/lit/ - Literature

Please tell me the P&V copy of Anna Karenina is good. I got it as a gift but I usually refuse to read anything translated by those two hack frauds. Should I go out and get the Maude version instead or am I fine with pic rel? General consensus pls

When does it get good?

About to start this what am I in for?

How do I write my prose like Tolstoy?

Holy fuck they're all emotional wrecks. Are Russians really this emotional and highly strung?

>>19256654
I have no problems with it, but I have nothing to compare it to. My main problem with it is the cover makes it look like I'm reading a book for lonely middle aged women.

got the ending of anna karenina spoiled for me. should I still read it? was it bad anyway?

>>18379612
That cover is way better than the painfully generic Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition.

cheated on my gf after 5 years of relationship, still don't know how to feel about it

Was I supposed to feel bad for Anna through any of that?

Well, I've just finished part 4 and think I got all I could from it. Her husband forgives, Levin gets to live a good and faithful life and she learns nothing from the experience. I guess it's all about the power of forgiveness and how to live a fullfiling life in God.
Tolstoy is indeed a great writer, the imagery he can convey is brilliant, but I got fed up from the all of the characters. Maybe that was the point, to paint a portrait of the decaying Russian aristocracy, I don't know. There was some discussion regarding the social changes that were happening over Russia at the time, and those were nice - specially the ones about farming.
It's impossible not to compare Tolstoy and Dostoyevski, and I get the feeling that Tolstoy writes on the vertical and Dosto on the horizontal. While one can write people from all social classes and different backgrounds, the other goes deep into the consciousness of a limited cast.
What did you get from the book?

>200 pages of farming.
Were people so bored in the 1800s that this shit was seen as entertaining?

>200 pages about farming.
Uh, why is this shit considered a classic?

>200 pages about farming.
Ah, now THAT'S literature

I'm new to literature and starting the longest book I'll have ever read, Anna Karenina, because /lit/ told me to. Is the Pevear & Volokhonsky translation, the one in this penguin deluxe paperback (pic related) the right one to go with? What are some things to pay attention to or think about as a first timer in Russian lit?

Is anna karenina a good book to gift to a female friend? I don't want to give it to her and have it be a total flop.

>>11488238
The cover makes it look like Twilight-tier shite tho

best translation/edition of anna karenina?