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This is one of my top five favourite books of all time. I have been thinking lately of what books I would pack into my trunk if I were boarding a ship and had a premonition of a Gilligan's Island outcome. Anna Karenina would be on top. * Having said that, I don't have many reflections to make that have not already been made. My favourite scenes all involve Levin and Kitty because they are my favourite characters; but, in my opinion, the book in its entirety is perfect. Not perfect like a snowflake or a Japanese garden is perfect. It is perfect in a very human and elemental and imperfect way. It is rich and deep and overflowing with joys and sorrows in every dimension of life; epic in the truest sense of the word.

* Update: Since writing this review, I have read War and Peace which I love even more. So, they would both go in, as would Mann's The Magic Mountain. I am going to need a big trunk.

** Update II (27 July 2018): For some inexplicable reason, I often ponder on which books to pack in my big old stranded-on-an-island trunk. The reason it's especially odd for me is that I tend to avoid travel by ship so am one of the least likely people I know to end up shipwrecked. Nevertheless, it never hurts to prepare for any event life may throw at you! It has only just occurred to me that people who are not book-crazy might actually consider what other types of things would be useful. At the very least, I should make room for a book called What To Do When You Are Stranded On A Remote Tropical Island or Survival Tips From The Professor And Mary Ann. But ... Wait a minute ... What if I wash ashore WITHOUT MY TRUNK? Doesn't bear thinking about.