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Anna Karenina

by Leo Tolstoy

423 Installments—Entirely free

(Preview)

Members' Rating: 4.35from 31 Ratings and 10 Reviews

Tags: Classics, Novel, Russian

ISBN:067978330X

Anna Karenina
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Description

In Anna Karenina, faith is challenged, bonds are broken, love dies and is reborn. Originally published in serial form between 1873 and 1877, the novel is set in the glamorous world of the aristocracy in nineteenth century Russia. It is the tale of a woman who is asked to help save a struggling marriage. When she arrives to help her sister's family, Anna Karenina, a respectable married woman, is introduced to a web of intrigue, passion, and transgression. One of Tolstoy's most famous works, Anna Karenina is a dramatic chronicling of the life of a family as it comes together, falls apart, and as its members discover and redefine themselves.


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About the Author

Born into an aristocratic Russian family, Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was able to enjoy a life of luxury from the very first. Throughout his life, however, and perhaps inspired by personal losses from which even his financial comfort could not protect him, he remained intrigued by philosophical questions about the nature of human existence. Through military service and well into his career as a writer, Tolstoy sought higher truths and found the materialistic lifestyle of many around him to be quite empty. Best known for his novels Anna Karenina, War and Peace, and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy was an extremely prolific writer, with a full catalog of short stories, plays, and non-fiction to his name.

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Opening Lines (Experimental)

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
Everything was in confusion in the Oblonskys' house. The wife had discovered that the husband was carrying on an intrigue with a French girl, who had been a governess in their family, and she had announced to her ...

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Member reviews

title

3/5 3.00

Reviewed by chrway on Jul 8, 2009

good

Good, interesting, but long

title

5/5 5.00

Reviewed by margievo on May 9, 2009

Anna Karenina

Love it, so far.

title

5/5 5.00

Reviewed by wsimpson3144 on Apr 22, 2009

anna karenina

an incredibly wonderful book. getting through this, and reading diligently really paid off. the whole book was amazing in that you could not only understand who the characters are (there were almost no one dimensional characters in the book) but you could also understand, and believe in, their actions and motivations. a wonderful book that gives a great perspective into everyday life, and some of the issues dealt with outside the book.

all in all, i strongly recommend this, if you've got the time.

title

3/5 3.00

Reviewed by EllenArnestad on Mar 25, 2009

Well written

A book always sits better with me once I know the main premise. This book was about relationships and he did a good job of describing them. He set the characters well against each other and was able to paint them well. Sometimes it got bogged down in it all though. It would have made a good movie - I'm sure someone has already done it.

title

4/5 4.00

Reviewed by gmatusk on Apr 9, 2009

Great book, but there are better translations into English.

I read this C. Garnett translation simultaneously with 2 others -- the 1918 translation by Louise Maude (better) and the 2000 one by husband and wife team Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky (best). Louise and her husband Aylmer knew Tolstoy personally -- her translation cites her husband's name first, but he concentrated on translating Tostoy's non-fiction philosophical works, while Louise (who was born in Russia of a British family) worked on the fiction. Pevear and VoloKhonsky eac h prepare translations independently of one another, and then combine the best of both.-- George M

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Ratings for 'Anna Karenina' by Tolstoy, Leo


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Adrijana 4.00   2008-10-21
alebar 4.00   2008-11-20
ashleycarey 5.00   2009-01-24
BabsG 5.00   2008-12-07
chrway 3.00 Read review 2009-07-08
dan72ros 5.00 Read review 2008-11-25
DiDii13 4.00 Read review 2008-07-29
DonaldESilva 4.00   2009-10-23
EllenArnestad 3.00 Read review 2009-03-25
ErinMarion 5.00 Read review 2009-02-20
evilbendyone 5.00 Read review 2009-03-20
fredsmilek 5.00 Read review 2009-03-06
gmatusk 4.00 Read review 2009-04-09
kbdlock 4.00   2009-04-02
lindsaybrice 5.00   2009-04-23
lsbora 4.00   2009-10-22
luvpumpkns 5.00   2009-05-21
margievo 5.00 Read review 2009-05-09
mizdawn24 5.00   2009-03-12
mokie1982 4.00   2009-03-10
paolamhc 5.00   2009-04-07
startwithaverse 5.00   2008-07-31
Susie18 5.00   2009-03-03
Tasses 3.00   2009-08-23
TheWriteStuff 5.00   2009-05-25

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Recently on the Forums:
Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina: Does this book get better?

avatar for kenneth.brewerposted by
kenneth.brewer

Most people who love it love it from the opening lines; if you don't like it by chapter 10, you ...

Anna Karenina: Ending makes up for the middle part.

avatar for dreamdustposted by
dreamdust

I felt that her child ending up with her husband was too harsh an ending. After all, vengeance i ...

Anna Karenina: It does pick up, but...

avatar for angelinaposted by
angelina

I'm happy for Levin in the end, but does anyone else wonder what happens for the others? Little ...

Anna Karenina: does it pick up?

avatar for angelinaposted by
angelina

I found the entire beginning of the book to be completely delightful, and I couldn't wait to get ...

Anna Karenina: French

avatar for cresswgaposted by
cresswga

Well that clears up that!

Thank you for the extra information.

View More Forum topics Go »