Screen adaptations concentrate on Anna and Vronsky's doomed love affair but there are many concurrent stories: a landowner's social responsibility after the abolition of serfdom (autobiographical Tolstoy?), the descriptions of agriculture and the distance between the upper-levels of society lavishing money on high living and gambling, speaking French and wanting to be more Northern European than Russian. As usual confusion with those convoluted names - keeping a notepad handy to make a cast list helps greatly! A marathon read to be taken gently.
(Chris Cozens - bwl 97 Summer 2020 ) |
