The unfortunate reality (or fortunate) is that she indeed seems quite superficial until the final 100-150 pages before her life ends. It feels as if Tolstoy redeems the entire Anna narrative with that concluding inner monologue and unraveling before the train. In her final moments, I finally glimpse her true self. This was the second time her character brought me to tears, the first being her attempt to see her son and give him birthday presents. I consider the last chapters leading up to Anna's death to be among the finest writing I have ever experienced. Prior to that, the book certainly has its highs and lows... and that's acceptable, it is never BAD or dull, but there are a few elements that feel... outdated or not to my liking. However, Anna's final moments... it’s as if Tolstoy transformed into Virginia Woolf. No, even more bolder and modern. It felt like the book started speaking in another voice, a voice that hasn't aged a day. Everything finally clicked together. I had entirely forgotten how it felt to read that section... perhaps I didn't fully appreciate it back then in my teens. It was like a slap in the face. Anna was going through her Joker moment, in disturbing paranoia (some of it maybe even drug induced), yet finally perceiving certain truths for the first time in her existence. The clarity within the darkness was simply... heartbreaking. And that concluding line that wrapped up the chapter and her life... was just... SUBLIME literature.
"And the candle by the light of which she had been reading that book filled with anxieties, deceptions, grief and evil, flared up brighter than ever, lit up for her all that had once been in darkness, sputtered, grew dim, and went out for ever."
P.S. I completely agree that the book has a soap opera quality - the brief yet numerous chapters... the overall melodrama of the affair/intrigue set against the deeper philosophical themes and Levin's viewpoint.
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Maxim ·
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