On this date in 1935, a film adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina premièred in the US. 10 things you might not know about Anna Karenina:
It was first published as a serial in a publication called The Russian Messenger in 1877. However, fans at the time would have been mightily frustrated since the last instalment didn’t appear in the periodical. This was because Tolstoy expressed criticism of the Turkish-Serbian-Russian war in it. The editor though this was unpatriotic and refused to publish it unless Tolstoy changed it, which he refused to do.
The story is about an extramarital affair between Anna and cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, a scandal in the social circles of St Petersburg. Its themes are betrayal, faith, family, marriage, Imperial Russian society, desire, and the differences between rural and urban life.
Trains are a motif throughout the novel with many significant plot points happening on trains or at railway stations.
Anna is based on a number of women Tolstoy knew personally, perhaps most significantly Anna Stepanovna Pirogova, the mistress of one of his friends. When she thought her lover was being unfaithful, she ran away and wandered in the countryside for several days, and ultimately threw herself under a train. Tolstoy was present at her autopsy. Another influence was Maria Hartung who charmed Tolstoy when they met at a ball.
Tolstoy was also inspired by one of Alexandr Pushkin’s short stories. He was impressed by the way Pushkin launched into the action of the story rather than beginning with detailed descriptions as was the usual style of the time. Tolstoy said, "That's the way for us to write! Anyone else would start by describing the guests, the rooms, but he jumped straight into the action." He started writing Anna Karenina that same day.
The character Levin is thought by many to be based on Tolstoy himself, as he shares the same beliefs and struggles. Tolstoy's wife even said to him, "Levin is you, without the talent."
The novel begins with the words: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Its epigraph is "Vengeance is mine; I will repay", a quote from The Bible.
Tolstoy called Anna Karenina his first true novel, even though it wasn’t the first one he wrote. Even so, his diaries reveal that, like many writers, the writing process didn’t go smoothly and was a source of frustration to him. He wrote: "I loathe what I have written. The galleys of Anna Karenina for the April issue of Russkij Vestnik now lie on my table, and I really don't have the heart to correct them. Everything in them is so rotten, and the whole thing should be rewritten—all that has been printed too—scrapped, and melted down, thrown away, renounced.”
In 2007, a poll of contemporary authors placed Anna Karenina at the top of the list of the greatest books of all time.
Actresses who have played Anna on stage. Screen and radio include Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Jacqueline Bisset and Keira Knightley.
The first in a new series! It has invading aliens, gladiator-style contests, rivalry and romance.
The six richest people in Britain decide to hold a contest to settle the question of which of them is most successful. It will be a gladiator style contest with each entrant fielding a team of ten super-powered combatants. Entrepreneur Llew Powell sets out to put together his team, which includes his former lover, an employee of his company with a fascinating hobby, two refugees from another dimension (a lonely giant and a drunken sailor), two sisters bound together by a promise, a diminutive doctor, a former Tibetan monk initiate and two androids with a history. As the team train together, alliances form, friendships and more develop, while others find the past is not easy to leave behind.
Meanwhile, a ruthless race of aliens has its eyes on the Earth. Already abducting and enslaving humans, they work towards the final invasion which would destroy life on Earth as we know it. Powell’s group, Combat Team Alpha, stumble upon one of the wormholes the aliens use to travel to Earth and witness for themselves the horrors in store if the aliens aren’t stopped. Barely escaping with their lives, they realise there are more important things to worry about than a fighting competition.
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