a lifestyle blog for book lovers
Anna Karenina
"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way," begins this classic Russian novel. Anna leaves her husband and son for Count Vronksky but their love is ultimately doomed. Tolstoy’s much-beloved tome is praised for its depiction of Russian life and nuanced portrait of humanity. Numerous translations exist; if I had to choose one, I'd go with Constance Garnett's, if only because the audiobook is narrated by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who calls this her favorite novel and said performing it was one of the greatest accomplishments of her work life.
About the Book
Publisher’s description:
Considered by some to be the greatest novel ever written, Anna Karenina is Tolstoy’s classic tale of love and adultery set against the backdrop of high society in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. A rich and complex masterpiece, the novel charts the disastrous course of a love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer. Tolstoy seamlessly weaves together the lives of dozens of characters, and in doing so captures a breathtaking tapestry of late-nineteenth-century Russian society. As Matthew Arnold wrote in his celebrated essay on Tolstoy, “We are not to take Anna Karenina as a work of art; we are to take it as a piece of life.”
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