Book Reviews - Review 91

Many years since I read this. It tells the story of a beautiful aristocratic woman who deserts her conventional, unattractive husband for the dashing Count Vronsky, to the opprobrium of society. In an almost entirely unrelated strand, introspective landowner Levin navel-gazes and worries and gets married.

My response to this novel mirrored that to War and Peace. I found it intermittently gripping, but with protracted sections (mostly those about Levin) that were something of a yawn. It did leave me doubting whether realism should ever be regarded as the highest artistic ideal.