Anna Karenina

Happy families are all alike, the opener admits its thesis is the lie.

She read on the train and stepped off the page. The ending found her before she found peace.

Levin mowing with the peasants, the only scenes in the book where anyone breathes.

Vronsky got everything he wanted and it curdled on schedule.

Kitty's humility arc beat Anna's romance arc. Tolstoy knew which story was the spine.

Society forgave the man instantly and hunted the woman for sport. 1877, fresh as this morning.

The horse race, Vronsky breaks the mare's back trying to look effortless. Read it as career advice.

Stiva shrugs, Anna drowns. Same sin, different lighting.

Eight hundred pages and the lamp scene still stings most.

I carried this out of it: love costs. Pay attention or pay everything.