Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Anna Karenina




Book menu for Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

ISBN of edition I read: sorry the edition I read was published before ISBNs were issued.  I read the Doubleday edition published in 1944.  Translated by Constance Garnett; illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg. It has 736 pages.

This is the second time I've read Anna K. I first read it when I was twenty-five.  I was working with a Russian woman at the time and told her I was interested in reading some Tolstoy.  She advised me to start with Anna K rather than War and Peace.  I took her advice and wasn't sorry.  Now I'm forty-two and decided to reread this novel since there is a new film adaptation due out next week.  I am just as enthralled with this novel as I was seventeen years ago. Bring on Keira Knightley as Anna!


Food mentioned in Anna Karenina :
Pear, 4
Coffee, 7-10, 62, 97, 102, 210, 230, 366, 488
Boxed chocolate, 10
Champagne, 17, 33, 53, 324
Turbot, 32-3
Oysters, 32-4
Cabbage soup, 33, 296
Printaniere, 33
Roast beef, 33
Capons, 33
Poulard a l'estragon, 33
Macedoine de fruits, 33
Chablis, 33
Salt goose, 146
Chicken in white sauce, 146
Poached eggs, 155
Beef steak, 159, 272
Sherry, 160
Rhine wine, 160
Bread, butter, and cheese, 210
Plum soup, 210-11
Pea sausages, 211
Roast turkey, 227
Peaches 263-4
Truffles, 272
Burgundy wine, 272
Junket, 309
Raspberries, 304
Russian pancakes, 324
Fish and asparagus, 340-1
Caviar herrings, 349
Fruit preserves, 349-50
French bread, 349
Soupe Marie-Louise, 351
Sweet meats, 370
Meat pie, 540
Eel soup, 623

Books/Authors mentioned in Anna Karenina :
Charles Dickens, 39
Treatise on Heat / Tyndall, 86
William Shakespeare, 101
     King Lear, 619-620
Kauffman, 312
Jones, 312
W.E.B. Du Bois, 312
Michelli, 312
Nikolai Gogol, 405
Hippolyte Taine, 602
Ivan Andreevich Krilov, 622
Emile Zola , 631
Alphonse Daudet ,  631
Plato, 711
Immanuel Kant, 711
Schelling, 711
Hegel, 711
Schopenhauer, 711
Homaiko, 711
Spencer, 724

Music mentioned in Anna Karenina :
"Il Mio Tesoro" / Mozart, 3
Beethoven, 101
Offenbach , 280
     "La Belle Helene", 300
Wagner , 620

Artists mentioned in Anna Karenina:
Raphael , 101, 430
Reubens, 430

Discussion questions for Anna Karenina:
What, if any, are the parallels between Frou-Frou's (horse) accidental death and Anna's death?

Anna Karenina is narrated with an omniscient point of view. Tolstoy even writes from Levin's dog's point of view (Part Six, Chapter 12).  What effect does this particular passage have on the reader?

There are several hunting scenes that are meticulously described. What significance, if any, do these scenes have in the story?

Discuss examples of irony in Anna Karenina.

Describe Tolstoy's writing style in this novel.

Describe the tone of Anna Karenina.
  
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