“Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

TOLSTOY’S FAMOUS LINE ABOUT FAMILIES: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”        Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)        Russian novelist, playwright and essayist        The first line of Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina (1878)        This sentence—one of the most famous opening lines in literature—is also sometimes translated as “All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”        The character Anna Karenina is an aristocratic Russian woman who leaves her husband for a rich count named Alexei Vronsky. Their affair has tragic consequences for Anna. In a contrasting subplot, a country landowner named Konstantin Levin finds happiness in his marriage to Kitty, the sister-in-law of Anna’s brother.        Tolstoy wrote Anna Karenina during a period when his own life with his long-suffering wife Sophia (who he nicknamed Sonya) was becoming increasingly unhappy for both of them. The story was initially published in installments in the journal Russkii Vestrik (The Russian Herald, a.k.a. The Russian Messenger) from January 1875 to April 1877. The first complete book version, in Russian, was published in 1878. The first English translation was published in 1918. Since then, Anna Karenina has often been cited as one of the greatest novels of all time, though some modern readers find it a bit boring (in its own classic way).         Nearly twenty film and TV adaptations of the novel have been made. Actresses who have played Anna Karenina in those adaptations include Great Garbo, Vivien Leigh, Nicola Paget, Jacqueline Bissett, Sophie Marceau, Helen McCrory and Keira Knightley.        I'm hoping Carol Peletier from The Walking Dead TV series will play Anna in the zombie adaptation, which is bound to come sooner or later.

NABAKOV'S COUNTERQUOTE: “All happy families are more or less dissimilar; all unhappy ones are more or less alike.”        Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)        Russian-born American novelist and entomologist         His response to Tolstoy’s famous line in the novel Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle (1969)

FULFORD’S COUNTERQUOTE: “It may be the silliest damn sentence ever set down by a great author, Leo Tolstoy’s opening of Anna Karenina...He got things backwards. Experience and literature both demonstrate that happy families come in all shapes and sizes, but the burdens of unhappy families (emotional indifference, poverty, alcoholism, irresponsibility) are painfully predictable.”        Robert Fulford        Canadian journalist, broadcaster and editor        Comment in his weekly column for The National Post, August 2, 2005

THE STARVING ARTISTS PRINCIPLE: “To paraphrase Tolstoy, happy musicians are all the same. For the Taylor Swifts of this world, life is one big frosted cupcake. Wretched artists, however, are godforsaken each in their own way.”        John Pitcher        American classical music and dance critic        In a 2013 article about the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in on NashvilleScene.com

THE GRAMMY RED CARPET VARIATION: “To paraphrase the great fashion critic Leo Tolstoy, each of the terrible red carpet looks from the 2012 Grammy Awards were terrible in their own way. Sacrilegiously terrible: Nicki Minaj, who showed up in a blood red wimple and studded cloak with her own personal confessor. Turns out that was just a prelude to her performance art piece later in the night, ‘The Exorcism of Roman.’”        Vicki Hyman        American celebrity news journalist        In a post in her column on the The Star-Ledger website

TOLSTOY’S FIRST RULE OF POLITICS: “All winning campaigns are brilliant in hindsight — it’s Tolstoy’s First Rule of Politics (corollary: every losing campaign is dysfunctional in its own way).”        Molly Ball         American journalist who writes regularly for The Atlantic and Politico.com          Her astute observation in a February 1, 2012 post on The Atlantic website about the Presidential primary election

THE STUFFED BREADSTICKS COROLLARY: “I believe it was Tolstoy who once wrote, ‘Tasty fast food items are all alike; every crappy fast food item is crappy in its own way.’ To this principle I must add a corollary which shall forevermore be known as the Stuffed Breadsticks Corollary: …but some crappy fast food items are crappy IN EVERY WAY POSSIBLE.”         “Jasper,” the online fast food critic and impulse buy reviewer         In his April 11, 2011 review of the Dunkin’ Donuts Stuffed Breadsticks (Pepperoni & Cheese and Cheeseburger) on The Impulsive Buy website (known for “Putting the ‘ew’ in product reviews”)

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