Talk:Anna Karenina

From Academic Kids

Am I right in thinking that the inspiration for Anna Karenina came from a brief newspaper article -- or am I confusing it with a passage in A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, wherre Proust comments on how simply things can be summarized? -- Tarquin 18:31 Dec 20, 2002 (UTC)

This is correct. The article that Tolstoy read was a description of a railway suicide. This motif appears twice in the novel: firstly the suicide of an unnamed women on the occasion of Anna and Vronsky's first meeting, secondly Anna's suicide at the end of the penultimate part. This should go in the article. Similarly, the article on War and Peace could benefit from a description of its genesis in Tolstoy's original interest in writing a novel of the Decembrist Uprising (which article is also wanted). -- Alan Peakall 09:56 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)

Yes, that's the story about Anna Karenina, but I'll bet Tolstoy had also read Madame Bovary for inspiration. Ortolan88

Ortolan88, I don't get it. How is Molly Bloom's Soliloquy related to Anna Karenina? -- Mpt 07:14, 3 Jan 2004 (UTC)

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Hmmm. Wikipedia isn't exactly a place to promote an interpretation or thesis, so I'm not sure the new rewrites should stand. Surely this reader got the idea after the last Oprah instalment on TV? Mandel 06:38, Dec 9, 2004 (UTC)

I don't watch Oprah!

Well, I'm not really trying to "promote" my own interpretation, but a synopsis doesn't really tell you much, and there's no one unassailable interpretation, so that's why I felt mine would be as good as any. I don't pretend that my reading is the any more valid than anyone else's, so if others care to expand the interpretation section, no one's stopping them.

But I liked Anna Karenina before Oprah made it cool -- I was a Russian language and lit major in college, and have read this book several times, one of those times in Russian, which is a great way to fill up time normally spent having a life. :-)

--dablaze 02:15, Mar 22, 2005 (UTC)

The idea is interesting of course, but it defies one of wikipedia's rules. See Wikipedia:No_original_research and Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not a soapbox #4. Mandel 20:31, Apr 18, 2005 (UTC)

Well, perhaps I shouldn't have been so flowery in places, but this isn't my original research. It's actually a pretty common interpretation of the book; I'd be surprised if something similar weren't in the Cliffs Notes. I think any Russian lit scholar -- especially a Tolstoy scholar -- would agree, even if they took issue with one or two minor points. Maybe Google some interpretations, or check out a Cliffs Notes? –dablaze 02:48, Apr 21, 2005 (UTC)

Maybe you should prune and change the wording in places to make it sound less an interpretation than some commonly held points on the novel? Mandel 18:13, Apr 22, 2005 (UTC)

OK, followed your suggestion. How's it look to you now? –dablaze 14:28, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

Much better. Thank you. Mandel 17:33, Apr 23, 2005 (UTC)

Russian diminutives in synopsis; note on transliteration

Someone recently changed the names Kitty and Dolly to "Katya" and "Dasha." While these are both correct in general, they are not correct in the context of AK. English was a fashionable language among the upper classes (though not as much as French), and these English names (along with Betsy and Annie) appear phonetically spelled out in the original Russian text as Кити, Долли, Бетси, and Ани.

I never quite knew why these characters had such diminutives, but I'm guessing it was one of Tolstoy's jabs at aristocratic affectations. In any case, if anyone would like to check out the original, here's a link to the original Russian text (http://www.litportal.ru/index.html?a=226&t=1195).

Also, I strongly feel that the Russian letter Щ should be transliterated as "shch", and not as "shtch", as a previous contributor had done. (Actually, I feel it should just be transliterated as "sh," since it's easier for us, and it's pretty much how most Russians pronounce it anyway, but I guess that's not linguistically accurate...)

Wikipedia also recommends the "shch" transliteration (see Transliteration of Russian into English), as it's the standard in the U.N., RF, blah blah blah. And frankly, I've never seen "shtch" before. I'm not a native speaker, but I've been studying and speaking Russian for over 15 years (including time spent living in the FSU), and this is a new one to me. "Shch" is jarring enough in English, and even though I understand the logic behind it, "shtch" is just too much!

--dablaze 16:59, Mar 25, 2005 (UTC)

Aha, now I see why Dasha and Katya were abbreviated to Dolly and Kitty. I thought it was just someone being lazy and using anglicised versions.

Olga