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Reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is like a long journey-- seeing sights through the eyes of someone from a different age and culture and with so much lost in translation. The Russian was translated the French was not. I studied French in high school and could understand some of it -- but I needed it translated too. At times I was lost and had to make myself read on regardless. Other times I could smell the rain and feel the hurt and doubt of Tolstoy's characters. I give it three stars but it was far above me and my capacity to understand.
The story was about upper class Russians who were either very wealthy, very in debt or wanting to be. They only found meaning in life or happiness when they sought who they really were and not what the world pushed them to be.
Like I do today, they struggled about why they were fighting Muslems in far off lands and what being "religious" meant.
I need to spend a lot of time "mulling over" the thoughts of Tolstoy. I might even get brave and take on "War and Peace" but not any time soon.
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