Considered to be Leo Tolstoy's most personal novel, "Anna Karenina" is an epic tale 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, but 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 Nabokov and adored by Doestoevsky, "Anna Karenina" displays a poignant realism and innovative lyricism that makes it one of the most perfect, enduring novels of all time.
