Anna Karenina, another tome by Leo Tolstoy, is a magnificent and sweeping book that focuses on two story lines – and three marriages: Anna and her husband Karenin, Dolly and her husband Stiva Oblonsky (Anna’s brother) and Kitty (Dolly’s sister) and Konstantin Levin. The dashing Alexei Vronsky is also in the picture as a key source of intrigue in two of the marriages. The book encompasses the history of Russia in the late 19th century by exploring how the changes in Russia affected and were affected by these characters who are trying to adjust to underlying evolution that sometimes seems a little too slow in their estimation. Because this book is so driven by the individual storylines, it’s difficult to summarize this evolution and the eventual changes to the characters – it is the movement by many small steps driven by a series of events.

Such a lovely book that captured the full range of emotions! I’m a fan of Charles Dickens – from my first read of Oliver Twist when I was in middle school and through Great Expectations, A Christmas Carol, and so on. The books often have elements of fun and adventure as well as unflinching views of poverty, oppression, injustice, and vulnerability. There is a reason why the word dickensian has entered the vernacular. And this is a fairly short book, especially for Dickens!