Anna Karenina
Penguin Classics · first published 1878 · 864 pages
A married woman in Russian high society falls in love with a young officer, while a landowner in the country searches for an honest way to live.
The scenes are clear and unhurried, moving from ballrooms and racecourses to mowing fields, and every character is given full weight.
For a night of snow and lamplight.
About this book
Anna, the wife of a high-ranking official in Petersburg, travels to Moscow to mend her brother's marriage and meets Count Vronsky. Their affair sets her against a society that forgives discretion but not openness. In a parallel story, Konstantin Levin, awkward and earnest, courts the young Kitty and wrestles with questions of work, faith and family on his estate. Together the two threads form a wide portrait of how people try to live.