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Last month, I wrote a co-reading article for a platform called Anna Callerina (hereinafter referred to as "Anna"). More than 600,000 words, condensed into eight or nine thousand words, some details that had to be discarded made me want to write these again.
So this article is divided into three parts to talk about Anna Callerina:
One is something about Tolstoy's creation of Anna;
The second is the 3 original details deleted in the final draft of "Anna";
The third is summing up and the ultimate thinking of life.
At the beginning, the platform editors provided a list of books, including some cognitive books and novels that they have read and are familiar with, with 200,000 or 300,000 words. However, in the end, it was decided to write this fictional literary tome, Anna Callerina.
Although I know that writing it as a co-reading manuscript will take a long time. It took 7 days to reread the original book and write the final draft. The editor of the docking proposed several detailed revision questions, and changed it once to finalize the draft.
But I haven't quite come out of the story yet.
When I was in high school, I watched the movie "Anna Callerina" and watched the original book very shallowly. Before rereading, the impression is only anna for love and freedom, bravely separated from the past, but finally went to despair and committed suicide.
This time unconsciously, in the process of reading, I liked Levin. This unconfident Levin, who is often trapped in ideological difficulties, is too much like himself, too much like each of us teenagers.
So much so that re-reading this perfect masterpiece of art, I feel that every inch is alive.
<h1>1. The story of Tolstoy and Anna Carrilina</h1>
Evaluation of Tolstoy himself and his works:
Chekhov said: "The short stories, novellas, and novellas we write are all children's games in his opinion. ”
Even the tough man Hemingway admitted that he was inferior to Count Tolstoy,
He said: "A person can only imagine himself and Tolstoy on a par with each other and compete." ”
It can be seen that it is not an exaggeration to say that Leo Tolstoy was the brightest star of the world literary scene in the 19th century, and to say that he alone is enough to define an era.
Regarding Anna, Dostoevsky, a contemporary of Tolstoy, also admitted:
"Anna Karenina is a masterpiece of artistic perfection. There is nothing in modern European literature that can be compared to it. ”
Tolstoy himself called Anna Karenina "the book from life". Perhaps, it is precisely because the works that come from life have a longer vitality that every inch of reading today is alive.
In tolstoy's masterpiece series, Anna Callerina and War and Peace usually come out on top, either "Anna" first or "War" first.
"War" was written more than a decade before "Anna". Set against the backdrop of the Great Patriotic War of 1812, War depicts the major events that took place between Russia and European countries in the early 19th century. At the time of writing Anna, war was no longer the main theme of Russia, and Russia at this stage was in a period of deformed social transformation.
In 1870, Tolstoy began to conceive a novel about the private life of the aristocracy. What prompted him to start writing was a real thing that happened at that time:
A noblewoman eloped for love and was abandoned, and finally died under the wheel.
This incident gave Tolstoy the most immediate stimulus. From this he began to conceive of Anna's story. In the original conception, there were no later stories of Levin and Obronsky's family, only Anna's story. And Anna is an obese, vulgar woman, while her husband is a saint.
In 1873, as the formal writing process of Anna progressed, "morally Tolstoy gradually enlarged the image of Anna and shrank her husband; sinners became more and more beautiful and vivid, and the saints became more abstract and hypocritical." ”
By 1875, Tolstoy signed a contract with the newspaper, and Anna Karenina began to be serialized in the newspaper, but the writing was interrupted several times. Because While Tolstoy was writing, he had deep doubts about the meaning of this work and his own life. It was not until 1877 that Anna Karenina was completed. At the time of the deadline, Tolstoy sighed as if he had been freed from a heavy burden: "I was finally forced to write my novel, and it almost made me tired of it." ”
At that time, Tolstoy's life was undergoing great changes. When writing the first half of Anna Carrilina, he married Sophia very happily, and was in the quietest years of his life. However, halfway through writing, a crisis came.
Tolstoy, who was born into the nobility, repeatedly tried the reform of serfdom in his estate, but failed, and the economic situation deteriorated. At the same time, he harbored a deep sense of guilt for the parasitic lifestyle of the nobility, so he set up a series of plans for family life, asking the whole family to give up the aristocratic life and cut back on food and clothing without any entertainment. His wife, Sophia, firmly opposed, and the two began a long and painful entanglement, and Tolstoy even ran away from home frequently. This process continued until the end of Tolstoy's life.
Therefore, the author's own life and spiritual confusion are projected on the characters in the story. The author writes about the happiness and misfortune of Anna and Levin, and is also writing about his own life confusion.
In the same way, we see not only the happiness and misfortune of others, but also ourselves, who are also in contradictions.
In my opinion, without the real difficulties and reflections of Tolstoy's own life, we would only see a depraved and derailed woman, not Anna who yearns for freedom, longs for love, and has no remorse. Nor will we see how the thinking Levin came out of one mental dilemma after another through thinking.
This is why novels are still so real to read today, and every inch is alive.
In addition, in the process of re-reading "Anna", for me, who prefers Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" and Salinger's "Watchman in the Wheat Field", which is "only showing the mountains and not dewing", the rich and delicate character psychological description in "Anna" makes a personal character more three-dimensional and full, vivid image, but I also have a deep understanding of the tiredness in the reading process.
<h1>2. What I read when I read the original anna, what I would miss just by reading the manuscript together</h1>
Nowadays, many platforms have listening to books or reading columns, as a book manuscript article writer, today I will take "Anna" as an example, and talk to you, for fiction literature, only read the platform book interpretation manuscript, do not read the original book, what you will miss.
In general, there are two aspects that cannot be experienced without reading the original work:
One is the complete world constructed in the original work; the other is the rich and wonderful details in the original work.
Everyone agrees that reading the classics is to enter the classics to experience the complete world constructed by the author, and this can only be imagined and built brick by reading the original works.
The more you know the details, the more delicate and concrete the world will be in the process of reading.
Nabokov once said,
Good literature is an independent and complete world, every detail can stand up to scrutiny, and if this fictional world cannot achieve logical self-consistency in details, then it will collapse.
Entering the original world through the scrutiny of details is indeed a way to understand the classic "slow but fast".
Nabokov's attention to detail can be seen in his education of his students:
While reading Madame Bovary, he reminds students of the change in the color of Madame Bovary's eyes as she changes her mood;
While reading Metamorphosis, he reminds students to figure out what Gregor looks like as a beetle in order to understand the pain faced by the characters in the story and his series of behaviors.
It can be seen that the rich and delicate details in the original work are exactly the "punching cards" that we cannot miss in reading.
Returning to Anna, first-time readers tend to ignore another character in the book, Levin, because the title is Anna's name.
This book is summed up as the story of Anna's downfall and Levin's rebirth. It can be seen that in the sense of reality, Levin is even more worthy of our attention and more worthy of our deep thinking than Anna.
These two people are basically two story lines that develop in parallel.
Levin falls in love with Kitty, Thera's brother-in-law, Obronsky, and When Kitty initially likes Vronsky, he rejects Levin's marriage proposal, and Vronsky and Anna fall in love at first sight and snub Kitty, but Kitty eventually marries Levin.
This is the overall story overview. The following takes "Anna" as an example, after writing a common reading, the editor considers the need to record audio in the later stage and the reader may not have seen the original work and does not know the meaning of the details, so it is recommended to delete the three details - this is the wonderful point that will be missed without reading the original book.
First, the details of anna and Vronsky's encounter at the train station
All that is written in the co-reading is anna and Vronsky passing by on the platform, both glancing back at the same time and the details of the road guard's tragic death under the wheel.
Deleting anna's brother who did not find him at the platform to pick him up, he returned to the train car, (the woman who walked with Anna and talked all the way was Vronsky's mother, and It was Vronsky who came to pick up his mother at the station), met and talked with Vronsky again, and heard about the station massacre, Vronsky's behavior in front of Anna.
After it was known that a road guard was crushed by a train and the road guard's wife threw herself on the body, the original book described it like this:
Vronsky did not speak, his pretty face was serious, but very calm.
"Can't you think of something for her?" Anna whispered excitedly.
Vronsky glanced at Anna and immediately stepped out of the carriage.
"I'll be right back, Mom." Vronsky turned back at the door and said.
It turned out that he had gone out and given the deputy station chief two hundred roubles.
As they stepped out of the carriage and walked to the station gate, the stationmaster caught up with Vronsky and asked him, "You gave two hundred roubles. ”
"To the widow," said Vronsky, shrugging his shoulders, "I thought there was no need to ask." ”
Obronsky pulled Anna behind her and shouted, "Did you reward it?" Do good deeds, do good deeds... ”
From the details of this Vronsky rewarding the road guard's wife, we can see that he really understands women, Anna whispered, he immediately went out to give money; and then when he gave the money and explained to the stationmaster, he said "to the widow", from his words and forms we can see that Vronsky himself is not very sympathetic in his heart, he did all this only because the lady Next to him Anna said a word.
The image of Vronsky's playboy and clumsy boy is vividly expressed in this detail. Such a man will not attract girls to like?
This is something that can only be experienced by reading the original work.
Second, the details of Levin's second marriage proposal to Kitty
The details of these two marriage proposals are still alive to read.
For the first time, Kitty knew Levin's intentions, but at this time she only had Vronsky in her heart, so the innocent Kitty was also struggling with how to reject Levin without embarrassing him.
The timid and unconfident Levin is a typical straight male figure. When he confessed, he hesitated, his heart was extremely flustered, and he turned a thousand times.
In the original book, it is described like this:
Levin finally squeezed out a few words: "I mean to say... I mean say... I'm here specifically for this... Be my wife. He said it, not knowing what he was talking about! Feeling only that the most terrible words had been said, he suddenly stopped and looked at her.
Kitty didn't look at him. Her heart was ecstatic and overflowing with happiness. But she remembered Vronsky again, so she raised her clear and honest eyes to look at Levin's desperate face and replied quickly: "That is impossible... Forgive me. ”
Levin didn't look at Kitty, he said, "It's going to turn out this way." He bowed to Kitty and tried to back off.
This is the scene where Levin first proposed to Kitty. Which look, which sentence, is not alive?
The shy straight man Levin had the courage to confess to the beloved girl, stumbling; the simple girl already had a love in her heart and did not know how to reject the love of others, and her heart was happy and sincere and frank.
Isn't that what we were in the first place?
The second time Levine proposed to Kitty, it was already halfway through Anna Callerina. By this time Levin had a certain degree of certainty, and he knew Kitty's intentions.
In the original book, it is written like this:
Levin sat down at Kitty's table and said, "I've wanted to ask you something for a long time." He looked straight into her kind but panicked eyes.
"Please ask."
Then Levine wrote the first letters of each word on the table in chalk, which means: "When you say to me, when it is impossible, does it mean never, or just then?" ”
Levine hoped she would understand this complex sentence. He looked at her with that kind of gaze, as if the fate of his life was all about whether she could understand the words.
Kitty glanced solemnly at Levin, then put her wrinkled forehead in her hand and began to read. She occasionally looked at Levin with one or two eyes, as if to ask, "Is that what I thought?" ”
"I see." She said, blushing slightly.
"What is this word?" Levine pointed to the letters that represented "never."
"That's never meant," Kitty replied, "but that's not true!" ”
Later, Kitty writes the letters on the table that say, "If you can forget, you can forgive the past."
Then Levin shook his hands and wrote, "I have nothing to forget and forgive, I have always loved you." ”
She looked at him with a lingering smile and whispered, "I understand."
… …
That's the details of Levin's second proposal to Kitty. To this day, I think of the teenager I once was.
And these delicate emotions can only be experienced by reading the original work.
Third, the details of Anna's brother Obronsky's changing expression
Just as Nabokov taught his students to pay attention to the change in the color of Madame Bovary's eyes, when reading Anna Kalelina, we should also notice a great change in the expression of Anna's brother Obronsky.
The novel begins with Oblansky's wife having a big fight with him, because he is having an affair with his governess and is discovered by his wife. But Obronsky was not worried, and he was not ashamed, saying that "bread sometimes has a seductive aroma, which is really irresistible."
From the moment he appeared, the usual, kind, foolish smile appeared on his face completely involuntarily. And in the second half of the story, he's basically bankrupt and penniless. So he went to Petersburg, hoping to get a good job through the relationship, and helped his sister Anna get a positive answer from her husband agreeing to divorce.
This time, however, Obronsky was disappointed. The job search and his sister's divorce did not go well, and Obronsky's mood was very low, and he finally showed a depressed look and could not sleep for a long time, which was a rare situation for him.
This small detail can only be seen in the original book. To this day, it seems that you can see a face that is always smiling, and suddenly it has become a sad face.
The above 3 details are the details deleted in the final draft of the co-reading draft of "Anna Callerina", and there are many such delicacies in the original work, which cannot be experienced only by looking at the co-reading draft.
Therefore, a good literary classic is to break up a small piece and taste it, and build a complete literary world from the scrutiny of details.
Of course, by reading the manuscript together, you can quickly understand the main characters and stories in the original book. After knowing this, if you find that you like this book, then find out the original book to read it. I guess that's the mission of co-reading in the age of paid knowledge— to give you a quick overview of whether a book is worth reading.
Stills from Anna
<h1>3. Summarize and think</h1>
In the first part, we learn about Tolstoy's greatness and why Anna is still alive to read every inch.
In the second part, through Nabokov's point of view, we know that reading literary classics requires scrutinizing the details. Through the three details deleted from the co-reading draft of "Anna", I once again experienced the delicacy and truth of the characters in the original work.
Finally, let's talk about new cognition and thinking.
Some people say that Anna represents the destruction of ideals and ideals, and Levin represents the way out of reality and reality. They believe that only by combining two people can they clearly see the plight of the whole life and the struggle of people in the predicament.
But I don't think so.
I think Anna and Levin are a combination of ideal and reality, luck and misfortune. It cannot be said that Anna was unlucky just because she eventually went to death; and Levin was lucky when she went to rebirth.
Because anna's choice of love is inherently bitter, her beginning determines her ending. Her choice already contains both good fortune and misfortune. It can't be said that because Anna can't think like Levin, she can't get out of the predicament, Anna has been trying to find a way out all the time, but reality doesn't allow it.
On the other hand, we think Levin is lucky only because he is still alive, but does this really mean that he will not encounter ideological difficulties in the future? Is Levin, who is often in mental trouble, his misfortune completely over?
I suppose Levin's misfortune would only end with the end of his life, not with the end of the story.
This is also the ultimate problem of everyone's life. In the novel, Tolstoy asks us through Levin's mouth: "If our feelings are destroyed and our bodies die, what is the meaning of the struggle and hope before death?" ”
I think that as long as we are alive, we have hope and struggle, and we are a community of luck and misfortune.
Perhaps, this life of man is to paint an inch of life and happiness in the background of misfortune.
Pastoral reading
Past good articles:
Why read the classics? How to read the classics? Take a look at these practical tips taught by literature professors
From 300 literary classics, the American professor summed up 3 ways to understand literature, all of which are here
How to read? These 15 books are enough to solve all your reading disabilities, and the book list takes 5 hours to organize