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Count Leo Tolstoy lived a life
full of contradictions, conflicts and uncertainty. And this is clearly reflected
in his writings. Baptized an Orthodox, into a life of privilege and wealth in
Czarist Russia in 1828, his young adulthood is best summed up with his own words
from his book Confession:
I cannot recall those years without horror, loathing, and heart-rending pain. I
killed people in war, challenged men to duels with the purpose of killing them,
and lost at cards; I squandered the fruits of the peasants' toil and then had
them executed; I was a fornicator and a cheat. Lying, stealing, promiscuity of
every kind, drunkenness, violence, murder – there was not a crime I did not
commit … Thus I lived for ten years.
Tolstoy succeeded in making these contradictions within him and his life meet to
form a captivating confluence in Anna Karenina. Written during a critical period
when the Russian public life was split between orthodoxy and liberalism, between
cultural nationalism and the modern values of rationalism and secularism, this
is arguably Tolstoy's greatest work. This modern epic, inspired by a real life
incident of a mistress committing suicide, deals with some important issues like
politics, love, sexuality, marriage. Anna, whose main quality is her strength of
emotion, which eventually serves as the basis for her cataclysmic downfall, is
contrasted with another leading character, Levin, who ultimately finds happiness
through himself. The novel traces the trajectory of a tale of love and adultery,
addressing the grand debates in contemporary Russian society. The story is
breathtakingly opaque and layered, due mainly to Tolstoy's ability to weave
almost everything and everyone together into a tapestry. |
