100 Best Novels (A View from the UK)

Anna Karenina, Dostoevsky, literature, Tolstoy

By chance, I recently came across a list of “100 Novels Everyone Should Read” compiled by the UK publication “The Telegraph.  Putting together such lists and then arguing about them is mostly harmless fun.Looking at the list, my first thought was “What have I...

Vronsky’s Rules

Anna Karenina

Vronsky, the dashing cavalry officer lover of Anna, is one of the main protagonists of “Anna Karenina.”  Most readers of the book, however baffled they might be by Anna’s choices and behavior, feel great deal of sympathy for her.  This is not the case for...

No time to read anymore?

Anna Karenina, history, Roosevelt

David McCullough is unimpressed.“Once upon a time in the dead of winter in the Dakota Territory, Theodore Roosevelt took off in a makeshift boat down the Little Missouri River in pursuit of a couple of thieves who had stolen his prized rowboat. After several days on...

Teddy Roosevelt on Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina, history, Roosevelt

Yesterday there was a post about Teddy Roosevelt’s response to Russian literature. It’s worth quoting Teddy at length (from a letter to his younger sister dated April 12th 1886): “I took Anna Karenina along for the trip and have read it through with very...