Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina conveys a grand vista of contemporary Russian life, with all its social and political intrigues. Tolstoy's main character, Anna, abandons her marriage to pursue her passions with Count Vronsky - with tragic results. Levin is Tolstoy's stand-in, often echoing the author's own opinions on morality and love. Throughout the work, Tolstoy constructs no moral judgments but merely invites readers to witness the tragic phases of Anna's passion and understanding. As Rosemary Edmonds declares in her introduction to the Norton Critical Edition of this novel: "Mystery begets mystery; ambiguity begets ambiguity. The only reduction of them all is in ourselves through time and a sense of acceptance. "