Editor Reviews:

Book Description:
Anna Karenina tells of the doomed love affair between the sensuous and rebellious Anna and the dashing officer, Count Vronsky. Tragedy unfolds as Anna rejects her passionless marriage and must endure the hypocrisies of society. Set against a vast and richly textured canvas of nineteenth-century Russia, the novel's seven major characters create a dynamic imbalance, playing out the contrasts of city and country life and all the variations on love and family happiness. While previous versions have softened the robust, and sometimes shocking, quality of Tolstoy's writing, Pevear and Volokhonsky have produced a translation true to his powerful voice. This award-winning team's authoritative edition also includes an illuminating introduction and explanatory notes. Beautiful, vigorous, and eminently readable, this Anna Karenina will be the definitive text for generations to come.

Amazon.com:
Some people say Anna Karenina is the single greatest novel ever written, which makes about as much sense to me as trying to determine the world's greatest color. But there is no doubt that Anna Karenina, generally considered Tolstoy's best book, is definitely one ripping great read. Anna, miserable in her loveless marriage, does the barely thinkable and succumbs to her desires for the dashing Vronsky. I don't want to give away the ending, but I will say that 19th-century Russia doesn't take well to that sort of thing.

Rating : - Human emotions and relationships -- a literary masterpiece!
It took me several months to read all 817 pages of this amazing novel which was published in segments between 1873 and 1877 in a Russian periodical. Every time I picked it up it transported me to a time and a place and a way of life that is long since gone. That it not what makes this novel great, however. What makes it great is the human relationships and emotions which are just as real today as they were in that long ago time. Here we see life and death and love and jealousy and ambition. Here we meet people who were developed so deeply and thoroughly that I did more than just understand them - I felt I was really inside of them, sharing their lives and their feelings.

I reacted with horror to the social conditions of the time that forced one of the characters into a tragic decision. I was moved my emotion by a death scene which brought all the nuances of a fading life for the person dying as well as his loved ones. I was filled with joy at a happy marriage between two people who were kept apart for a while because of pride. I learned about life in the Russian countryside and the details a landowner must deal with in dealing with the newly freed serfs and the land - and in one scene even felt that I was present during the seasonal mowing. I learned about the social restrictions on even the most aristocratic women and emerging discussions about womens' education. And, even though I would have personally liked a few more details of what went on behind bedroom doors, I bow to the conventions of the times, and used my imagination.

Anna Karenina is a married woman who dares to have a romance outside her marriage with Count Vronsky leading to tragedy. Levin is a rich countryside landowner who is at first rejected by the love of his life, Kitty. These are the main characters but they intersect with dozens of others. They are all aristocrats and all have privileged lives. And they are all very real people who are easy to identify with. This novel is a masterpiece and well worth the time and effort to read. It touches nerves in the way that only great writing can do.