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This is the thickest literary masterpiece I have ever read, one of Tolstoy's three masterpieces handed down from generation to generation. Among the classics I only read in high school, there was once Resurrection, but I have completely forgotten it. Later, I read his War and Peace, and through Roland's Biography, I can have a deeper understanding of the life and spiritual world of this world writer.
It is hard to imagine that this book is a few days at home during the Spring Festival. Through mobile phones and books, I read intermittently in various environments (bus, bus, bedside, McDonald's, visiting relatives and friends ...), but I still returned to my familiar room in Wuxi before I finished. At this moment, another week has passed, and I am afraid to write down my reading notes. It's really scary to comment on such a masterpiece. I can only honestly record all kinds of memories, thoughts and emotions left in my mind at this moment, and talk about comfort.
Although the title of the book is Anna, it does not regard her as the absolute protagonist, but two main lines, focusing on Anna and Levin respectively, and through the description of the characters, emotions and events around them, it comprehensively and profoundly analyzes the living conditions of Russian aristocrats in the19th century. The novel takes love and marriage life as the main description carrier, and expresses the author's outlook on life, world view, love view and family life through the changes of Levin's thoughts around the development and ending of four relationships between Anna and her husband Alexei, Anna and lenski, Levin and Katie, and Stepan and Dolly. The life, work, interpersonal relationship and emotional state of these characters are intricately intertwined into a big net, covering all social conditions before the aristocratic class is about to decline.
Anna, a nearly perfect female character, is perfect in appearance, manners, speech, knowledge, self-restraint, morality and so on, even from the perspective of the aristocratic class. If it weren't for the emotions and desires accumulated in her heart, she would have been welcomed and appreciated by all the upper classes. Even when her morality and soul degenerated to the deepest point, the author still gave the highest evaluation to her appearance and manners. From this perspective, she is not a person worthy of criticism, but full of tragedy, causing people's pity and indignation, and venting this anger to people and society around her.
Anna is no longer young. She is the mother of an 8-year-old child and deeply loves her son. She has a high appreciation of art and has shown some talents in painting and engineering. She can even read many books and write novels. She has all the charm of women, and can quickly become the focus in any social occasion, easily capturing men's hearts, even newly married Levin is no exception. She is also morally blameless. She devoted a lot of care and love to the workers and sister-in-law who committed suicide at the station, and she was also full of care for her brother's children. Even those ladies and wives can't be angry with a woman out of her due jealousy.
However, all this is perfect, just because wronski took a look at her on the train, and began to waver gradually, and was completely torn with the release of repressed lust. Her only misfortune, the source of all the pain, comes from her husband's indifference and hypocrisy. On the surface, her family is also the envy of everyone. Her husband Alexei has great power in the officialdom and his career is booming. He just cares too much about his social status and almost devotes himself to his career, regardless of his family, especially Anna. The two sides maintained a seemingly harmonious relationship, but formed a huge gap. Anna simply hates him and regards her as a beautiful machine that works well. If emotional factors are excluded, this is indeed a commendable political machine, which runs wholeheartedly in accordance with all the requirements of aristocratic society and officialdom. Even for family life, for his wife, all the material needs, also have all the support. However, after all, this is a machine that torments Anna's vibrant and energetic soul day and night.
A woman, like a beautiful flower, will wither if she is not emotionally nourished, or like a rose, wither gradually under the erosion of years; Or grow like a poppy, desperately absorb all the dew and sunshine, and continue to bloom with overwhelming charm, but full of toxicity.
W lenski what's the matter? He is pursuing the love that belongs to him. He was just crazy about Anna's beauty and gave up everything he had. He has a high opinion in the circle. He is handsome and has talents that his peers can't match. He is a young officer with a bright future. Everyone from his friends to his superiors wants to help him get a higher position. He has a lot of wealth, generous and willing to help all his friends and spend money to build hospitals for the poor. He even has a high talent for painting and a high appreciation of art, and his heart is proud, like a virtuous and elegant spirited horse, but he can win the love of almost everyone.
Just like eating opium by mistake because of the beauty of poppies, it's crazy. He gave up everything the aristocratic society gave him for Anna. He is willing to bear the contempt of the aristocratic society, he is willing to leave the bright career that can be easily obtained, and he can even sever the relationship with his mother and family. He can stay away from everything, accompany Anna in a foreign country, in the countryside, and try painting and manor life that he can't love. Under great grief, he couldn't even take care of himself and tried to commit suicide twice. Shouldn't these arouse people's deep sympathy and thinking? Instead, you put all the responsibility for this tragedy on him?
As Anna's husband, should Alexei be mercilessly accused? He is really indifferent to Anna and her son. He was really cruel to Anna after discovering the relationship between Anna and W lenski, and even refused to divorce, so that he and Anna, W lenski and his son could not get rid of it, and were oppressed and feuded by the huge moral carrier of family. No matter how touching and beautiful Anna is, he just devotes himself wholeheartedly to his career, and he can't have love or even basic emotional care for Anna. He also felt all the pain, which even raised his morality to the height of religion and tolerated the betrayal that led to his career failure and family breakdown. For an instant, he even felt pity for his wife's children born in private with others. No one but Anna can criticize him and even arouse great sympathy, because in a sense, his whole life has been ruined.
Anna and W lenski, in the pursuit of love, not only bear the contempt of the whole society and all interpersonal relationships, but also bear the heavy pressure from the heart and morality. The former is secondary. What really bothers Anna is that she obviously realizes that she is being corroded by this strong emotional demand. She lingered, she struggled, and after giving birth to a daughter with wronski, she made up her mind to break up with him, because she still loved her son Sereza at least, which was her only concern until the end of her life. However, after meeting W lenski who tried to commit suicide, she completely fell into an endless abyss and became a slave of lust. She dedicated her last life to lenski's emotional concern for her. It's like a poppy growing wildly. The demand for sunlight and nutrients is infinitely expanding, and there is no room for any loss, otherwise it will wither immediately. The crystallization of her love with W lenski has also become something she hates. Therefore, even in Italy, which is far away from all troubles, under the influence of the capital of painting art, she can't get any comfort. She can only be quiet for a while, and then she is depressed again. This melancholy and lustful greed gradually became the burden of W lenski, who was overwhelmed by oppression. They become each other's only spiritual comfort, but they still can't cherish the source of love that has gradually withered, and learn from each other more impudently.
They have realized that they can't live like this, and the ideal love scene will return to the original aristocratic social home in less than a year. In Petersburg, Moscow and the countryside, he even began to build new manors, and prayed for Anna and Alexei to divorce, trying to find the last way out by marriage. However, Anna is so paranoid at this time that she can't get into any tiny dust between the two sides, so how can she help him reproduce? They made a final struggle, but they fell into the wilderness that had become a swamp faster. Wronski tried to escape with a heavy burden, but Anna bound him even tighter, because Anna could not leave him for a moment. At the last moment, Anna even retaliated against lenski's friend and Katie's husband Levin. What a terrible depravity! It reminds me that Madame Bovary finally fell into the abyss of lust in pursuit of love!
Finally, in the first irreversible quarrel, W lenski wanted to be free for a moment, but Anna chose to commit suicide. This is the final outcome of the tragedy. W lenski lost his soul and went to the front.
Fortunately, there is also the semi-autobiographical image of Levin himself, which makes this work warm and full. If Anna's image makes this work profound and full of vigor, then Levin will further sublimate it and make it great. The gloom caused by Anna's depravity and tragedy is gradually calmed down and enriched by Levin's thoughts and happy marriage.
Perhaps Levin is too ordinary, and his life and destiny are not as ups and downs and colorful as readers expect. Everything seems so mediocre. He is not as cynical and melancholy as his brother Nicholas, nor as brilliant and indifferent as his brother Sergei. He is even a little slow, and seems a little confused about the rules of the game of his aristocratic class. He also escaped the local politics, committees and elections that landlords and nobles were keen on, which made him completely away from the only chance to achieve his career. He is not as smooth as Stepan, nor as handsome as W lenski. He had doubts about religion from beginning to end, so he couldn't sublimate religious morality like karenin. He is not even like a nobleman, but just a simple landlord who mingles with farmers. He cares about farmers and his manor. He likes mowing grass and working with farmers. He also hopes to benefit the people and enrich himself through positive changes in production relations. However, what he is best at and most passionate about has also failed. For his own thoughts and books, he went abroad for inspection, personally practiced and consulted many people, which almost became his only spiritual sustenance after being rejected by Ji Ji, but later he put it on hold because of his busy family after marriage.
He is not young and has no aristocratic temperament. When he visited Stepan in his thirties, he was even blocked by the doorman for a long time. He loves Katie, and the good impression brought to her by long-term contacts was immediately obliterated by W lenski's grace and talent. Gigi rejected Levin's enthusiasm, because he fell in love with W lenski's seduction, which was almost fatal to Levin. He was depressed and more immersed in farm affairs, and got rid of this mental trouble through intense physical labor. He is shy, shy, simple and lovely, and knows almost nothing about feelings, marriage and family life. Just because of his strong love, he was driven to confess to Gigi again. After he got a positive answer, even after he got married for a long time, he still doubted the truth of this happiness. Even the preparations for marriage, the pregnancy in the first season, and the birth of the child were unprepared, and he seemed anxious and at a loss. But for Gigi's care and comfort, his married life would have been a mess!
In the end, he failed to reform his manor successfully, and even failed to finish his book. The only satisfaction is that he finally married Gigi, but this peak of happiness was immediately replaced by the troubles of family life that followed. The end of the novel seems to be too hasty from the storyline. Because Anna's and W lenski's stories have a home, he is still hesitating and thinking, and his conclusion does not bring clear philosophical comfort to readers.
However, perhaps it is Levin's mediocrity that highlights the greatness of his works. This kind of ordinary, under the author's creation, seems so real and heavy. It can make the most ordinary readers go deep into Levin's inner world, experience Levin's subtle emotional touch, and follow every change and progress of Levin's thought.
He doesn't have to have a great career, but he pursues the perfection of his work tirelessly; He doesn't envy the status and reputation of the upper class, but he can keep a pure and happy friendship with the servants and farmers around him. He didn't wear a hypocritical mask, but he won the love of almost all noble friends; He doesn't have much wealth, but he can live happily with his wife and friends. He is dull by nature, but he is constantly thinking about the meaning of life; He even lacks noble temperament, but he is simple and lovely and never makes people doubt; He hates the leisure and chic in the club, but enjoys the enthusiasm and freedom brought by work; He also appeared timid and shy in the process of pursuing love, but he won the warmest love of the season.
Stepan won the welcome of the whole society, but only Levin, the only true friend; Dolly's unhappy marriage and the troubled life of her five children can all feel real happiness in the Levin family. My brother Nicholas is full of resentment against everything in the whole world, but at the last moment of his life, he can only get some warmth from the world here in Levin; Brother Sergei is lonely and deep, knowledgeable and has a lofty position. He believes that Levin will manage all his property without asking any questions. He always gives the most patient answers to his brother's stupid questions and is always at ease in his home. At the end of her life, Anna got the only pleasure of winning Levin's favor. Wronski has almost all the advantages of aristocratic characteristics, but in the eyes of the old duke, he immediately lost to Levin. His old housekeeper treats him more like a friend than a servant, and his farmers even like to work with him without any class grudges. Everyone seems to think that Levin has many shortcomings, but they can't feel angry and disgusted with him, but they really like him.
Wealth, status, talent, beauty, elegance, self-cultivation, youth, speech and manners, these so-called advantages, Levin seems to be unable to find. However, the advantages of that aristocratic era and today's society have brought endless troubles to other aristocratic figures in the book. On the surface, the nobles described by the author are worthy of our envy in almost every aspect, but their misfortune is so real that people can hardly doubt it. Finally, they deeply understand the great misfortune of this class, which is probably the final expression that the author hopes to make by using the image of Levin.
Levin, sincere but not hypocritical, industrious but not greedy for pleasure, strong sense of morality but not blindly following religious beliefs, pursuing equality but not reaching aristocratic circles, being earnest and pragmatic but not self-belittling, being enthusiastic but not reaching interest requirements, being eager for knowledge but not blindly following authority, loving nature but being casual but hating urban life, being self-respecting and self-loving but not self-belittling, following inner emotional will but not following popular culture, longing for peace of mind and refusing superficial glitz of life, and having firm faith.
All his ordinary and ordinary advantages, together, show his wonderful and great. These seemingly useless advantages despised by contemporary elites and nobles can lead a truly happy life and perceive the full meaning of life. The so-called advantages of those successful, elegant, elite and powerful people are the endless troubles and injuries that capital culture has brought to this society and itself. The aristocratic class used to be like this. In today's capital society, the blind pursuit and short-sightedness of money, material things, enjoyment, status and power still lead to the moral decay, serious decline of happiness, deterioration of environment, indifference of interpersonal friendship and extravagance of the whole society.
The author of all these troubles, who wants to explain his life clearly.
Levin felt the fear of death and sense of belonging for the first time from the death of his brother Nicholas. Compared with the whole history, nature and universe, his short life is like a bubble. After a short existence, it will be shattered, leaving nothing and meaningless. A great sense of nothingness erodes Levin, and the only way to end this emptiness seems to be death. This made him unable to escape, and he tried to commit suicide several times. However, he didn't. He continued to live.
Materialist naturalism can't bring him any answers. On the contrary, it seems that philosophical explanation can only gain something from academic mutual criticism, but it still can't explain the meaning of life for him. Finally, he turned to the religion he had given up for help, which was proved to be nothing by the development of natural science, but at this moment it can highlight its significance more than any philosophical thought.
"Some people live to satisfy their own desires; Others live to obey the truth and do according to God's will in order to save their souls. "
"Living is not to satisfy the desire! People should not live for their own desires, not for what we understand, what we are obsessed with, what we yearn for, but for what we cannot understand, and for God who no one can understand or believe. "
"If I don't have this belief and don't know that I should live for God, not for my own desires, what kind of person would I be? How to spend your life? " "If he doesn't know why he is alive, no matter how hard he thinks, he still can't imagine what kind of beast he will become."
"Let's indulge our desires and thoughts and forget about God and the Creator. So what? Or what if you don't know what is good and what is moral evil? "
In religion, every doctrine may serve the truth, but not the personal desire.
God is love! Faith is "goodness"!
This belief calms the mind, and the happiness it brings can enrich one's life.
Believing in God and goodness is the only mission of mankind.
In human suffering, only love and faith can bring comfort.
"Forget yourself, forget your lover, you can feel at ease and be happy. Don't just stay in verbal praise, but devote yourself wholeheartedly to the new life in front of you. "
"In my life, no matter what happens, every minute will not be wasted like in the past, and I have the right to make it clear!"
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If the concept of time and space is helpful to you, please adopt it in time.
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