Leo Tolstoy’s ‘Anna Karenina’ is a brick on the Russian upper circles marriage affairs and love lives. The titular protagonist Anna is really not a person to root for in these matters however, she is an adulteress with no care for her husband who she frames as the wrong one regarding child custodies and divorce, when in reality she leaves him for Vronsky very early in the book and doesn’t seem to see anything through his eyes or have any remorse. The book also follows the relationships of two other couples quite closely and I have seen a few reviews claiming the book could’ve been titled ‘Konstantin Levin’ rather than ‘Anna Karenina’ as he plays a larger role and honestly I agree. 

This book really wasn’t my sort of thing, it was worse than ‘War and Peace’ (which I didn’t enjoy either) as it was very similar but just without some interesting war parts. It was quite Austenian in plot and style as there is a lot of upper class marriage gossip and very little happening. It also had dragged out scenes (the lawn mowing scene was highlighted to me) that equate to the infamous Paris sewers scene of 'Les Miserables' but such really don't bother me and I didn't mind in either book. The ending wasn’t bad, also serving as more backing to the ‘Levin’ title claim, and saved it a little, but ultimately the first 33 hours of the audiobook were largely uneventful. It does however get Wanda Mccaddon points because she is a brilliant narrator.