I wish you a better version of yourself in reading
When it comes to Russian literature, it is estimated that everyone is familiar with "War and Peace", this epic work takes the Russian Great Patriotic War as the starting point and depicts the whole picture of Russia's era in the early 19th century, and the author is the Russian writer Leo Leo Tolstoy.
However, I have always preferred another of Tolstoy's novels, and I even felt that this novel was written by Tolstoy himself. This novel is anna karenina, which I recommend today.
Anna Karenina
The protagonist of this novel is Anna, but there is also a positive character in the novel, the manor lord Levin, although Levin is down-to-earth and sincere, but he is deeply involved in the choice between tradition and justice, and is a very tangled character.
When I read this book, I always felt that Anna should be based on an acquaintance of Tolstoy's side, and Levin's character is simply Tolstoy himself. Tolstoy, borrowing Levin's lips, spoke of the confusion and contradictions of the old Russian aristocratic class at that time.
In reality, Tolstoy, like Levin, was born well. As a kind and progressive manor owner, when he was young, he carried out reforms within his manor, hoping to improve the lives of peasants, but he was suspended because he could not get the trust of the peasants.
Later, Tolstoy joined the army, experienced dangerous battles, met strong and brave civilian comrades, and also saw hypocritical and indifferent nobles. This complex life experience gave him the ability to perceive people's hearts, and his writing was so pure that he "came with his hands", and some people even commented that standing in front of Tolstoy, we were like naked.
Sadness is important to us, and I've heard a quote: Sadness takes our attention away from the positives and focuses on the most important things in life. When the losses are heavy or in extreme grief, we think of the most important people rather than personal successes; we think of the meaning of life, not the distractions of gadgets and entertainment.
The image of Anna in the film
Only in the sadness brought about by hardship, the development of indomitable pathos, can be refined into a more complex, but also more profound, like Tolstoy, rather than immersed in shallow and boring "entertainment to death" every day.
I often say in columns that a really good book has many different aspects, especially classic masterpieces, which are usually complex labyrinths carefully built by the author.
This is the case with Anna Karenina: the reader may think that by describing Levin's process of farm reform, the book reflects the confusion of the old Russian aristocracy in its efforts to innovate and be mired in contradictions; it can also be said that the book reflects the fatal blow to the heart caused by our flashy desires by depicting Anna's tragic love.
The description of fate in the book has a special sense of reincarnation, Anna and Vronsky who finally abandoned her for selfishness when they first met, saw the person who died at the railway station, and Anna's final ending was also the death of the rail, which presents a tragic fate of inevitability. The book reads:
She drew a cross. This habitual action of drawing crosses immediately reminded her of a series of girls' and childhood memories, and the darkness that enveloped everything suddenly disappeared, and in an instant, life appeared in front of her eyes with all the happiness and joy of her past.
At the moment when the front and rear wheels came to her in the middle, she threw away the red handbag, shrunk her head into her shoulders, and threw her hands under the carriage, moving slightly, as if ready to stand up immediately, and then threw herself on her knees.
In the same instant, she became frightened by what she was doing. "Where am I?" What am I doing here? Why bother? "She tried to stand up and run away; but a merciless behemoth hit her head and hung on her back." God, forgive me for everything! She felt unable to struggle anymore, and said.
The candle, by which she had read the book of life full of worries, deceptions, sorrows, and sins, shone brighter than ever, illuminating for her everything that had been in the darkness, and with a beep, darkened, extinguished forever.
The scene of the lying rail is very bloody. Tolstoy is not too realistic, but through an almost religious ritual writing, let the soon-to-be-lying Anna look back on her life, redeem and return, and at the same time hint at the fate of each of us because of our own personality.
Perhaps, the fate of each of us has long been predestined through personality choices. This is why we are always moved to tears by the pathos of the indomitable struggle against fate.
Let's talk about this today, do you start to like this book? Go read it and hope you fall in love with it too.
In the future, I will find an opportunity to share other good books with you, I am the owner of Zhihui Pavilion, and we will see you next time.