Anna Karenina
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Anna Karenina
Published in Russia in 1877, Kiril Zinovieff and April Fitzlyon's translation was published by One World Classics in 2008.
The novel
Considered to be Leo Tolstoy's most personal novel, Anna Karenina is a resonant story which scrutinizes fundamental moral and theological questions through the impassioned and tragic story of its eponymous heroine. Anna is desperately pursuing a good, "moral" life, standing for honesty and sincerity, passion drives her to adultery and this flies in the face of the morally corrupt Russian bourgeoisie. In the background to Anna's tale, the aristocrat Konstantin Levin is struggling to reconcile reason with passion, espousing a Christian anarchism that Tolstoy himself believed in.
Championed by Dostoevsky and Nabokov, Anna Karenina displays a poignant realism and innovative lyricism that makes it one of the most perfect, enduring novels of all time.