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I'm still reading AK, as I realized it was a book I couldn't read straight through. It was a translated work (not all works translate over well) and I don't have a lot of knowledge of the Russian culture and that time period. Due to that, I decided to spend some time trying to keep that in mind when reading. I didn't know that this was first put out as a serial.
I viewed the beginning Anna just like the society she was in. We saw the surface. We were on the outside looking in. This was the "face" she showed to others (and seemed to carry over to her interactions with others at first). I thought her manner, dress, movement, conversation, and remembering names of the little ones, etc. were a perfect fit for what we were to see as the the society of that time.
The beginning of the book already let me know that all was not as we see with Tolstoy's famous words, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Stiva's and Dolly's differing values and the introduction of Levin and Anna reminded me of Regency class society of England. The very small upper class showed (lived?) an ordered, privileged surface while ignoring the poverty of the lower classes. I felt Levin was used to show some of the plight of the rural peasants and how others of his class saw his zeal as just a young man's enthusiasm. Ideals vs reality of the class in which he was a part; he would grow-up.
I'm still reading and thinking, so I may change my perception of the overall novel and characters, but so far I am really enjoying the view into Russian class culture of the time.
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