Anna Karenina, written by Count Leo Tolstoy in the 1870s, is considered a masterpiece of realistic fiction, and generally viewed as one of the greatest novels ever written.
The title character in Anna Karenina begins the novel as a prominent and well thought of--though unsatisfied--wife and mother. Over the course of nine hundred pages she abandons this comfortable but dull life for a love affair with a dashing cavalry officer, leading to her ruin and eventual death. Her story is juxtaposed with that of Konstantin Levin, a country landowner who faces many of the same struggles as Anna, but eventually conquers them in different ways than Anna does. His choices lead him on a path to...
