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Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy

Published: 2012-12-23
Paperback : 714 pages
31 members reading this now
29 clubs reading this now
14 members have read this book
Recommended to book clubs by 3 of 3 members

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

Anna Karenina is a married aristocrat and socialite. Her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky is central to the plot. The story starts ...

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Introduction

Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

Anna Karenina is a married aristocrat and socialite. Her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky is central to the plot. The story starts when she arrives in the midst of a family broken up by her brother's unbridled womanizing—something that prefigures her own later situation, though with less tolerance for her by others.

Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fiction, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he came to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel.

Fyodor Dostoevsky declared it to be "flawless as a work of art". His opinion was shared by Vladimir Nabokov, who especially admired "the flawless magic of Tolstoy's style", and by William Faulkner, who described the novel as "the best ever written". The novel is currently enjoying popularity, as demonstrated by a recent poll of 125 contemporary authors by J. Peder Zane, published in 2007 in "The Top Ten" in Time, which declared that Anna Karenina is the "greatest novel ever written".

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Member Reviews

Overall rating:
 
 
by Katherine W. (see profile) 09/26/19

 
by nadia c. (see profile) 04/01/19

 
by Lynda W. (see profile) 06/28/18

Long, long book- definitely packed with some very interesting & colorful characters. Themes of mental illness, spiritual searching & political unrest are themes throughout the story. Even though the story... (read more)

 
  "Anna Karenina"by Cherry F. (see profile) 11/19/13

Very good insight into the time period and Russian way of life then. I like the characters depicted and how some things never change when you make life choices.

 
  "Anna Karenina"by Margaret C. (see profile) 06/15/12

This is a truly magnificent book. Tolstoy is one of the great writers of all time. It should be required reading for all students.

 
  "Great Book for Discussion"by Karen C. (see profile) 11/02/08

While Tolstoy’s prose is dull and annoying at times, Anna Karenina is rich with characterizations. Influenced by socio-cultural ethos or Zeitgeist, relevant reminders between then and now... (read more)

 
  "Beautiful book - but long!"by Nadja J. (see profile) 03/21/08

Depending on your attention span, you will either love this or think it's just OK. Found it much easier to read than the same translators' War & Peace, but still needed a crib sheet for characters and... (read more)

 
  "Russian story of ooa forbidden love and its tragic consequences"by Kathy H. (see profile) 12/09/07

This is a classic I always wanted to read, especially after reading about Tolstoy and his wife in a previous book; so I was excited that our Russian literature group decided to read it over ... (read more)

 
  "great read!!!"by Laurie F. (see profile) 12/07/07

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