Quarter 1 SSR

         The book that I read was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It has a total of 817 pages. It is about several different couples in nineteenth century Russia that are all connected in some way but the main one is that of Anna Karenina, Alexéi Alexándrovich, and Count Vronsky. Anna Is beautiful, wealthy, and has a desirable social position. She is married to Alexéi and has an adored son. However, when she meets Count Vronsky at a train station, she realizes just how empty her life is and decides to do what she desires with tragic results.

     In his book, Tolstoy created a way for the reader to connect to every main character. Even though he had a lot of developed characters, none of them were hard to keep track of because he meticulously connected them through everything that they did. I liked how well he represented the setting by putting some French in his writing since Russia had French architecture and used their language in the nineteenth century. I also liked how he provided so a different personality type for all of his characters and took the time to dive into their lives as well. 

     I didn’t really like Anna at the beginning of the book since it seemed like she was rude and selfish, but as the book went on I began to be able to relate to her and understand why she felt she needed to do the things she did. At first I sympathized for Alexéi, but I realized that he just liked to control people later in the book. I never liked Count Vronsky since he hated any type of commitment but at least he cared about Anna’s well-being. My favorite characters were Levin and Stepan. Stepan is Anna’s brother and even though he has had a lot of affairs on his wife Dolly, he is really wise and gives great advice to everyone throughout the book. Levin is married to Dolly’s sister, Kitty, and he likes to question everything to make people think about what wasn’t normally talked about. He believed that you learn through living your life and he fought for what he believed to be true.