The book "Backgrounds and Sources" includes central excerpts from the letters of Tolstoy and his collaborators, the diaries of S. A. Tolstoy, and contemporary recordings translated by George Gibian exclusively for this critical Norton edition. Together, these materials document Tolstoy's writing process and date the reception of 'Anna Karenina' during the period 1875-77. The "Criticism" section gathers Russian and Western interpretations to present the best standard study of 'Anna Karenina' written between 1877 and 1994. A wide variety of perspectives are provided by Fyodor M. Dostoevsky, Nikolai N. Strakhov, Matthew Arnold, M. S. Gromeka, Dmitry S. Merezhkovsky, Boris Eichenbaum, Henry Gifford and Raymond Williams, George Steiner, Lydia Ginzburg, Eduard Babaev, Gary Saul Morson, Caryl Emerson, Donna Tussing Orwin, and George Gibian. The volume also includes a Chronology of Tolstoy's life and an updated Selected Bibliography.