GMALL Lectures - Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" and the Meaning of Life

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 ธ.ค. 2024

ความคิดเห็น • 89

  • @mellomojared
    @mellomojared ปีที่แล้ว +16

    Wow. I could go hours listening to her lecture.

    • @tessalmosawl1810
      @tessalmosawl1810 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      And I really want more now. 😅

  • @closerlookbooks
    @closerlookbooks 2 ปีที่แล้ว +27

    What a great lecture. It is obvious that the professor has lived with the novel in a significant way.

  • @overgrindnico
    @overgrindnico 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    This is the most impactful review, analysis, lecture, or whatever you wanna call it that i’ve ever listened to! Ms Julie you have changed the way I think about books forever, Thank you!

  • @briantaylor8639
    @briantaylor8639 19 ชั่วโมงที่ผ่านมา

    Spectacular lecture. I am currently listening to the novel as an audiobook. Prof. Cassiday gave a first rate introduction to Anna Karenina in the space of hour

  • @janesmith506
    @janesmith506 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I just finished rereading AK after many years (the Pevear/Volokhonsky translation), and I feel that I understood it better now being older. Thank you to Prof. Cassiday for the enlightening lecture. I decided yesterday to immediately reread AK and make my own notes and follow up on all the footnotes in my translation. As the Professor said, context adds multiple dimensions to our understanding, and I’m grateful for her thought-provoking insights.

  • @antidepressant11
    @antidepressant11 3 ปีที่แล้ว +49

    The woman is worth listening to. She knows her stuff.

  • @Not-Impressed..1821
    @Not-Impressed..1821 3 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    This is the exact price of music I've been listening throughout my reading of Anna Karenina. The one at the beginning of this lecture.
    It made the experience so wholesome and deep.
    Tolstoy and Mozart. What a duo.

  • @chiutopian
    @chiutopian 2 ปีที่แล้ว +6

    The lecturer truly embraces Tolstoy’s novel. Great explanation.

  • @OmarTravelAdventures
    @OmarTravelAdventures 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    So amazing. Thank you TH-cam for making this possible and thank you GNAT!!!

  • @leahwoodworth3325
    @leahwoodworth3325 3 ปีที่แล้ว +18

    Oh my - well done, well done. On my third reading, and this wonderful lecture will enrich it so, particularly her explanation of the geographic settings and what Tolstoy was doing/saying with them.

  • @sseno4993
    @sseno4993 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Love love her knowledge ❤, I grew up in Russian culture and I’m glad to listening the analysis

  • @RossMcgowanMaths
    @RossMcgowanMaths 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Just finished this book. I have decided this will be the first book in my life that I will re-read. I have decided also that this re-read will be a deep dive with my own annotations (my first ever). I never even noticed - Vengence is mine ; I will repay. Looking forward to a deep dive. I will use whatever you tube videos I can find that will help me. Thank you for this.

  • @tingliz3438
    @tingliz3438 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Amazing explanation of the last section.

  • @rosad538
    @rosad538 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Wow, loved this lecture.
    Listening after watching one of the older movies on you tube.
    I always loved Russian History, being a Kiwi I haven’t been much exposed to it but will be sure to watch many more lectures by Julie.

  • @tommy7880
    @tommy7880 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    This was fantastic and great insight. Thank you!

  • @syedbukhari6578
    @syedbukhari6578 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    You make me want to reread it. Her suicide and the pages leading up to it were so gripping. Also, can’t believe I skipped over the subtle details Tolstoy inserted here and there.

  • @oxanasf6369
    @oxanasf6369 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I read it when I was 15, and I have the idea of reading it again with the expectation that I will discover a lot.

  • @1siddynickhead
    @1siddynickhead 3 ปีที่แล้ว +15

    This was so good!! Amazing lecturer

  • @BlackSailPass_GuitarCovers
    @BlackSailPass_GuitarCovers 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    1:03:45 This question was very depressing, as was her response that so many students ask the same thing. 'Why bother reading it?! We're so much more moral and advanced now...'

  • @claudeproust2051
    @claudeproust2051 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Its interesting to compare this novel with Middlemarch. Both novels cover the big social picture and the individuals within it, each one struggling. But in Middlemarch there's the authorial voice

  • @louisecalenda6705
    @louisecalenda6705 2 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Wonderful how you explained this novel thank you smart and educated woman aiam not educated as well as you but I have a very hi iou and love listening to educated people

  • @alhadraje7448
    @alhadraje7448 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Thanks for the lecture Prof.Cassidy. It helped me to understand the novel much better. I will search for your lectures on other books as well.

  • @PhoebeMyers-nj8lz
    @PhoebeMyers-nj8lz 6 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Absolutely fantastic lecture!

  • @tariqhanif7676
    @tariqhanif7676 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Excellent analysis.

  • @nettiejean1572
    @nettiejean1572 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Great lecture, loved the parallel with M. Bovary.

  • @quinnculver
    @quinnculver 3 ปีที่แล้ว +11

    Wonderful! Some questions:
    1. Which translation were you using & recommending?
    2. What do you think of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of _Anna Karenina_?
    3. What's the connection between the name, "Anna Karenina" and _Madame Bovary_? (You seemed to indicate such a connection)
    4. Do you have a recommended translation of _Madame Bovary_?
    Thanks so much!

    • @rajib17cmc
      @rajib17cmc 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

      Please don't mind me jumping in..... I'm an indian, so english is not my first language. I'm currently reading Anna Karenina (in the last part right now). I've read three translations in bits and parts.
      My ranking is
      1. Maude
      2. Rosamund Burlette
      3. Constance Garnett

    • @quinnculver
      @quinnculver 3 ปีที่แล้ว

      @@rajib17cmc Much appreciated!

  • @kolst8406
    @kolst8406 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Absolutely superb.

  • @walterbenjamin1386
    @walterbenjamin1386 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    I imagine the adultery genre emerged in the context of the new social freedom to choose one's own marriage partner - love marriages, as opposed to arranged marriages based on economics and family command. The rulers of European empires had intense love matches - Nicholas and Alexandra, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie, Victoria and Albert, for instance.
    Because of my failing eyesight, I'm in the midst of an audiobook version of Anna Karenina, narrated brilliantly by David Horovitch.
    Fantastic, thought compelling lecture. Thank you.

  • @JC-mm9tq
    @JC-mm9tq 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Excellent and interesting summary.

  • @sergiodemiranda
    @sergiodemiranda ปีที่แล้ว +1

    great lecture, thanks.

  • @carmeldelaney1086
    @carmeldelaney1086 11 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I am Reading this book right now.

  • @jackierabinowitz9287
    @jackierabinowitz9287 5 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great job. Thank you prof julie.

  • @Thusbelife
    @Thusbelife ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Thank you so so much for this video! Julie is amazing, she gives insights that help expand the meaning of this great novel. I wish I had Julie for a teacher growing up, how much better of a person would I now be?

  • @CJStew06
    @CJStew06 3 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    I'm on my first read and this is such amazing context to have-thank you!

  • @metalkokorea
    @metalkokorea 3 ปีที่แล้ว +16

    Levin, I love him

    • @alexneville8168
      @alexneville8168 3 ปีที่แล้ว +9

      Me too. Loved the scene where he gets jealous and freaks out on that dude.

  • @trish2642
    @trish2642 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Amazing, very enlightening thank you!

  • @zoewilliams971
    @zoewilliams971 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Great analysis!

  • @montymonto6430
    @montymonto6430 2 ปีที่แล้ว +7

    Anna Karenina is not a novel of "adultery". If it was it would not be such a great novel. Note that Madam Bovary would be by default the more important novel (it came first) compared to Anna Karenina if the theme of adultery were the most important characteristic of the latter novel. Yet Anna Karenina is by far the better novel. A better characterization would be to call it THE "psychological novel" as it probes the minds of main characters in an incredible way.
    This novel as the speaker said has two main parallel plots and yet 90% of the talk was about the first plot and this plot is not even the more interesting one. The Levin plot is more interesting and shows the genius of Tolstoy when he can describe a happy life and yet make it interesting.

  • @lilyformato4792
    @lilyformato4792 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Amazing lecture, ate up every minute

  • @ryanand154
    @ryanand154 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    I read this novel on a train. Fell asleep and woke up reading a Gogol story.

  • @dwainseppala4469
    @dwainseppala4469 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Seeing that it costs around $82K to attend Williams College, I became ever more attentive to Professor Cassiday’s synopsis. Now more than ever committed to self-education, thank goodness for Abe Lincoln as a successful role model, I am currently taking copious notes during my reading of AK. Tolstoy using so many characters is one challenge. I tried, but failed to keep a list of all the characters, some of them being inconsequential. Still, I’d like to see a list, with references to where each was introduced. Has anyone a link to such a list?

  • @dlargent
    @dlargent 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Thank you, I loved this!

  • @taxingtime
    @taxingtime 2 ปีที่แล้ว

    Fantastic explanation from this presenter

  • @jackatherton0111
    @jackatherton0111 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    So insightful, particularly regarding the epigraph ( not included in my Constance Garnett translation). But is it odd, even in a short lecture, that there’s little or no mention of Anna being a mother? This certainly seems important to Tolstoy. And parenthood as well as brotherhood are crucial for Levin.

    • @janesmith506
      @janesmith506 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Yes, Anna’s ideals of motherhood are in striking contrast to her lived experience. And her husband’s experiences of fatherhood are also intriguing. Thanks for mentioning this.

  • @jesuisravi
    @jesuisravi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    good lecturer

  • @fraditoto
    @fraditoto ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Anyone has a recommandation on which version of the book to buy ? Like a good version for the translation, the print size so its readable and not too small, etc?

    • @janesmith506
      @janesmith506 10 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I just finished the Pevear/Volokkhonsky translation. I loved it and felt I was truly reading what Tolstoy wrote.

  • @carmeldelaney1086
    @carmeldelaney1086 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great lecture!

  • @lenircotia
    @lenircotia 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    For how long was Levin gone from the moment he was rejected by Kitty until he returned to Kitty and asked her for her love a second time?

  • @christianduran7138
    @christianduran7138 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    Why do you think that Tolstoy named the book Anna Karenina rather than Konstantin Levin?

  • @kienster777
    @kienster777 ปีที่แล้ว

    Does anyone know which edition/publication is being used during this lecture?

  • @rinda33x
    @rinda33x ปีที่แล้ว

    It's really an intense book that causes the reader to think and feel very deeply.

  • @jesuisravi
    @jesuisravi 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    I read this long ago...but I don't recall that Vronsky was a "ne'er do well".

  • @nargizamavlyankulova91
    @nargizamavlyankulova91 ปีที่แล้ว

    Omg what a beautiful analysis ❤ I am watching it twice ❤

  • @egoattaa
    @egoattaa ปีที่แล้ว

    great lecture

  • @BrunoTavora
    @BrunoTavora ปีที่แล้ว

    Great class!

  • @aizac.1979
    @aizac.1979 ปีที่แล้ว

    I love this lecturer! Can I take your class 😊??? Also like your biblical references.

  • @metalkokorea
    @metalkokorea 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Now I am reading the book.
    very similar to the novel "Madam Bovary".

    • @alexneville8168
      @alexneville8168 3 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      It is in some ways. The biggest contrast for me in reading both books was my feeling toward the main characters. I felt bad for Anna and was disgusted by Emma.

  • @jmurray212
    @jmurray212 3 ปีที่แล้ว +5

    Regarding movies of Aииa - there is a recent Яussiaи mini series ‘Vronsky’s Story’. Thirty years afterwards he is wounded (Russo-Japanese War) and his doctor is Seryozia, Anna’s son. Told in flashback, it is opulent, convincing, complete with Anna’s willful curls. It is in Russian with subtitles. Simple to rewind if you miss anything.
    None of the parallel Levin story, since Vronsky meets him maybe twice; and a very simpatico Dolly.

    • @nettiejean1572
      @nettiejean1572 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

      There is an Australian series of AK, the. Beautiful Lie, set in modern times, that includes Levin’s story. The Russian series seems to be based on two books, according to the end credits, but an interesting twist taking it from Vronsky’s viewpoint.

  • @emilerhard4189
    @emilerhard4189 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great story indeed

  • @stephencharlton2024
    @stephencharlton2024 3 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    excellent, thank you

  • @TheWhitehiker
    @TheWhitehiker 2 ปีที่แล้ว +1

    Off to a slow start, but hang in there, she gets better, c. 10.00.

  • @veronikavart9651
    @veronikavart9651 ปีที่แล้ว

    спасибо.

  • @marce5b
    @marce5b ปีที่แล้ว

    Great video but the spoilers ruined my reading 😞

    • @almeida5823
      @almeida5823 ปีที่แล้ว

      As If the book was Just release kkkkk
      Its a talk about the book for christ' Sales kkkk

  • @montymonto6430
    @montymonto6430 2 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    You don't have to try hard to imagine what Tolstoy would be like if he lived today (latter part of video). He would be Chomsky.

  • @deanazcoolzi4382
    @deanazcoolzi4382 3 ปีที่แล้ว

    Very stubble technique and well explained

  • @golflover65
    @golflover65 ปีที่แล้ว

    😮❤

  • @andr0meda_rising598
    @andr0meda_rising598 2 ปีที่แล้ว +4

    Hi 👋 This is the most interesting explanation of this book I’ve listened to! A friend recommended this book and as I read I found that I was much more interested in the people who could see this book as “groundbreaking” and a “masterpiece” than the story itself, which I found silly, contrived, cliche and Tolstoy’s attempt at describing the inner thoughts of women ridiculous and shallow and pretty corny. There’s a LOT of videos giving this story meaning, though this one gave me the best understanding of the Russian history and the times Tolstoy lived in. Great job 👏 thank you 😊

    • @TheWhitehiker
      @TheWhitehiker 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

      Disagree--like Shakespeare, T has a profound understanding of women.

    • @tessalmosawl1810
      @tessalmosawl1810 8 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      This is exactly my experience with it as well 🙈

  • @karelvorster7414
    @karelvorster7414 ปีที่แล้ว +2

    If Tolstoy's novel bore its true title, my guess is that hardly anyone would care to read it. Anna Karenina is nothing more than a marketing ploy, a literary teaser for an age that cannot get enough of tales involving tragic females. Anna is a secondary character, one Tolstoy does not even bother to describe fully. This book should be called "Constantin Levin", with the subtitle "The Inner Struggles of a Neurotic Russian Gentleman Farmer". Note that, while we are told of Constantin's every thought, emotion and action in excruciating detail, we know almost nothing about Anna's past. Her life with count Vronsky, her lover, surfaces throughout the book only in disconnected fragments; why she falls in love with a man who is like hundreds of other handsome but frivolous Russian officers remains a mystery; her sudden transformation from a compassionate woman who helps reconcile her sister-in-law with her unfaithful husband into a vindictive adulteress is equally puzzling---and quite unbelievable.
    Anna is not even an interesting character. Leaving aside the fact that her decisions are presented by Tolstoy not as personal choices, but as the result of an evil external influence (the Devil?),which by itself should raise a huge red flag for any reader, how can one deny that she is a very common type? Anna is a pathologically selfish, jealous and vengeful creature constantly preoccupied with her power over men. She confuses love with her capacity to attract the other sex exclusively through her feminine charms. Hence her refusal to have children or to get married. In either case, she would no longer be loved for herself (meaning her physical beauty).
    Anna is nothing more than a foil for the relatively happy love affair and married life of Levin, a young dour Russian aristocrat who lives in the countryside---and the real hero of the book. Apparently, Constantin Levin is just a literary reflection of Tolstoy himself. Tolstoy uses him to describe his own moral struggles, struggles we don't care about because Levin, who is clearly a reincarnation of the bumbling Pierre Bezukhov, is such an infuriating fool, such an unlikable character to begin with.Tolstoy also uses this eternal adolescent to drag us not only into hunting parties that stretch through several chapters (Tolstoy hated war but loved hunting!) but also endless conversations about such riveting topics as farm management and administrative decentralization in late nineteenth-century Russia. Tolstoy cannot refrain from mixing genres: he wants to be a novelist, but also a philosopher and a polemicist. And he doesn't use symbolism or the plot to convey his ideas, which is what good writers such as Thomas Hardy do.When it comes to his pet ideas, Tolstoy has no use for subtlety. He just has his puppet characters utter his ideas or those of his opponents directly:welcome to humorless and charmless Platonic dialogues on Russian politics and agriculture! One cannot escape the feeling that Tolstoy writes not so much for others, as for himself, to convince himself of the truth of his latest mystic creed or political fancy, duly conveyed to him by a guileless Russian peasant.
    So forget the hype peddled by self-proclaimed specialists. Above all, don't even dream that the book is a kind of feminist manifesto. It is quite the opposite: Anna Karenina is an unapologetic plea for family and traditional morality. Frankly, if you want to read a fine novel written in beautiful prose (Tolstoy's writes the dullest prose in the world) about an unhappy woman and the social injustice to women, forget Anna and turn to Tess d'Urberville. If you want to read a delightful novel on Russia, grab A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Thin on content, but what a relief after the preachy Tolstoy!

  • @JustinPavoni
    @JustinPavoni 2 ปีที่แล้ว +8

    Good discussion until she starts concluding (incorrectly) that Tolstoy’s conclusion is that you should abandon reason and live by faith. The truth is quite the opposite and if you read Tolstoy’s greatest works (all non-fiction) you will find this to be true and you will understand his novels and the moral message perfectly. READ “What I Believe” by Leo Tolstoy. READ “The Gospel In Brief” by Leo Tolstoy. This man was one of the few REAL disciples of Christ on the planet and only after about 60 years of age did he figure it out completely. What he left for the rest of us (the puzzle he put together from scattered pieces of diamonds and trash all mixed together) is the real teaching of Jesus Christ untangled from all of the mythology of this religion or that religion (Orthodoxy) - a real understanding of the great man from Nazareth and what it really means to follow his teaching and his example. This is the only “rational” thing to do according to Tolstoy as it is the only way to REAL life. All other roads lead to death (which is counter to reason).
    Also to call Tolstoy a sexist is absurd and ignorant of what the man believed and what he did as a consequence of his beliefs. This novel is not a book about adultery it is (like ALL of Tolstoy’s books) about how to behave morally (always centered around one of Christ’s five commandments outlined in “What I Believe.” Lastly, anarchism to Tolstoy meant “no rulers” not “chaos” (such as Antifa which she mentioned would suggest). This is also the only position compatible with Christ’s real teaching. Accordingly Tolstoy’s position, on everything, would remain completely unchanged because he drilled down the the one fundamental law (the axiomatic cornerstone) of the universe which is completely unchanging throughout time and space.

    • @Michael-nt5rp
      @Michael-nt5rp 8 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Interesting take. Thanks.

  • @dwainseppala4469
    @dwainseppala4469 10 หลายเดือนก่อน

    While describing Tolstoy as a sexist, it seems that Julie agrees with sexism. Julie, you assert that Anna gave up on those powers that you claim for women, in contrast to men’s less intuitive powers, per Levin. Are you speaking for Tolstoy, or for yourself? Does this claim not in turn grant you as well, the title of sexist, Julie? You have a bias, just as Tolstoy has a bias. Extrapolating, we are all sexist. Is it a matter of degree, depending upon our acting in fairness to others? Should we, in our individual genders, remain true to our strengths? There are strong, not so subtle, differences in women versus men, no matter how the woke strive to deny it.

  • @deannachapman5411
    @deannachapman5411 9 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Great lecture except where this lecturer really doesn't know who Tolstoy is, nor has she any real understanding who God is.
    Of course those two features are inséparably relevant to this work.

  • @marymcmullen5150
    @marymcmullen5150 2 ปีที่แล้ว +3

    Sorry didn't like this lecture but then again I don't like readers. They are simply too passive. Personally what Tolstoy writes of is nothing new to me. He was writing about his own life and his perception of the world he lived in. However I can appreciate his writing which can be a guidance to some people.

  • @sionnalynch9543
    @sionnalynch9543 11 หลายเดือนก่อน

    wonderful lecture