A Thought of One's Own

Inspired by the film release of Anna Karenina with Keira Knightley, I thought I'd have a read of some of the great Russian literature around. So I have recently boldly worked my way through The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy. They're two very different books with very different styles, and I got on much better with the latter than with the former.

Although both writers were living in the same rough time period (from the 1820s to the end of that century), they have very different takes on writing. Dostoyevsky makes you really work, in the same way I think as Hugo does, so that you're compelled to continue reading a lot of the time not through interest in the plot but in trying to figure out what exactly it is you're reading about. It didn't help of course that Russian names are confusing at first sight: someone will have their birth name, they patronym, which tells you who their father was and is different for males and females, their family name, and their affectionate nickname used only by family and close friends. So we have Anna Karenina, who is also Anna Arkadyevna, although at least she doesn't have a nickname. Her son is Sergei Karenin, also Sergei Alexeyich, also Seryozha. That's not so hard to figure out in Tolstoy, but in Dostoyevsky you dive in and have to realise that Aloysha is also Alexey and that they're all Fyodorovich and Karamazovs. It gets you a bit tangled up if you're not familiar with it.

As for plot, again Tolstoy does it better for me. The plot in The Brothers Karamazov is convoluted and has a fair few characters, but really very little happens in it. The outcome is depressing enough, the picture of the justice system is too, but really there's not much story to get your teeth into. The long investigations into religious principles will get you thinking if you feel like it, but it seems the book is largely a vehicle for views with not much of a plot to hold it together. Anna Karenina has some elements of religious and moral investigation too: the heroine is tormented by guilt and Levin, a less vital character, does a lot of thinking about religion towards the end of the book, and leaves us with the message that it's ok to not understand life as long as you spend your life in the pursuit of goodness. But Anna Karenina on the whole is an easier read, written in a much more accessible style, and there's much more plot to get your teeth into. There are a myriad of realistic, active characters who engage in various activities and vices and the main plot is supported by a couple of smaller ones that tie in nicely.

I couldn't help thinking that Anna Karenina is pretty similar to a Greek tragedy in a lot of ways, and although I was constantly propelled to read more because the book is well written, I found it hard to really connect with Anna. She's pretty all over the place, and seems to transform completely from someone lovable and sensible to someone just a bit bonkers. There's a strong message about the dangers of social interactions in there, but really Anna's behaviour just doesn't make sense to me, although that is at least part of the point.

All in all having read both books I feel I have a better understanding of Russian culture and history at that time, which is in itself interesting, and there was something to appreciate in both books.