Anna Karenina (Oxford World's Classics)

Specifically reviewing the Rosamund Bartlett translation published by Oxford World Classics. It is a really solid translation. If you read a lot of Russian novels in English, you should branch out from Pevear/Volokhonsky and Garnett. This is one of the better alternatives and I have no regrets. A minor gripe to OUP that the Kindle edition has some typos (~10-12 instances of a small missing word, like prepositions; maybe artifacts of OCRing a print edition). As for the novel, it is truly great literature and I'm sorry I didn't read it sooner. If it weren't so long, it would make a great exemplar of how good the novel can do psychology for a college course. Maybe the way to assign it is as summer reading and it's the first thing you discuss in the fall.

Excellent hard cover copy, high quality paper and print. There are extensive notes at the back and a nice introduction by Bartlett (recommended to read after you finish the book since it might contain spoilers). I am writing this review after reading part 1. I like how this translation flows so seamlessly and is very engrossing. You always remain in the story and it never feels like you are reading a translation. I previously read the P&V penguin edition and I loved that as well. This one just pips it by a hair for its smoothness.

A solid hardback. Good translation.

I enjoyed this epic novel. It took me 2 months to read on my Kindle. I agree with other reviewers that Tolstoy perhaps should have given the book a different title (Ex. "Konstantine Levin," "Anna and Levin," or even "What Love Really Is") as the novel parallels the love stories of both Anna/Vronsky and Levin/Kitty. Tolstoy, however, knew what he was doing, as all master writers do. Anna Karenina is perhaps the most famous novel of all time. This novel is not a "love story" in the traditional sense because Tolstoy actually compares both couples. What constitutes true love between a man and a woman? Is passionate love really that big a deal at the end of the day? What keeps a couple together? Favorite characters: Levin, Kitty, Karenin, and Dolly. Why? Tolstoy fleshed out the humanity and inner journey of each of these characters well. The souls of these people grew as the novel progressed, and I marveled at their journeys toward forgiveness, growth, and self-acceptance. Their lives were never going to be perfect, but they did the best they could do - without intentionally hurting others. Through terrible trials, they became adults. I found Levin's (really Tolstoy's) search for God refreshing because it mirrors my own lifelong search for truth and meaning. Tolstoy and I were "soul mates! I also enjoyed the epic scenes of life in 1870s aristocratic Russia: the hunts, the Italy scenes, and German spa scenes, the election, and the upcoming war. Tolstoy explored the issues of the peasants and what it meant to be a landowner with honesty. What an epic read. My hat's off to you, Count Tolstoy!

This is a beautiful hardback version. Bought for my 17-year-old niece to help her build a library of the great classics. It’s a beautiful yet tragic story that also provides a wise cautionary tale about “following your heart”.

As a Russian speaking American I have rated every translation of the Russian classics into English. The worst is the Pevear duo- do not buy theirs! All their translations are dry, lifeless, boring, inaccurate and they have no clue as to the essence of the original. The Rosamund Bartlett Oxford one is the BEST and kudos to Rosamund Bartlett! She also wrote the excellent intro. I hope Oxford supports her further in doing other versions of the Russian classics!

I got this version for the translation. Anyone reading Russian literature is well served by researching the translations, which can change the reading experience. Regarding the novel, it’s Tolstoy, it’s great.

It took Tolstoy ten years to write this book and it is easy to see why; it is multilayered and exceedingly brilliantly written.. I found it easy reading, and will always remember this book. It would be hard to forget as Tolstoy was born a noble and was well educated, but did not prosper until he finished this first book, War and Peace, he wrote about the tiny bit of freedom women had in Tsarist Russia. Anna (Anya in Russian) was also a noblewoman who indiscreetly had an affair that wrecked her marriage and life with a high Government Official who made her pay by giving him ownership of her child of Count Vronsky. There were two plots and Anna and Levi met only once. Levi and Tolstoy came to the end believing that God, Christ and family were the most important parts of a human's life. He thought men should be the lead in a marriage. Both at the end of a long life decided it was NOT nobility or the well educated that were wisest but peasants, and those that worked the fields such as Cesar Chavez. (He would have loved Chavez). A great book, truly and as good if not better than Dickens-as he put more into it-all encompassing of human strife and those who were discreet in having an affair of the heart was the right way to 'carry on' with a man not the husband. There are many highly cited philosophical statements concerning Anna (Anya) as she was both smart and brought low in life, was as Hurricanes and waves-she had to live a diminished life with some mania due to her affair with Vronsky. I highly recommend this book to the over 18 year old unless they are precocious.

内容は言うまでもなく、英訳（Bartlett）も編集も、★5ですが、残念ながら造本で減点です。 800ページもの大冊なので、弁当箱のようなペーパーバックよりもハードカバーのほうが手に馴染むと考えて、あえて値段の高いほうを選びました。それはそれでよかったのですが、本文用紙に横目の紙が使われているため、違和感があってページがはなはだめくりにくい（2017年改訂版の第13刷）。 ボリュームの関係で束の出ない紙を使うのは当然としても、あえて横目の紙に印刷して薄い紙の腰の弱さを補おうとするのは、いささか邪道ではないでしょうか。電子書籍を選べってか？

Ever since I got my very first Anna Karenina when I was like 12 I've been trying to read it, 15 years later I finally caved and started to search for a better translation than the one I had which is still a slog to read. Ms Bartlett fixed that problem! a decade and a half of barely getting to the second page before desisting I flew thru the kindle sample of this edition (and I did downloaded all the ones in English and Spanish available from trusted editorial houses). I even ended up ordering the book cited on the introduction of this edition (Approaches to teaching Anna Karenina). The notes are wonderfully linked so you only click on the number and it takes you from the text to the note and back, all of them are put at the end of the book and can be easily read together if you choose to but the translations are place at the end of each chapter. My only qualm is that this translation is not available on a better physical editions than the famously rough ones Oxford University Press offers as Hard and Paperbacks. Edit regarding the Harback edition: I finally decided, a little over a year later, to get myself a physical copy but, unable to decide which one I bought both editions of the hardback: the blue with the fan on the cover and the one with the dust jacket (not to be confused with the paperback, which also has the same portrait on the cover) The exterior of the blue one is acceptable (ISBN 978-0-19-880053-8), is not as bad as I imagined but the printing on the cover does look as if it could be scrapped very easily. As for the inside, the paper is very thin, but, unlike the one used by Everymans Library, it feels cheap, almost like a newspaper. And due to the perfect binding it refuses to stay open when left alone. Honestly a little bit more could be expected from a 24.95 Usd harback. The portrait version (ISBN 978-0-19-923208-6) is, overall, a better option. This edition is bound in chocolate brown paper, has nothing on either the front or back but the text un the spine is embossed in copper, and honestly it looks like a huge chocolate bar. This one is printed in white paper, it has exactly the same layout as the blue edition (except for first few pages before the table of contents), it also has thin paper but this one feels of better quality. And It can stay open on its own despite also being glued. The only drawbacks I can find are that the white paper is extremely bright and that it is noticeably heavier than the blue edition. Still I choose the latter and now the blue version is going back

Bartlett’s translation is extremely faithful to Tolstoy’s original prose. She maintained the structure and rhythm of Russian without oversimplifying or modernising. She also avoided embellishing or over-interpreting the original text, and maintained the same simplicity and directness that is the hallmark of Tolstoy’s writing, especially in conversations and inner monologues. This is what those who know Russian have said about her translation. I don’t speak Russian. Hence I cannot attest to that. But having read four translations of AK (Garnett, Maude, P&V being the others), what I could definitely say is that besides being the most easy read, Bartlett’s translation has a great level of sophistication and nuance. It feels the most smooth and accessible among all translations I have read. It doesn’t appear too literal or too liberal, and maintains a balance between readability and fidelity (I can say this by comparing it with the P&V translation which is said to be word-by-word). Most importantly, it seems to have rendered Russian idiomatic expressions and cultural references in a way that is understandable in English without compromising the text. That is why it reads more like a modern mix of Garnett and Maude translation, but without the Victorian embellishments. Also, all the philosophy that Tolstoy inserted into this book is more palatable in Bartlett’s translation than in any other. Unless you are studying Russian, you are mostly a casual reader of Anna Karenina. This novel is really long and has longer sentences that meander for several lines with a lot of repeating phrases after every fourth word. So, pick a translation that is less confusing and easy to read. For an academic translation, Bartlett’s feels very simple, yet it is very elegantly written. You won’t regret choosing this one if you can afford it. Or else, Garnett or Maudes float freely online. This book is a hardcover from Oxford University Press. The text is printed in sufficiently large letters and used the most lovely fonts I have come across in a book. I like it so much.

Great translation (went for it after comparing the first chapter across translations), good size and not printed to small

The translation by Rosamund Bartlett is a masterpiece and makes reading this book a delight. So many translations are technically brilliant, but wooden, don't flow and do not connect with the original and the reader. AK was easy to read and thoroughly enjoyable unlike many Russian to English translations. She's in the same league as the Chandlers......