Unpopular Opinion: Anna Karenina is insufferable and Levin is a massive hypocrite.
Anna Karenina is not a romantic tragedy. Anna was a narcissist and Levin is an insufferable hypocrite.
Everyone markets Anna Karenina as the ultimate story of love and tragedy, but re-reading it makes the reality impossible to ignore:
Anna isn't a victim of society: She ruined her own life, her son's life, and Vronsky's life out of pure aristocratic boredom and egocentrism. Vronsky gave up his military career for her, yet she played the victim until the very end.
Levin is the ultimate spoiled heir: He spends the entire novel whining about existence, romanticizing peasant poverty (without ever giving away an acre of his own land), and using Kitty as a moral trophy to stroke his own ego.
Tolstoy's writing is top-tier, but romanticizing these two as "deep" or "tragic" ignores just how deeply selfish they both were.
Change my mind.