Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy · Анна Каренина
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1875-1878
- Form
- Novel
- Language
- Russian
- Length
- Epic · 840 ppover 700 pages
- Difficulty
- Demanding3 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendAnna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa VolokhonskyPenguin Classics, 2002Faithful to Tolstoy's plain, sometimes awkward prose; the current standard.
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Two stories run side by side. Anna, married to a senior official in Petersburg, falls in love with the officer Vronsky, leaves her husband and son for him, and is slowly destroyed by society's exclusion and her own jealousy, until she throws herself under a train. Meanwhile the landowner Levin courts and marries Kitty, works his estate, and struggles toward a faith he can live by. The novel opens with the line that all happy families are alike.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Anna Karenina are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
