Anna Karenina in our time [Hardcover]

Gary Saul Morson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2007 | ISBN-10: 0300100701 | ISBN-13: 978-0300100709

In this invigorating new assessment of Anna Karenina, Gary Saul Morson overturns traditional interpretations of the classic novel and shows why readers have misunderstood Tolstoy’s characters and intentions. Morson argues that Tolstoy’s ideas are far more radical than has been thought: his masterpiece challenges deeply held conceptions of romantic love, the process of social reform, modernization, and the nature of good and evil. By investigating the ethical, philosophical, and social issues with which Tolstoy grappled, Morson finds in Anna Karenina powerful connections with the concerns of today. He proposes that Tolstoy’s effort to see the world more wisely can deeply inform our own search for wisdom in the present day.

 

The book offers brilliant analyses of Anna, Karenin, Dolly, Levin, and other characters, with a particularly subtle portrait of Anna’s extremism and self-deception. Morson probes Tolstoy’s important insights (evil is often the result of negligence; goodness derives from small, everyday deeds) and completes the volume with an irresistible, original list of One Hundred and Sixty-Three Tolstoyan Conclusions.

 

(20080901)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Morson is a splendid reader of texts, and his readings in Anna Karenina not only strengthen his arguments but reveal subtleties that have been ‘hidden in plain sight’ for well over a century.”—Robert Belknap, Columbia University 

(Robert Belknap )

"Gary Saul Morson, long (Robert Alter )

“Highly readable and passionately argued, Morson’s book makes a bold, important argument and makes it with eloquence and lucid reasoning.”—Robin Miller, Edytha Macy Gross Professor of Humanities and Professor of Russian and Comparative Literature, Brandeis University  

(Robin Miller )

“This remarkable book amounts to a thoroughgoing challenge to the entire tenor and purport of Anglophone academic criticism from the 1970s until now.”—Frederick Crews, Professor Emeritus of English, University of California at Berkeley 

(Frederick Crews )

"In a series of ground-breaking works that together constitute one of the most important critical projects today, Gary Saul Morson has fashioned that rarest of things: an unmistakable voice and original theoretical horizon. Now, in Anna Karenina in Our Time, he brings together many of his central concerns in an altogether singular and demanding reading of Tolstoy’s great novel. Whether one shares all of Morson’s conclusions or not is irrelevant: what matters is the richness of the debate they open for us. We will never read Anna Karenina the same way again."—Michael André Bernstein, University of California, Berkeley 

(Michael Andr� Bernstein )

"Morson has managed to produce the seemingly impossible: a work that is highly accessible and appealing to the lay reader, while at the same time contributing significantly to scholarly discourse."—Sara Kate Heukerott

(Sara Kate Heukerott )

About the Author

Gary Saul Morson is Frances Hooper Professor of Arts and Humanities and professor of Slavic languages, Northwestern University. Morson teaches Anna Karenina in a course enrolling 500 students—the largest Slavic Language class offered in America. Among his previous books is the award-winning Narrative and Freedom: The Shadows of Time, published by Yale University Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (December 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300100701
• ISBN-13: 978-0300100709
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars understanding Anna Karenina, August 13, 2010

By 

Richard Kildare - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Anna Karenina in our time (Hardcover)

Having earlier concentrated on French literature, I had not read Anna Karenina until recently. I was amazed at its beauty and the subtlety of its portrayal of character. I bought Morson' book to gain a deeper appreciation of the novel and was not disappointed. Morson takes an approach which seeks neither to judge the work in its own time nor as if it were written in ours but seeks to create a dialogue between the work and issues relevant to our world. He shows that Tolstoy rejects the notion that great men and great events are decisive in history and emphasizes the importance of many, often insignificant, even unnoticed, events.

He tentatively rejects the most common reading of AK, that all would be well if Anna had been able to divorce, blaming her situation on bad law and social prejudice. In his analysis, Anna comes across as a considerably less sympathetic character, self-centered and failing to see, much less weigh, the consequences of her acts.Morson is an extremely fine analyst of all the principal characters of the novel. His heroine is Dolly, Anna' sister-in-law, whose devotion to family and her work and role in

life provide a model of the good life. Morson is unafraid to make moral judgments ( good and evil) about the acts and character of Tolstoy's personalities, an important and much needed step beyond mere analytical criticism.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best, July 19, 2011

By 

Extempore20 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Anna Karenina in our time (Hardcover)

Professor Morson is a brilliant scholar and this book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning more, not just about Russian literature, but about life.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible insight, September 13, 2009

By 

Mark F. Robb "mmmmrobb" (San Francisco, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Anna Karenina in our time (Hardcover)

Having just read Anna Karenina in a class situation, I was given this reference. If you read this analysis, you will understand how complex a novel Anna Karenina is and how Tolstoy's philosophy on relationships, families, and political beliefs still remain valuable in this age of sexual freedom and health care reform.I learned a lot about my own beliefs in this book.