Reading Tolstoy

Among the hundreds of books I would like to read, was Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina." I'm over half-way through reading it and am enjoying it immensely.  Reacquainting with Tolstoy is a real treat.  One of the things I enjoy the most are his one-paragraph analogies, which are so ingeniously crafted that you can't help but be charmed by them.  Here is the paragraph that opens Chapter 14:

Levin had been married three months.  He was happy, but in quite a different way from what he had expected.  At every step he met disillusionments in his old fancies and new and unexpected enchantments. He was happy, but having embarked on family life he saw at every step that it was not at all what he had anticipated.  At every step he took he felt as a man would feel who, after admiring the smooth happy motion of a little boat upon the water, had himself got into the boat.  He found that besides sitting quietly without rocking he had to keep a lookout, not for a moment forget where he was going, or that there was water under his feet, and that he had to row, although it hurt his unaccustomed hands;  in short, that it only looked easy, but to do it, though very delightful, was very difficult.

See what I mean?