competitions, 20^th September, 11^th October and 29th November, but haven’t seen any unaffiliated SJ competitions advertised recently. At the Games, I may also have bought Ernest some fabulously sparkly blue ribbons for his plaits, in anticipation of the dressage competitions…

Running

We’re 31 days away from the half marathon now, and I’m starting to feel excited and nervous. I went for a run on the course by myself last night, to conquer my fear of the big hills – it worked. The loop I did took 74 minutes, which I thought was extremely slow as my route was only 4/5 miles; I drove round it afterwards and was pleasantly surprised to find it was actually 7.2 miles. I managed half of both hills, but with another 3 weeks to go I’m sure I’ll be able to improve on this. Last night was a real battle with the voice in my head, which tells me how painful it is, how much my ankle hurts, how I won’t be able to do it, how tired I am... I did walk a few times, the longest for about 2 minutes, but I made myself get going again. I’ve developed an even stronger voice, which sounds like an army commander, who positively screams at me that I can do it, I will do it, I’m doing it for Rio, for Claus, for Jimmy, for Princess, for Lassie, for all the hounds at Hersham, and I am not going to quit! Going out alone, with only myself to rely on, was a rewarding experience and I can now say I’m looking forward to October 5^th. I ain’t scared of no hill.

Body Fat

The BFF Challenge required me to lose 2%, and if I failed I have to do kettlebell swings to failure. Well, I’d been eating 100 times better and running a lot, but I’ve put on ¼%! What surprised me more was my reaction – I’m completely OK with it. Unlike the last BF update, where I’d put on 3% because of eating like a hog and felt really disappointed in myself, The Smiling Assassin and I attributed this gain to the high-carb diet I’ve been on since upping my half marathon training and the lack of weightlifting. Even though this wasn’t the result I wanted, I’m going to continue my healthy diet and see if my body fat goes down again once I’m off the carbs. If it continues to rise, I’ll look into it...

New Country

Maxx and I are going away with friends next year, and then with family, but if we can afford to we’re aiming for a long weekend in Ireland.

Basingstoke Half Marathon Training Run #6

Happy Sunday. I've had such a relaxing day - I've watched 3 episodes of Obese: A Year To Save My Life (I love it! So addictive and Chris Powell is such a cool man), walked my greyhounds and been for a long run.
Maxx and I went on an 8-mile loop at around 12.30 - our longest training run so far. It was quite warm, so I felt a little uncomfortable at first, but I didn't want that to be an excuse to take it easy. The first 4 miles were comfortable, but the fifth mile was surprisingly hard given the route was flat.
After a 5-minute walk, we ran another 1.6 miles. By this time I had been having stomach cramps for 40 minutes, so decided to walk the last mile home. I might have collapsed next to a roundabout first, feeling very nauseous...
The last 1.6 miles were exhausting, partly because it was the longest training run we've done so far and sometimes having a walk makes it harder to get going again. After analysing our times for both sections, it became clear why we had burnt out - we ran 5 miles in 43 minutes, which is about 8 1/2 minutes a mile. That's a pretty good pace, if I say so myself. After our walk, it took 21 minutes to run 1.6 miles - really slow in comparison.
I think it comes down to pacing - while I'm pleased we ran 5 miles so fast, we cannot afford to burn out so quickly during the half marathon. But this is precisely why training is so important - making these mistakes now means we'll be much better prepared during the race!
The half marathon is 6 weeks away today, and I'm feeling a little apprehensive when I think about the big hills. However, I know that getting out on the course and running up them will reassure me - it's easy to build something up in your mind to be much scarier than it actually is, and I'm anxious of failing to finish because I'm running for charity. But I will finish, as I said in my last post - I just would rather sprint through the finish line, rather than be dragged across it.
Here's a breakdown of the run: 5.0 miles, 43 minutes 0.4 miles, 5 minutes (walk)
1.6 miles, 21 minutes 1 mile walk home - we didn't time this as we were cooling down Total = 8.0 miles, 6.6 running

Post-run bath with Lush's Fizzbanger bathbomb, a p-shake and some quality reading

Basingstoke Half Marathon Training Run #5

Due to being poorly last week, I didn’t manage to do much by way of exercise – I felt drained, couldn’t eat or drink and had excruciating stomach pains, so didn’t fancy running 8 miles or lifting heavy things! Being thoroughly spoilt on my birthday and not indulging too much surely helped my recovery, so this week I was looking forward to getting back to training.

Maxx, Maxx’s cousin and I ventured out on Monday. I’d Google-mapped a route which we’ve not done before but looked very picturesque, as it was mostly country roads, so I felt really motivated.

In total, we ran 4.8 miles (with no walking!) in 50 minutes – the only reason we didn’t reach the full distance was because I didn’t want to be late to my grandparents’ for dinner. I know that I would have managed the other 1.2 miles as my pace was perfect and I felt really comfortable, so I’m not worried about this. Monday’s venture also reassured me, as I thought it would be awful after not being able to eat properly/train the week before.

I’m equally as motivated to run on Sunday – I’ve mapped an 8-mile circuit which incorporates part of Monday’s route, so they’ll be plenty of magnificent houses and farms to look at on the way round. That’s definitely why I loved Monday’s run – farm animals grazing in the fields, a cool breeze, old houses, a little bridge with a stream underneath... Perfect!

Due to being poorly I’m a week behind where I’d like to be in training, and I was feeling very down about it just before my birthday, but I know that whatever happens I will finish the half marathon. It might not be the fastest time, and I might have to walk a little, but I will cross that finish line.

If you haven’t sponsored Maxx and me yet, and would like to, please go to: www.justgiving.com/PipandMaxx. We’re hoping to raise £300 for Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare, a wonderful charity in Hersham who care for over 80 greyhounds. In 9 donations we’ve managed to raise 55% of our target, so please help us smash it!

   

The BFF challenge is still on, which I need to lose 2% body fat for. I have 10 days – I’ve been keeping a food diary for the last 3 weeks, to monitor my intake and also keep a record of any reactions. I am not counting calories, I am looking at how healthy my meals are and trying to find which foods are IBS triggers. Maybe it is wishful thinking but I do think I’ve lost a little body fat as I’m less squishy! 

Crochet Ernest!

At midnight I pestered Maxx to let me open his card and a present. The wrapping was quite unusual as a soft ear was poking out the side - at the time I just thought Maxx had given up with the whole wrapping fandango.
Well... when I saw what my gift was, I cried a happy tear. One of Maxx's colleagues, Jenny, crochets owls and giraffes and other animals, and he'd mentioned to me a while ago how good they are. He definitely made an understatement.
I am astounded - my gift is beautiful and touchingly personal. Apparently, Jenny visited my blog and read the story of the day Ernest arrived (12 years ago today!), took my gift back, and added a small spot to his ear. If you don't understand the significance of the ear spot, read this post. Maxx also provided pictures so Jenny could get a really good idea of Ernest's markings, and wrapped him with one ear poking out as a reference to the day he arrived in 2002. 
Crochet Ernest is magical. I smile every time I look at him and keep stroking his hair! I made him my snapchat story this morning and I am definitely going to introduce him to Ernest later today.

Thank you Jenny and Maxx :)

Thoughts on the Centenary

I was born 76 years and 10 days after Britain joined the war in 1914. If I'd been alive at the time, I would have seen my partner, brother, cousin, friends and colleagues leave for France. I probably would have lost at least one of them. This is a heartbreaking fact which makes me feel hopeless and desperate, even though Maxx and his cousin are sat next to me safe and sound eating baguettes.

I can't imagine the fear, the sadness and the horror those men must have faced. Looking at images of the landscapes, of the trenches, of the bodies and of the wounded is overwhelming. Seeing videos of hopeful young soldiers waving at the cameras, excited for battle, fills me with dread and a sense of guilt. Did he survive? What about him? 

There are many perceptive academic texts written about the effect of WWI, particularly on memory; posted below is an extract from one of my 3rd year essays, entitled "What are the main issues involved in writing about World War I within fictional forms?". The Runner is the fictional short story I wrote based on my great-grandfather's experiences.

The final issue involved in writing about World War One within fictional forms is reader and author understanding. The purpose of writing history fiction, as has been stated, is to entertain, but also to educate. This raises the question whether fictionalizing events as traumatic and important in British military history as World War One removes the seriousness of the subject. Romanticising the war as exciting and a great adventure could be seen to trivialise the trauma and losses suffered between 1914 and 1918. By contrast, fiction can also teach many truthful things; although the horror of war is sometimes absorbed into fictional war narratives, placing them in these contexts widens their appeal and therefore reaches a wider audience.

In 2000, Paul Fussell described how ‘a striking phenomenon of the last twenty-five years is this obsession with the images and myths of the Great War among novelists and poets too young to have experienced it directly.’[1]  The continued popularity of war narratives has been discussed; however, Fussell highlights how preposterous this seems when the writers have no experience, and arguably no real understanding, of what they are writing about. Without these personal experiences, writers are now reliant on the experience of others, but images are one of the few sources of the war that make it semi-accessible. When writing The Runner, I did look at images of the Somme in A J P Taylor’s The First World War: An Illustrated History, but as has been discussed, I only used one graphic image, to make it more effective. I attempted to counter my lack of understanding by focusing on the experiences passed to me from David Chapman.

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[1] Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p.321.

If you want to read The Runner, click here.

The BFF Challenge

Pinch punch first day of the month! In place of a monthly update, as not much has changed since the end of June, let me introduce you to...
The BFF Challenge!
Boop (co-writer of the Longleat posts) and I have invented a challenge to help us reach our fitness goals. By the beginning of September, Boop needs to have lost 7 pounds and I need to be 21% body fat (I'm also hoping to lose 4-8 lbs). As we live in two different Queendoms far, far away, we won't be working out together, but will be keeping each other updated on our progress. 
The reward: a treat in the form of food - we're both thinking a ginormous sundae, either bought or made. I'm thinking honeycomb pieces, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream... the kind I'd need to eat with about 400 IBS pills!
The forfeit: rep to failure one hated exercise. Boop has chosen tricep dips and I've chosen kettlebell swings... We will also have to give up our favourite food for a month - I will forfeit cheese or chocolate, or both, and Boop will give up biscuits or cheese.
I think this is an excellent way to keep motivated, as you can celebrate your successes together or commiserate when it gets tough. Fitness challenges with friends only work if you're genuinely BFFs and not frenemies, however - I want Boop to succeed just as must as she wants me to, and there's no hidden competition as a) we love each other, b) we want the other to be happy with her body, and c) we're aiming for two very different goals anyway.
Wish Boop and I luck!