unputdownables.net组织了一个read-a-long系列,重点开展长篇大部头的集体阅读活动。这个主意真不错。我很少有机会参加真人面对面的书友会,但是一直觉得和一组人一起读书比一个人读更有意思!
上一次看托尔斯泰的书还是大概10年前,经RS推荐看的伊凡伊里奇之死。这本书我一直想找时间再看一遍,觉得现在看应该有更新的感受。再上一次就是中学了,看了战争与和平,这本书和《复活》记得是在手里拿过,看没看完就不记得了。这次看完这本书才意识到,中学时肯定没看完,不然好多东西是不可能不记得的。大概10年前还看过一个好莱坞版的电影,居然对情节完全没有印象,感觉书里的很多东西不可能靠电影表达的。如果有前苏联版的,我倒是很想看看。《战争与和平》20年前看过半截前苏联5小时版的,对没看完的部分一直念念不忘。后来看了好莱坞版的(还是哪个著名女星演的来着),觉得完全不是那么回事。
一直很想重新拿起这本书,但是总排不到日程上,所以很感谢read-a-long选了这本书。印象中我喜欢的几个中国作家都很推崇旧俄小说。小时候看俄国小说总觉得美则美矣,但没有法国小说那么激动人心。这几年常常想,也许在现在这个年龄,可以对俄国小说理解得好一点了吧?
这次看安娜卡列尼娜,总体感受就是,托尔斯泰太伟大了。以前看到几个中国作家评价旧俄小说,说它们有“悲天悯人”的情怀,这次也有了更深的理解。其实这本书里的人物没有我特别喜欢的,但是还是觉得书里有很多非常动人的情节。而且托尔斯泰在书里渗透了他对生、死、宗教、社会发展的独到见解,很多东西都是值得多看几遍的。
书友会其他人读的是英文版。英文版有至少两个版本,kindle免费发的那个版本据说远不如另外一个版本。我读的是草婴的中文译本。选中文译本一来是因为草婴和许多老一代中国翻译家一样,翻译作品是十年一剑的苦功,这样在翻译上下工夫的国外翻译家恐怕不多,现在中国大概也没有了。二来是因为一直觉得对于俄罗斯情怀,中国人比西方人更容易有共鸣。就象朱伟在《关于品质》里说的,西方乐团演奏俄罗斯音乐,感觉总比苏联乐团的版本少了点什么,少的可能是对民族苦难的理解。另外,选择中译本,也是因为中文读起来当然比英文省力了:-D 后来在阅读的过程中更加体会到,排除母语因素,所有的书中文版体积都要比英文版小好多,这里又对中文的表现力沾沾自喜了一下。记忆中安娜至多算中等体积的书。但是书友会里很多人不约而同地提到这本书有多么长多么intimidating,我还想,这本书在经典长篇里都不算长的啊。后来想到,英文版大概是比中文版显长多了。另外,或许现代人面对的各种distraction太多了,所以对长篇书籍的耐受力普遍下降了。
参加书友会,除了有伴热闹以外,一个好处是可以有动力随时把对章节的感受写下来。下面的笔记大部分是在书友会随手写下的讨论内容。
1. One thing I like about Tolstoy’s books and some other classic literature is that the authors focus on daily life, and with time being, we can “discover” characters in our lives who are similar to the book characters in one way or another 
I think a big part of fun of this book club is it feels as if we gossip about all these people’s relationship without feeling guilty about it because they are not in our real life!
Quote – I don’t remember the exact words, but I like what Kitty’s father said about Varenka’s adopted mother, it’s more authentic charity when one does good thing without letting the whole world know about it. I guess Tolstoy must have created some of these figures based on people he had met or known!
4. I like Stiva. I don’t like many of his behaviors, and I feel he is not a noble person, and not true to either his family or himself. He is very irresponsible. But after all, he is a pleasant person and treat his friends well. I think he can be a good friend, as long as you don’t marry your daughter to him or leave him with critical decisions :-p I feel he is a good person in nature and knows arts of enjoying life! On the other hand, he is weak, ignorant in many ways and not a loyal person. I would blame the society for these and still somewhat like Stiva.
5. Levin – I think I know people who are somewhat like him. So far the only thing I’ve found somewhat “untrue” from Tolstoy’s narration is, I just don’t believe Kitty could love him at her current age. I feel Levin represents the type of men I wasn’t interested in at all during my college time, but respect a lot now.
6. 很喜欢书里表现出的一些传统俄罗斯(上层阶级)生活,虽然这不是书的核心内容。比如很多家庭每个星期划出一两天作为专门的待客日,供人串门拜访用。书里后来也提到有时候为了礼节拜访来拜访去是很烦人的。估计我要是生活在那个时代也会嫌烦。但是对照我们现在的时代,那种经常串门开趴踢的闲适生活也是有令人向往之处的。后来章节提到的老式俱乐部,虽然作者是把它当一种腐朽生活来写的,但是我觉得它也很迷人,连刻板的列文同学都暂时给迷住了。
7. To me the stories in the book feels very true. I can easily imagine they really happened. Besides, one thing I like very much about a lot of classic literature is their universality. Even when the stories are about a different place at a different time, I could see many similar stories happen again and again everywhere, and a lot of the details can be found in real life.
I am the kind of person who is never interested in sci fi, just because they “are not real” (and I got laughed at by friends on this). I have to feel it “real” to enjoy a book or a movie 
8. About the women in the book – it’s clearly unfair that men were proud of having affairs while women were condemned for it (even in modern society, similar patterns can be noticed from time to time!) But on the other hand, I am impressed that at that time in Russia, women (at least those in upper society) had strong property rights.
9. I think Kitty is lucky to be hurt by Vronsky first and gets mature afterwards. Anna is very unlucky having not experienced mad love (I assume) at a younger age and then messing up with Vronsky at an age when it’s much harder, if possible at all (at that time of Russia), for her to get out of it.
10. I think I somewhat like Vronsky too! I can see his weaknesses, probably just because I am a reader and the author already exposed them. But in real life, I may not be that critical on him. I don’t want to mess up with a guy like this, but if I choose one to just hang out and have some interesting conversations, among all the men in this book so far, Vronsky would be in top 3. Levin, I would either like him very much or can’t put up with him at all 
Besides, the education I received in my childhood was all black and white for everything. For example, Anna was deemed as a typical rebel of the old, devil society and was “good”. Vronsky was deemed as a typical representative of men-dominated, old, devil society, and was “bad”. All book characters were either seen as “good” or “bad”. Now when I read this book again, I think Vronsky is not very good, but was actually by far not as bad as he was depicted in my childhood education. So now I’ve got a lot of sympathy with him 
Also I want to add that what Vronsky has done so far for Anna is already way better than what most other men from that society would do for a woman they love. So I think Vronsky deserves some credits too 
补充一下,越看到后来越多同情伏伦斯基一些。在我自己内心给伏伦斯基平反也是这次看这本书最深刻的印象之一。感觉小时候看的一些书评里对伏伦斯基的控诉很不公平啊。
11. I think I am a very practical person. It was when I reached this part (安娜向卡列宁摊牌)that I started to think a big part of Anna’s dilemma was because she didn’t seem to have a lot of money. Dolly has her own properties, so when she was mad at Stiva, Stiva felt it was “inconvenient” for him to sell his wife’s property. So Dolly’s properties somewhat helped secure her status in her family. Vronsky’s mother had a lot of money, and that’s how she could live her “slutty” life which was not respected but probably much enjoyable for her than any other way. But Anna had to rely on her husband to pay her bills. Vronsky was rich, but not super rich. If Anna had a lot of money, in the worst scenario she could choose to live like Vronsky’s mother. If Vronsky had much more money, probably his “career” wouldn’t be that important to him, or he could even “buy” a career. So I think money, although not the central problem, is a big problem.
12. I like Levin’s dreamy, ecstasy feelings before and on the day of his wedding. I think it’s really beautiful. It’s one of the best precious moments in one’s life and doesn’t happen a lot!
I also like what Kitty thinks about Levin’s view of religion, the paradox that Levin didn’t think he was religious, yet wished he was, yet Kitty thought he was more truly religious than many other explicitly religious people. I guess this is probably one of the things by which Tolstoy used Levin to express himself or his own exploration of religion. I have quite a few friends who are similar to Levin in their attitude toward religion. They aren’t exactly religious, but are still very serious about spiritual life.
13. Nicolay’s death and how Kitty took care of him is one of my favorite parts of this book! I think Tolstoy must have spent significant time studying death (his other book The Death of Ivan Ilyich is very powerful too!). I like what Levin observes that intelligent people (such as himself and many other men) don’t know as much about how to treat death as sensitive women (such as Levin’s old servant and Kitty). Women seem to have an inherent talent on this. This observation also makes me think that modern people, with more than ever knowledge and technology, are often much less wise than people in traditional societies on how to die well.
14. About Lydia, I somewhat feel she is one of the people Tolstoy dislike the most, although Tolstoy seemed to have compassion on most characters in his book. 另外感觉托尔斯泰的总体风格是很厚道的那种。换成毛姆遇到李迪雅夫人这种人,一定会大损特损令人忍俊不止的。
15. In this part(陶丽在乡下探望安娜), I started to feel that Dolly is my favorite person in this book so far! She is very kind and down to earth, and is a worthy friend!
16. In this part, I feel Anna is more and more becoming the kind of woman who would surely lose her lover eventually. It’s very sad. But it’s also somewhat complicated. In modern society, there are many insecure women too and sometimes that’s exactly why they lose their love. But on the other hand, it’s hard to say whether they lose their love because they feel insecure, or they feel insecure because they haven’t got enough support of secured love in their life.
17. I love the child birth part! It’s as great as the episode of Nicolai’s death. I love Tolstoy’s discussion on life, death and religion! These sections make me think this book is worth reading again and again!
I also love it that Tolstoy writes with calm senses and didn’t try to romanticize things.
18. I also like the contrast of the country side, Moscow, and St. Petersburg. After struggling with some traffic generated by holiday shopping crowds, now I have so much more appreciation of our small town life. For my holiday traveling, I am going to Toronto, and then Beijing. I’ve found myself nervously picking “nice” clothes for family gatherings, restaurants, bars and events. I just don’t care that much about clothing in our small town with my lovely geeky and nerdy friends. But I know when you “go out”, some people would treat you differently based on your outfits! Now I feel for Levin about drifting from rural life to Moscow life 