to be gutted that my DH has just told me the ending of Anna Karenina, 30 pages in...

[Somethingwicked]

Feeling so miserable about it that I have had to retire from the ironing and hide away upstairs. Am I really hormonal or would you be upset too?
I hate knowing the ending of books and have been looking forward to reading this for years, we are doing it in my book group and was enthusing about it to him when he said 'By the way, you know that at the end she......'.

Recently finished Anna Karenina and I'm glad I'd forgotten the ending as it was all the more dramatic. But keep reading: the psychology of character - especially the passages where Anna agonises over her relationship with Vronsky- is riveting.

YANBU. I am disproportionately precious over not having endings ruined for me and had a similar experience regarding another famous book with a similar ending! I was furious. Don't let it ruin it for you though - it's such a good book. Think of it as a Greek tragedy where the ending is inevitable and you just have to wait and see how it unfolds.

Is it " they all die"?

I don't even know what the book is about but it sounds like it might end that way.

I knew the ending and the gist of the book, but I've never read it.

I've started it several times but always grind to a half about half way in

Sorry, posted too soon. Meant to add

YANBU, I hate it when anyone tells me the end of things before I've read/watched them

I know!! If everyone makes up an ending you might forget which is the real one.
Anna Karenina ends when the Lizard King eats her brain and she joins the army of the Lizard People.

Oh OP I know exactly how you feel that is SO maddening and you can't very well un-know it so all along you expect it. Still worth reading AK though.

MrsTerryPratchett that T shirt is inspired!

I would have been upset too! I read Anna Karenina earlier this year (just before I read Fifty Shades- I'm a bit of a book tart!!)

boggles

Hmmmm it is a bit of a classic, is it possible to spoil the ending?

Hmmmm it is a bit of a classic, is it possible to spoil the ending?

I read the book earlier this year - took bloomin ages, but I loved it. I would say he hasn't ruined it too much - though I completely understand you being upset with him - but this book is more about the journey than the destination if that makes sense.

See, if it were my DP I'd be thanking him- I don't do anything less than a happy ending. Real life is too depressing, I don't need to read about that shit for "fun" as well. Especially when I've emotionally invested in a character and then they cop it or get betrayed or something. So naturally I've read all the Austens, but my knowledge of Hardy is less than extensive (except Far From The Madding Crowd- Gabriel Oak = Dream Man).

I need to up my dose of ADs to cope with Hardy. Tess traumatised most of the girls in my English class at school. The fear of an unwanted pregnancy after that.

Thanks so much everyone, much cheered by all comments- and by Jewish Mother of Year, which has successfully dissolved all my wrath through laughing. Will carry on with book with journey rather than destination in mind.

I thought it was common knowledge too. But there you go!

It's still worth reading and a great book, but it does test your commitment in remembering who exactly is related to whom and how! Or at least it did mine!

Read War and Peace or Resurrection instead. I found Anna Karenina very annoying. Possibly I read it too young (was always keen on picking the fattest books when I was a teenager) and hadn't actually had any relationships at the time.

I woudl be hopping mad at dh if he did that to me though.

It wouldn't have occured to me that it was possible to "spoiler" AK!
Would you not read other classics just because you already know the ending?

Do you never read a book that you have seen as a film?

Don't worry - the story is the journey of how she gets there (and how Kitty, for example, has a different ending), not what actually happens to her in the end.

I re-read it recently, not remembering anything apart from Levin making hay and Anna's final ending, and I was really taken aback by the number of things that happen to Anna - in my memory, it was something along the line of 'Anna does something wrong and then XXX happens'. Instead, there's absolutely loads and loads of story.

Bastarding Richard and Judy totally ruined The Historian for me [angry ] I had just bought it the day before then farking Richard spilled the beans! Totally spoiled it and it sits unread on the shelf DH knows better than to tell me the ending or twist to a book

One recommendation.

Do not watch the Keira knightly film.

By the end of the film you are willing her to ................... (left blank for the sake of anyone that doesn't know)

It's beautifully done. And there are some fabulous characterisations. Just not Anna or Vronsky, sadly.

I've recently re-read this. With my bitter old gump spectacles on. AK is just... an appalling woman. If Tolstoy wanted to examine what happens if you get the balance wrong between self-fulfillment and the constraints of the society you live in, he could have made her a little more likeable.

What a big meanie. Is he usually so tactless? He only needed to think for a second to put his comment a different way and just check you're up for some gloom (which really can't be a surprise with a Russian novel). Perhaps he needs to learn some tactics to avoid pissing off / upsetting people regularly. Essentially, thinking for a moment about the other person, not just 'telling people stuff he knows', which a lot of people don't seem to be able to resist doing.

I must admit I knew the outline of AK, Jane Eyre and Frankenstein without having read them, as there are so many films, tv and radio adaptations and elements are commonly discussed, they are hard to avoid. I've still gained a lot from reading or seeing films and found there were gaps in my awareness, which often included the really interesting 'how' bits (and with Jane Eyre I knew the story but not the ending, so was genuinely on tenterhooks when, in the recent film, she walked into the cemetery...).

But, on the bright side, you still have pages if Levin's pontifications on agricultural policy to go! (I really enjoyed those bits!)

I recently re-read it and probably enjoyed it more second time round. I think the title is wrong, the book is not all about Anna, it's about a group of characters. Some people and storylines have happy endings, others don't. Some are in between.

Now I'm inspired to go and re-read War and Peace, I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Tolstoy as a teenager. But I have to say I did skip some of the Levin making hay, Levin & co going hunting (for 10 chapters), and the sections with various people taking part in seemingly random local elections.

I would have been furious! My DH has learnt this the hard way and will now check even before reading the back of dvd case out loud.

Hopefully you will just get into the story and forget about what you're expecting to happen. I did that reading Wicked. Pretty certain that EVERYONE knows the ending for the Wizard of Oz, but I'd gotten so wrapped up I'd completely forgotten, came as a bit of a shock. [hgrin]

I always read the last page of a book first. Then I can relax and enjoy the story. Strange I know!