Beautiful, popular, and fortunate, Anna Karenina is an upright wife and mother. But her passionless marriage to a senior statesman leads her into the arms of Count Alexey Vronsky. The dashing cavalry officer stokes in her something exciting and defiant. In abandoning the rules of her noble station, she's aware of the risks: a degraded reputation and the hostile recriminations of St. Petersburg society. But there are even greater stakes as Anna follows desires both romantic and carnal, emancipating and destructive.
The embodiment of the clash between Russia's old-world tradition and its liberal reform, Leo Tolstoy's willful heroine remains one of the most notorious and tragic in all of world literature.
Revised edition: Previously published as Anna Karenina, this edition of Anna Karenina (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.