“Through this shameless and vile life, an immortal truth emerges and illuminates everything.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Tolstoy stands firm on his feet, his prestige is enormous, and as long as he is alive, bad taste in literature, all forms of vulgarity, shamelessness, and tearful behaviors, all the rude, enraged egos will remain distant and buried in darkness.” - Anton Chekhov
It is said that when William Faulkner was once asked to name the three greatest novels of all time, he replied: “Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina.”
“When you read Turgenev, you know you’re reading Turgenev. When you read Tolstoy, you read because you can’t stop.” - Vladimir Nabokov
“When Tolstoy drafted the first version of Anna Karenina, Anna was a very unsympathetic woman, and her tragic end was merely the punishment she deserved. The final form of the novel is very different, but I don’t believe that Tolstoy revisited his ideas about morality in the meantime. I would rather say that during the writing, he heard another voice, not that of his personal conviction about morality. He heard what I would call the wisdom of the novel. All true novelists listen to this transpersonal wisdom, which explains why great novels are always a little smarter than their creators.” - Milan Kundera
The Art of the Novel, Estia, 1988
Vladimir Nabokov described Tolstoy's Anna Karenina as "one of the greatest love stories in world literature." Acknowledged as the greatest novel of the 19th century, Anna Karenina has been considered Tolstoy's spiritual autobiography. Set against the backdrop of imperial Russia, the book is a profound and complex reflection on passionate love and disastrous infidelity. Married to a powerful government official, Anna Karenina is a beautiful woman who deeply falls in love with a wealthy army officer, the elegant Count Vronsky.
Desperately trying to find truth and meaning in her life, she recklessly defies the conventions of Russian society and leaves her husband and son to live with her lover. Her surroundings condemn and ostracize her, and she often suffers from jealousy that alienates Vronsky, leading her to gradually sink into a hopeless situation.
In contrast to this tragic love, the story of Konstantin Levin unfolds, a melancholy landowner that Tolstoy shaped in the mold of his own character. While Anna seeks happiness through love, Levin begins his own quest for spiritual fulfillment through marriage, family, and hard work.
Tightly woven around these two central threads of the plot are dozens of characters and their stories, masterfully intertwined by Tolstoy on the same canvas, creating a stunning panorama of 19th-century Russian society.
The edition is accompanied by illustrative material, enlightening introductions, and an Afterword with a biography and excerpts from letters and diaries of Tolstoy and his contemporaries concerning the work, as well as notes.
Manufacturer
- Author
- Leo Tolstoy
- Publisher
- Agra
- Publishers
- Agra
- Type
- Classic Literature
- Cover
- Soft
- Number of Pages
- 1264
- Release Date
- 7/2021
- Publication Date
- 2021
- Dimensions
- 13x19 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9789603259329
Important information
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