Anna Karenina travels to Moscow to patch up the marriage of her brother Stiva Oblonsky, whose infidelity has thrown his household into chaos. At the railway station she meets Count Alexei Vronsky, a dashing officer, and an attraction begins that will upend her marriage to Alexei Karenin, a senior government official, and her position in St Petersburg society.
Running alongside Anna's story is that of Konstantin Levin, a serious, awkward landowner modelled partly on Tolstoy himself, who loves Stiva's sister-in-law Kitty Shcherbatskaya. Levin's chapters deal with farming, the peasants who work his land, brotherhood, death and a long struggle to find faith and a reason to live.
Serialised between 1875 and 1877, the novel examines marriage, adultery, hypocrisy, jealousy and the very different rules society applies to men and women. Tolstoy's psychological insight and the realism of his world, from horse races to hayfields, have made it a frequent contender for the title of greatest novel ever written.
Book details
| Author | Leo Tolstoy |
|---|---|
| First published | 1878 |
| Original language | Russian |
| Translated by | Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky |
| Genre | Classic |
| Type | Fiction |
| Pages (approx.) | 864 |
| Setting | Moscow, St Petersburg and the Russian countryside, 1870s |
Themes
- Adultery
- Marriage
- Social hypocrisy
- Faith
- Rural life
Who should read it
Readers who want a richly detailed psychological novel about love, society and the search for meaning.