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| No lengthy introductions for the Penguin Classics Red! Woot woot! |
Here I am thinking that my one doorstop for the year would be The Count of Monte Cristo. But Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina has been in my TBR pile for so long that I simply decided one day to just get it over with.
There was a time, when I was in my 20s I believe, that I wouldn't think twice about reading doorstops. Ah, those glorious yesteryears when I read Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (unabridged), James Joyce's Ulysses (with annotations), David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest (the footnotes alone can make a novel), and Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy (not really very American but very, very tragic), to name a few.
Now I'm around 300 pages in the novel and, so far, I'm liking it. Perhaps it's due to the wonderful translation of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, which makes the text very accessible indeed. Or maybe I am on a natural high from reading all the name switching that's happening (e.g., Levin is Konstantin is Kostya; Kitty is Katerina is Katya). It could also be that I'm just a masochist.
So how long will Anna Karenina stay in my bag, lugging it with me everywhere I go? I don't really know. I've been reading 80 pages or so every night and, frankly, I might lose some steam. Hmmmm... Steam. Now I'm thinking of trains. Anna Karenina did love the train, didn't she?
9 comments:
Itried...I did...and failed to finish it htis time around. Although, I did read it in its entirety when I was bout 16... I have one post on Part ! on my blog which may be of interest...
Hi, Kaz! I'll check that out! I left a comment on your entry on The Kraken Wakes as well. Fascinating post!
I cannot lug it around because I have the large, grey edition (flowers on top of a woman's lap). I fear that I hurt my right wrist the first night that I read it.
Hello, Angus. But it was a good kind of hurt, wasn't it? Hehehehehe. I've always wanted to have that edition, but for some reason, I've never seen a new one until now.
I have a soft spot for the Penguin Classics Red because half of the profits from the sales go to AIDS advocacy.
Hi Peter,
I saw your comment - tried to leave one on your Kraken post and the computer decided I was a robot even when I typed in the right letters and numbers...I replied to your comments on my posts though.
Maybe I should try and get back to AK...the book has grown fangs and is glaring at me!
LOL! I love it when books grow fangs!
Eeep! And this reminds me of my buddy read with Angus, etc. Haha! I am sooo slow with the Russian names, I'm forever stuck at 4%!
Oh, right! You're doing a read-along! I hope you catch up!
Could someone post pictures of the inside of the grey cover edition? Having narrowed down my choice of translation to three (odg, someone help me, lol), I'm now working on which edition to read, as I hate small print... AK has more than fangs in my case, she has a small bomb and a knife lurking behind her back... ;)
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