Anna Karenina

By: Leo Tolstoy

Narrated by: Davina Porter

Length: 36 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Tolstoy's masterpiece begins, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

This is the story of the unhappy family of Anna Karenina. The novel contains much concerning Tolstoy's spiritual crisis and his search for the meaning of life. But it is also chiefly about marriage, and the growth and death of love.

The touching picture of Anna Aarkadyevna Karenina's slow disintegration has fascinated readers for well over a century. Beautiful and charming, Anna lives in a splendid world of her own making. She smokes, rides horseback, plays tennis, takes opium, practices birth control, and (although she is already married) falls in love with a handsome army officer.

Anna's life is played out against a backdrop of dazzling balls and the vastness of Russia's landscape. It is a magnificent story that shimmers with the intensity of intelligence and passion, especially through this superb narration by Davina Porter.

Public Domain (P)1990 Recorded Books

Critic reviews

"Porter reads magnificently." (Los Angeles Times)

wonderful translation & reader

This is an excellent translation read with wonderful, evocative expression by Davina Porter. After some searching I found the text version from Random House/Modern Library Paperback translated by Constance Garnett AND Leonard Kent AND Nina Berberova. There is an original translation by Constance Garnett alone but that is different. I like to be able to refer to a hardcopy text of my audiobook, and it's nice if the translations actually match up. The reader really brings alive this outstanding novel.

Excellent Narration enhances Very Long Book!

Although I always yearn to listen to Russian novels due to fond memories of reading them many years ago, I have been discouraged from trying an audio version because the length means I will be reading the same book for a whole month now that I have so little free time to read compared to when I was a student.

I bought this Davina Porter audio YEARS ago and could never face so much time with one book. For some reason I recently decided I was 'in the mood'. I listened to a sample, dreading the thought of buying yet ANOTHER version (I mistakenly bought two different versions in 2004) to get good sound. What a nice surprise! The recording is as good as anything being recorded today, and despite being a really picky listener I have no complaints at all.

On the contrary, 'Anna Karenina' contains long disquisitions on political and agrarian economy which are very demanding of a wonderful narrator and are well served by Davina Porter. Her expression is always lively, her emotion appropriate and her pronunciation is perfect. She uses different intonations for different characters for variety, but not different voices - her rhythm is wonderful, and her accents in French for example, are very comprehensible. There are so many Russian and French and German names that this book could be a disaster for an unskilled reader, but everything she says is comprehensible and beautifully pronounced - even when it isn't actually the way a native would speak. You never lose the meaning of the text which is incredibly important in such a long book with so many foreign words.

For readers/listeners with the time to devote to a classic Russian tome, this is a wonderful recording.

Beautiful prose, insufferable heroine

I have yet to figure out why the title. Tolstoy spent nearly as much time covering Levin as Anna. Speaking of Anna, I found her to be quite a disgrace, though not in the same antiquated notion as described in the book. Her jealousy drove not just Vronsky but also me INSANE. Her death provoked little sympathy from me - I was relieved to be free of her incessant inner/outer hateful/shameful chatter. But Tolstoy, boy, I'll be reading Tolstoy for a long time.

Just Wonderful

If you could sum up Anna Karenina in three words, what would they be?

Absorbing, accessible, tragic.

What other book might you compare Anna Karenina to and why?

This epic novel stands alone in its beauty and drama.

What does Davina Porter bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Her narration never detracted from the story; her presence was unobtrusive and she let the writing speak for itself.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

At 36+ hours, this would be quite an achievement! Actually, no, simply because I liked to savour each chapter as it unfurled before discovering the next. There are many layers to this story and Tolstoy gives us much to think about.

Any additional comments?

Worth every minute invested in it.

Most probably the best novel I have ever read.

If you could sum up Anna Karenina in three words, what would they be?

This is an wonderful story of the human condition. The various aspects of our humanity are captured in different ways through the characters in the story. The depth in this book is amazing. There are many excellent books which I would recommend but this book is a must read.

Love gone bad, read well

This book is a classic and read very well by the narrator. Having no idea what the story was about when I decided to get this book, I was in for a huge surprise. This book is an excellent narrative on a variety of male-female relationships that all demonstrate some type of domestic abuse. The heroines are looking for a truly love filled life and find themselves in varying degrees of despair due to their beloved men becoming controlling, cheating, manipulative, or even vindictive husbands. This story is not for the faint hearted or for those who like to read about romance.

Misunderstood Anna

Any additional comments?

It's easy to condemn Anna, especially since she's always being compared to Levin. The whole structure off the book is Tolstoy's attempt to show how different these two people are. And while Levin is, as Anna's husband would turn the phrase "beyond reproach", what are we to make of Anna? Was she a bad person? Was she evil?

For me, Anna truly lived. Unlike Levin who suffered doubts about everything under the sun, she was led by her passions. Her eyes would half close when confronted with some harsh reality or other while Levin instantly become introspective and longed to do the right thing for the right reasons.

But who had more fun in life? Levin almost missed his opportunity to find live with Kitty (or any other woman for that matter) and even when they were married, as as he was, he was repulsed by the birth of his child; he had to grow to love that pink, wriggling thing. He never seemed to have any convictions about anything and those that he did have seemed to surprise him and never were what he expected them to be like. Nothing was what he expected it to be life be it the symphony, politics and political theory, city life - he was always uncomfortable.

Yet Anna just rushed into every experience and dealt with the fallout later. She knew who she was and even more who she wasn't. She was't tormented by the inner-demons of Levin, she only had to deal with the demons of society instead, and all of them were petty people anyway.

In the final scenes of the novel, Levin has taken up beekeeping and I couldn't help but thinking that Tolstoy was using this activity to show how bees can either sting you or make you honey. Levin got the honey, but he had to wait for it whereas Anna got stung, but that's because she had stolen some honey already. She was like the kids cooking berries over the candles and squirting milk into each others mouths; she lived for that pleasure now and didn't even care to question if the pleasures would continue. She would deal with the terrible sting later.

And she did, too.

But I don't think she was any better or worse than Levin. She merely sought her rewards in life immediately whereas Levin discovered he could have them after death.

Yet they both had one thing in common: they didn't put much stock in reason. For her she was impulsive and for him he put aside intellect to explain life and the universe. The both found meaning in the spiritual.

And I don't want to hang morality on either character because who is to say who really lived life better? True, Anna hurt everyone she ever met, but she lived for herself and if this life is the only life we have then I think she had the right idea. But if you believe there is a life after this one then Levin might have the right idea.

But who is to say is right? Or better?

It's a wonderful question to ask, and this novel presents this dilemma brilliantly.

I loved this book and everyone in it.

Anna Karenina

Don't know how many times I have tried to read this but listening was a whole new thing. I liked it for the glimpse into Russian history and the caste system there.

Ecellently narrated

I was a little worried at first to donwload this ultimate classic but it was well worth every minute of those 36 hours :) Davina did an excellent narrating job and even the long monologue passages were enjoyable to listen to. Would definetly recommend to Russian classic lovers.

Great Performance of a Classic

Would you listen to Anna Karenina again? Why?

I would because Ms Porter's performance was very good. It was easy to understand what was being said the majority of the time, and, when the most passionate segments of the novel were being read, she stepped up her skill to a greater level.

What did you like best about this story?

I enjoyed the character Levin the best, and how he dealt with his life's problems, whether it was due to finance or to love.

Have you listened to any of Davina Porter’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This is the first performance of Ms Porter's that I've listened to, and I'm sure I'll listen to more in the future.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

My only extreme reaction to the book was a strict annoyance with the title character and her personality - selfish and rather childish, in my opinion.

Any additional comments?

Ms Porter's performance was most excellent. If there was one thing to be improved, I would have to say the differences between various voices during the characters' conversations. Because the text doesn't always give a quotation then let you know who's speaking - it simply continues to a response from another character - you don't always know for sure who's talking. Perhaps more unique voices for each character would make it easier to understand. Hands down, though, a fantastic performance from Ms Porter!