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)

BORING!

I hate to say it - the only reason I continued to torture myself with the book was because I had paid for it! I was searching the whole time for a reason that this book made it into the "classics" pile and not the trash heap. It was awful! There are parts of the book that seem to have only been put in there to further torture the reader and had no apparent point except to lengthen the book. I actually found myself hoping that Anna will die in childbirth just so the book would END!!! I normally enjoy the classics, but this was a total and complete snore.

wonderful book

Great book, beautifully read.

Distracting Narration

What would have made Anna Karenina better?

It was really tough to get through the book since the narrator butchered 90% of the names. Listening to the awful pronunciation was like listening to nails on a chalkboard. Poor Tolstoy would be turning in his grave listening to this rendition of his work.

Eh

This book is very long and the characters, for me, were hard to identify with and hard to like.

Great Narration - Long Tedious Story with No Plot!

I normally love books considered a Classic. However, now I am afraid to even try "War and Peace" by the same author. If this is considered a classic, I do not understand why.

It goes on and on and on it tedius detail about the Russian society classes, such as peasants, poitical and social reform, religion, mental illness, everything is told in minute detail and very repetitive. I really don't see a plot after I read the whole 50 hour book.

For example on the repetition of the author. He will use Anna Karenina and other long Russian names 25 times in one paragraph. Instead of calling people by their first name or last name, this author will use their whole name in every sentence in the same paragraph and does not use pronowns like she or her much. It is very odd and tedius to listen to this style.

The only thing that helped me get to the end of the books was the great narrator, Davina Porter! She is great and I highly recommend her narration. This is probably the worst story ever told. I can't go into detail without spoiling the story for people who still plan on reading it, but why does it say Audible Kids before each segment of the book? This is the last book that should be read by kids with adultery as one of the main topics.

Not For Me.

Did not hold my interest. An old soap opera. Can't imagine how it ever became popular.

Wish I had bought the abridged...

Very long - couldn't wait for it to end as it just could not hold my interest. I really enjoyed Part 1 and 2 but as the two main characters Anna and Levin seemed to descend into madness it got more and more tedious and boring. I really do not understand why this is considered by many to be the "greatest novel of all time".
As other reviewers have said I could not wait for Anna to end it all as it just seemed to go back and forth over and over and over. As I have read that Levin is based somewhat on Tolstoy's own life it makes me wonder what strange things were going on in his mind in his own life. Definitely a good example of what one says is not necessarily what one is thinking.

I have never listened to an abridged audiobook as I prefer to know all the details but I found it really hard to concentrate on this book as many parts were just so boring and seemingly pointless with regards to the actual storyline.
If I had it to do over I would buy the abridged version of this book.

I was impressed with Tolstoy's style of writing as it was easy to follow when my mind wasn't wandering. It did get a little tedious though how he always refers to everyone by their full names. Would have appreciated English translation of the French dialogue also.
And of course Davina Porter is an excellent narrator which is why I chose this version of the book.
I will definitely NOT be buying War and Peace.

What am I missing?

I am an avid reader, having read hundreds of books in my lifetime. I love the classics, but I found this to be extremely boring, disconnected, and preachy. It seems that Tolstoy used every character's thoughts to portray his own political, religious, and economic views. Over and over and over, I lost track of the plot, wrapped up in some blathering soliloqy. Davina Porter was the one saving feature to this novel. She is one of the absolute best narrators and she did a fabulous job with even this boring dribble. I actually purchased this book simply BECAUSE Davina Porter was the narrator. She didn't let me down, but this book did. I had to push myself to finish it. Boring, boring, boring.

not my cup of tea

Simple minded novel. Don't get the fuss...